The One Where We Got Lost in The Wilderness
Caerphilly Mountain - Rhymney Valley Ridge circular - 22 miles round trip
Making our way to the Taff Trail we had a rough idea of a route. We’d looked at OS maps and found a circular route via Caerphilly and Rudry via the Rhymney Valley Ridgeway route.
So we set off onto the Taff Trail at Western Avenue taking a left up to Tongwynlais and alongside castle Coch (Castle, Heol Y Fforest, Hoel Pen Y Bryn roads) We’d had ran part of this road last year while training for the Cardiff Half Marathon but had no idea how long and how steep it was to cycle up. We carried on this up and up, finally reaching the junction, taking a left we continued up towards Caerphilly mountain, stopping at the Mountain Top café for a well deserved ice-cream!
After our “rest” we take a left onto the A469 heading towars Thornhill, keeping an eye out for a sign on the right hand side. We mistakenly take the first right onto Cefncarnau Uchaf, which turned out to be a good mistake (in some ways). A fast downhill road, fairly quiet of traffic, between forestry and farmland we arrive at a sharp right at a pace. To the right is a forestry commission, The Warren, with a small industrial estate to the front. We continue right and uphill, passing the entrance to Coed Parc Y Van. This is a peaceful wooded area with a small lake, walks and bike trails in that we never know existed. We continue on Van Rd and at the peak of the hill is a small car park to the left, from here you have views of Rudry Common and Y Mynnydd Rudry. We take a left (opposite the car park) up Craig rd, passing a gate (which must be closed behind you!) and as follow the road we pass Pantglas Farm, which in summer offers drinks to walkers, bikers and horse riders from a small outhouse in the garden. We take a left off the road onto a trail just pass the farm and enter the Rhymney Valley Ridgeway. As we head down this path it leads to a wooded downhill trail, great for an adrenalin rush! We cross the gated fence and into the follow on into Coed Y Cefn forestry commission . A little further on and the fun starts - we have a choice to take a left up hill or right along a fairly even path - Of course us being girls take the soft route. So off we cycle only to find the woods getting thicker and the trail getting deeper. We continue on like this, nattering about how trails, even the most unused, can still retain their trace when we realise that we have no idea where we are. Fearing that we could be lost forever in the wilderness we get the map and GPS out. Looking at the map we think we’re still on the trail so continue onwards. Finally finding a small clearing that opens on (via a style) to a field with views to the east of Cardiff - I breathe a sigh of relief that we’re still IN Cardiff. We turn back along the overgrown path and find five minutes later we’re in Coed Coesau Whips forestry, a route we had taken before. We head up, yes up, the gravel path to the top of the forestry and out onto the Ridgeway. Again stopping to take in the view and have a bite to eat. We head along the ridgeway and further on the path falls steeply down onto Craig road , we follow it across the motorway bridge into Lisvane. At the junction we bear left onto Hoel Y Pia rd, left and then right onto Rudry rd. Eventually taking a right out onto Lisvane rd and take a left at the footpath sign into Nant Fawr Corridor, back onto the Llanishen and Lisvane reservoirs. We cross a small stream and follow the path into Cyncoed and onto Pentwyn road. This ride a maybe little hilly but definitely worth exploring again!
