Well, that didn't go entirely to plan. First day hot & humid, with very little wind so the climbs (of which there are plenty) were very hot. The heat beat us climbing Llanbedr hill - first time we've walked a climb for a long time (pushing a tandem up a hill is as hard as riding it) and the Gospel Pass was just a long slow grovel.
I'd been hoping the heat wave would break, and it did the following day - woke up to a grey and drizzly morning. Progress was slow up to Brecon where the sun came out again for the climb over the Eppynt. That was a false dawn though as the heavens opened on the way in to Llangammarch. Sheltered from the rain for a while over lunch in Llanwrtyd before heading on, but the rain had increased and varied between persistent and biblical. Foolishly I'd only brought a lightweight showerproof after looking at the forecast (which the weather clearly hadn't bothered to take note of) so now drenched and with the rain showing no signs of stopping any time soon decided that we didn't fancy another 4-5 hours of it over to Newport and headed back to Llanwrtyd and a B&B.
We'd route checked the Pembrokeshire loop not that long ago using the route sheet from 4 years ago and made no changes at all, so decided we could do without doing it again and rejigged our plan to tour round the remainder in slightly shorter stages. Dodged another thunderstorm whilst having lunch in the Elan Valley Visitor Centre - this one very localised as it was dry up at the dams (the reservoirs could have done with some rain). Glorious sunshine after that all the way across to Aber and the coast. You'll love the 25% to get out of Aber - walked that one as well although our excuse was that the polis had closed the road as someone had just gone straight on at the T junction at the bottom into the wall opposite. After that things are somewhat flatter up the coast and another glorious day on Saturday, complete with tailwind took us to Llanberis. Then it was just back over the mountains on Sunday to the Shire. 775k done in total over the 5 days. Wales is looking as wonderful as ever, if a tad less green than usual.
Catching up now - the route sheet for both events is updated and uploaded to the AUK website. GPS files to sort out now. As usual, seems like s**tloads to do with one week to go.