We had been impressed last night to find that Ystradfellte youth hostel actually had something useful, a drying room. We had all been drenched to the skin last night, so we hung up all our shoes and wet clothes in there to dry overnight. When we returned there this morning to collect our items we were dismayed to find that they were still wet! The warden apparently likes to save electricity so she turned off the drying room before she went to bed last night! To say that Luke was annoyed was a serious understatement, as like the rest of us he was faced with the choice of wearing wet cycling shoes all day or wearing his dry evening shoes on the bike with the risk they would get wet too if it rained. Michael had previous knowledge of this warden, however, so he was not at all surprised.

Unfortunately Craig couldn't find his wallet this morning, and after searching high and low he still hadn't found it when we were ready to leave. We told the warden about it, but it was never found. Still, Craig had spent most of his money already, so it wasn't the end of the world.

Well the outbreaks of rain returned soon after we set off, and that set the tone for the rest of the day. Ryan’s Romany touring bike had developed a problem with the freehub yesterday, and when we reached Brecon today we had our first chance to visit some proper bike shops to effect repairs. Michael managed to buy a new Shimano HG20 rear hub from Biped Cycles in Free Street, Brecon, which cost around £18, then bought a set of spokes, a new cassette and a new Sedis chain from the Brecon Cycle Centre in Ship Street. Over lunch in Brecon he then dismantled the old wheel and built a new one with the new hub and spokes but the old rim, which still had plenty of life left in it. It was all finished in under an hour and the bike then worked fine, also eliminating a strange noise that had been coming from the hub.

We were now late of course, with 16 miles done but 21 miles to go, and the weather was really not encouraging. We made fairly good progress, but then we had another problem. Llewellyn got a puncture at the back, somewhere soon after Talgarth, and Olly stopped to help him fix it, knowing we were short of time. Unfortunately nobody else knew they had stopped until we got to Hay-on-Wye, so the rest of us waited there for them to arrive. We waited, and waited, but they didn't turn up. We retraced our steps and there was no sign of them right back to the place we had last seen them. We saw a sign to the youth hostel that was actually a short-cut, so we decided the two of them must have actually turned off the road they were on even though we had not been waiting at the turn-off (it is one of our core rules that we ALWAYS wait if we are turning off a road). Michael rang home at Buckfastleigh in case Olly had left a message, but none had been left. Shame we didn't have mobile phones in those days!

It was now very late and there was no way we would get up the long hill to Gospel Pass and the youth hostel in time for supper, especially in view of the rain that was still hanging around. We took a vote on it and everyone agreed this was the time to spend a little money on some transport. Michael phoned around some taxi firms and eventually found a firm that had a transit minibus that could be used to take everyone and their bikes up to Capel-y-Ffin youth hostel, but it would take three trips to do it. Michael and Tom went up in the passenger seat on one of the trips and took some video along the way of the wonderful scenery we missed out on. It cost us £56 in total, but shared between all of us that was only £4 each.

When we arrived (just in time for supper), Olly and Llewellyn had showered and were sitting down comfortably in the common room waiting for supper! They had been rather surprised when they arrived at the hostel and found that we weren't already there! Michael wasn't too happy with them, but as Olly said, the sign clearly pointed to the youth hostel, he had no reason to think we would have taken a longer route by going on to Hay-on-Wye, and after waiting there quite a while and seeing nobody he felt it was reasonable to assume we had all gone on up.

Capel-y-Ffin was a small hostel in the Black Mountains that turned out to be very cosy and warm. We had an excellent evening meal provided at 7.30 and spent an enjoyable evening in the hostel common room, where Tao took great pleasure in using Olly’s watch to repeatedly switch off Michael’s camcorder using the IR codes Olly had programmed – so annoying!

(No notes were written for today's ride at the time, so this report was written from memory in 2021. Please let Michael know if you remember any other details from the ride)

After a good breakfast at Capel-y-Ffin hostel we gathered outside, admiring the magnificent Black Mountain hills all around us and wishing weather conditions had allowed us the opportunity to climb to the top of the hill behind the hostel last night. When Llewellyn had finished lubricating his headset with Michael’s GT85 and Tao and Olly’s assistance, we set off in dry conditions, but the heavy cloud did not bode well for our ride.

