Head For The Hills

27/8/09: Wales Trip 2009

With all the raft building courses booked out, we loaded up an MPV with bikes and headed to Cwmcarn in South Wales for some team building. If you haven't been it's definitely worth the M25 and M4 slog, with both a cross-country loop and downhill run, as well as a new freeride section, there's something for every type of rider. It can be done in a day if you're prepared for an early start, but there's enough for a long weekend too, especially with the Afan trail centre nearby too.

We arrived about 10am, and warmed up with the cross-country loop - about an hour if you're in a hurry, or a couple of hours if you're not, or want to play on the freeride section at the top. Then after a refuel, we jumped on the uplift service (a minibus with trailer on the back for bikes), and hit the downhill run. After a few laps of that, we took one final uplift to the freeride play area, and then finished with a run down the cross-country trail, happily missing the climb.

We rode a Commencal Meta 5, Trek Remedy, and a Dialled Alpine, and they were all comfortable riding both the cross-country and downhill tracks. A great day out, riding until we were exhausted, with very different riding to the local trails (rocks and everything!), and the sort of downhill to uphill ratio that you normally only get in the Alps.

If you fancy heading to Cwmcarn yourself, then click here for all the info on the trail centre, and click here for details of the uplift service (booking in advance recommended).