Last week me and my work buddy Doug went for a bit of a ride around the [MBUK] and thought it looked excellent, and we weren’t wrong.

There are 4 courses, and we decided to take on [‘the wall’] which you’ll be glad to hear is a physical thing rather than a metaphorical fitness thing :)

The course starts off pretty nicely with a little ride along by the river and then moves into the uphill part (frowny faces on the map) which is half in the forest and half on the fire roads. Bits of this are ok, bits of it have terrain with big-ish stones and loose scree making it hard to climb.

Once the climbing is over you’re pretty much halfway through the course – now comes the fun stuff :) From here on it’s pretty much pure downhill windy singletrack either in the forest or on the edge of the hill. It was on this section that I fell off.

Imagine the scene cutting along the edge of the hill under the cover of trees, a steep upward slope on my right, a steep slope downward on my left. These bits of the course all seem to have objects ‘guarding’ you from going down the slope. I say ‘guarding’ as they’re often rocks or tree stumps which are easy to hit with your pedal and send you flying. So that’s what I did – I was manouvering myself along a quick bit and clipped my left pedal on a tree stump. Two somersaults and 10 feet or so later I came to a stop on the steep slope.

Amazingly I was totally unhurt and my bike wasn’t busted either! So scabbled up the slope dragging my bike with me and carried on. It was only later that I noticed the bruise so I guess I didn’t get away scot-free, but it’s a small price to pay for such excellent singletrack.

The only other problem is that your hands start to cramp after 15 minutes of feathering brakes and trying to hold on over the seriously bumpy terrain.

Anyway I’d recommend this course to anyone who fancies a decent ride without having to go too far. Also it’s really easy to get there: get on the M4 get off at Port Talbot and follow the signs to Afan Valley Forest. Easy!

The best bit is we’re going back next week with some more friends – should be excellent :)

Technorati Tags: afan-forest, mountainbiking, zoomr, thewall, mbuk