True to form we had a good deal of rain during the day. The ride was mainly downhill out of the Black Mountains, but there was a bit of a climb through Llanvihangel Crucorney. We had to stop for repairs at Tal-y-Coed Court near Llantilio Crosseny when Alasdair’s chain got jammed – Tao was Chief Engineer for this job, splitting the chain in order to rectify the problem. Meanwhile Michael continued to bribe Llewellyn with chocolate bars to continue carrying Alasdair’s pannier for him.

Next stop was Monmouth, where Tom found a Pound Store and bought himself some Cadbury's Hot Chocolate power for .. £1. He liked it so much he bought loads of sweets and left himself with just £2 for the last day. We found a reasonable café at 7 Church Street that got us out of the rain for a while and gave us a welcome rest, then after some video shots on Wye Bridge we set off for the final eight miles or so to St Briavels.

The youth hostel at St Briavels is a genuine medieval castle including original features including a prisoner’s cell, chapel, hanging room and 30-foot dungeon. Ryan was particularly keen to get a video riding into the castle.

After showers we had one of the best evening meals of the tours provided for us at 7pm, consisting of home-made pizza that everyone rated very highly indeed – Tao even thought it was better than his Mum’s pizza!

It’s not often we get the chance to spend the night in a real castle, so we spent the rest of the evening exploring some of the castle’s more interesting features.

(No notes were written for today's ride at the time, so this report was written from memory in 2021. Please let Michael know if you remember any other details from the ride)

The final day of the tour started with Michael conducting interviews over breakfast, concentrating on those who would be leaving us at Bristol. Everyone agreed that the bad weather had made the tour far less enjoyable than it could have been – this was the second worst weather we have ever had on our tours – and yet everyone had managed to get some enjoyment from it. There was general agreement that Tyncornel had been the best hostel, with St Briavels a close second, and Kings probably the worst, due in no small part to the bad meals, unfriendly warden and sickness bug.

When Oliver and Tao had finished having fun with the camcorder in Dorm 2, we congregated in the courtyard garden for some group photos and videos and then headed off for our 22-mile ride to Bristol Parkway station. As usual, there was rain in the air.

First stop was Tintern Abbey, where the café tempted a few but not enough to warrant us going in. On the way down the Wye Valley we also stopped at Lower Wyndcliff car park and a few of us walked to the nearby viewpoint for some great views of the River Wye.

There wasn’t time to stop at Chepstow, but we did stop a couple of times on the Severn Bridge – crossing it on the cycle path hanging off the side was an interesting experience. Olveston then provided lunch and the opportunity for a couple more video interviews before we headed off for the final few miles through Almondsbury and Bradley Stoke to Bristol Parkway station, where we arrived with time to spare.

First off were Daniel, Tom, Kieron and Alasdair, who caught the 15:00 train to Reading and Paddington. James used the short interval to interview Michael for a change, which he thought was only fair since Michael had been interviewing everyone else. Next off were Casper and Jasper who boarded the 15:14 to Cheltenham, where their Granny would collect them and take them back to their farm at Stow-on-the-Wold. Their train left late, at 15:23, and the rest of us then caught the 15:28 train to Newton Abbot and Plymouth where the final interviews took place. We arrived in Newton Abbot at 1720 and Ben continued to Plymouth for 1806.

As Michael said at the time, we had been very unfortunate with the weather on this tour. Perhaps choosing to go to Wales was the reason for that, as the only tour with worse weather was also to Wales, in 1991. At least on this tour we had fairly good weather for the first three days. Unfortunately, however, with cycle tours, you have to take the chance on the weather otherwise you would never go anywhere, and this year we came out unlucky. Nevertheless we had a great group of youngsters, saw some fabulous scenery, climbed Snowdon, stayed in some truly amazing youth hostels in some amazing locations, saw some incredible waterfalls at Ystradfellte and had some wonderful shared experiences that will stay with us for a very long time.

(No notes were written for today's ride at the time, so this report was written from memory in 2021. Please let Michael know if you remember any other details from the ride)