St Fagans ride
The weekend before we had done a great ride to Dyffryn and come back via St Fagans and discovered part of the Ely Trail. We had also seen part of this route on a previous ride down Cardiff Bay. After referring to our various maps we decided to take a trip to the bay, and pick up the Ely Trail to St Fagans.
We take our usual ride across to meet up with the Taff Trail National Cycle Route 8 and follow it all the way to the Bay, making our way towards the White Water rafting centre. We pick up the Ely Trail by Pont-y-Werin Bridge (The People's Bridge) which was officially opened in Cardiff on 14th July 2010, by the Deputy First Minister, Ieuan Wyn Jones - I just looked this up!
We follow the path onto Dunleavy Drive and follow the sign for the Ely Trail. This path unsurprisingly follows the river Ely. We come out by a crossing onto the busy Penarth Road. We cross over and pick up the Ely Trail on the other side of the road, again the path follows the river. We can see the Athletics stadium to our right and following the trail we come into a park area and head out of the park onto Papermill Rd. At this point we are diverted, we head up over some steps over a bridge and come out onto Cowbridge Road East. We are redirected down Mayfield Avenue, take a left onto Windway Avenue and right onto Windway Road. From Windway Road we take a left onto Ely Road and right into Lloyd Avenue. We then cross Western Avenue into Waungnon Road. We cross through a small park and come out onto Norbury Road. Not sure how long this diversion will be in place - however I suspect the Ely Trail will follow the river, cross Ely Bridge and come via a Park we use on the way back to take us into the same spot we are now - Norbury Road - Will be a lot nicer and more family friendly.
We follow Norbury Road into Finchley Road into Bwlch Rd until we come to the Traffic free cycle path. We follow this route which all the time follows the Ely river until we come to the end of the trail and come out on to Michaelston Road. We stop at a very convenient bench on the side of the road to discuss our journey and as usual eat some food, bananas and bars are the usual favourites!
Once rested we turn around and head back as far as Bwlch Road. This time we spotted a park and path to our right and follow this coming out onto Ely Bridge. We take a left to the roundabout at the top and head down Western Avenue. We make our way to Llandaff, heading down Cardiff Road, past Haylay park and come home via Gabalfa and Whitchurch having a little explore of this area as we do. You could stay on Western Avenue and get back onto the Taff Trail on the other side of the Road just before Tesco Extra - where the Cardiff Park Run starts.
The majority of this cycle is traffic free if you stick on the Taff trail and Ely trail and keep to a linear return route it would make a nice long family ride. You just need to check on the diversion in the Canton Area across to Fairwater.
No real incidents to report - which makes a pleasant change if a little boring!
