Pushing it

So, on the Thursday of my hols I thought I'd get a big ride in, a big cross country hilly effort taking me to places I'd never been before.  With this in mind, I found a route out of the village of Rhayader.  It started out not so well, with a wrong turn taken probably within ten minutes of starting the ride.  But after riding through a random orchard, getting out map and compass I managed to treat it not as a getting lost incident but more as having taken an alternative route to get to the same point as planned. 

I arrived as per the instructions at a farm house where the bridleway was described as going in front of the farm house.  It didn't look that friendly.  No sign post, and an awful lot of dogs.  I checked the map and checked again and there was no alternative.  Just as I was getting up the courage to get on with it on the bike though, along came a landrover and trailer, equipped with ancient farmer complete with flat cap.  He was kindly and advised I was on the right track ... but that if I went that way right now, right this minute I would be trampled underfoot by a herd of 30 cows which were making their way round the corner.  Having a completely daft fear of cows I listened up and listened well, and made my way to some high ground to watch the little dears parade past.

The next step was the descent shown above, cruising down to a point where a stream crossing was indicated.  This was said stream:

Simples, eh?  Followed a road up to "the top of the hill" which turned out not to be the top at all, but in fact a bridleway leading off the summit of the road and heading off onto a summit all of its own.  A trig point was indicated, and a gentle ascent which found me in the  middle of nowhere, no traffic noise, no planes, no nothing.  Still, peaceful, interrupted only by the birds and the sheep.  Gratuitous picture here:

The route then indicated some marshland, some pushing, some banks and some meandering blindly through the middle of featureless landscape and I realise I have reached the point where the book says, all nonchalent "ford the stream".  It looks somewhat innocent this stream.  More like a puddle in fact ...

This is the view taken after I've plunged into this lake like feature of the landscape.  The rocky bit is the run in to the river, so you descend that and then cross the innocent looking puddle.  Not a couple of feet in and you find that with parallel pedals you are up to your ankles and it's deepening.  Cruising through is no longer an option and pedalling like a demon you endeavour to keep moving against the resistance of the water just to avoid having to put your foot down and find yourself up to your knees or wobbling over in the water.  And we lived to see another day.

At this point, I'm maybe three hours into the ride.  The map is showing I'm maybe 1/3 of the distance through it, and the worst is yet to come ...