Wales - England Border divide
This idea for this ride came from the Route suggestions page. I am putting this in intermediate, however being wales does mean it’s probably getting closer to the hard side of things with the steep, rough terrain. However, a lot of this route is actually paved, so not overly technical. However, a lot of the off-road sections of this route are pretty hard and slow-going. You have been warned. Also, the paved country roads are full of very steep climbs, again you have been warned. This route was more put together for video purposes over actually creating a fun, perfect route to go bikepacking on.
Starting at the Severn bridge, you will head into Chepstow then onto the Wye Valley Greenway towards Tintern the route included is a diverted version as the tunnel is closed through most of the year but if it’s not just follow the old railway line on through the very long cold dark tunnel. You will need to turn your lights off. (the tunnel is dimly lit) The river Wye you will be following is the England/Wales border and when you reach Tintern and cross over into Wales make sure to stop off at Tintern Abbey it was built in 1131 and was home to Cistercian monks for over 400 years before being abandoned in the fifteen hundreds. It was one of the most powerful monasteries in Wales until King Henry the Eighth shut it down during the Dissolution of the Monasteries. And the great abbey began slowly to turn into a majestic ruin.
After leaving Tintern is where you will start to feel your legs burn and your heart pound because things are about to get steep, now it does start out on the road but don’t let that fool you the lanes are pretty testing so make sure you have some very easy gearing. And when you do leave the back lanes and head off-road things don’t really get much easier, you might be able to pedal your way up some of the climb up to The Offa's Dyke Path, but you will most likely have to get off and push at some point.
Once you get to Monmouth, some easier country lane miles are ahead of you, but you will be starting to head towards the highest point on this route. It was going to be much higher but with daylight running out I took a detour of route to find somewhere to camp which meant the highest point would be now only around 1600ft but getting up to this point is hard work and slow-going. It might be better once it has dried out and hopefully when the couple fallen trees blocking the path are removed, but for me no such luck and I had to push my bike quite a lot to climb up to Hay Bluff. Once you get to the open section of the climb it is actually very beautiful though, and you will cross the England Wales border once more. Nice descent after the all the way to Hay on Wye, the first book town.
After leaving Hay on Wye it is a little faster going but still of course hilly, but for the most part you are on the back country lanes again with a few bridalways following the border here and there. The one testing bit is the climb just before you get to Knighton, it’s a little rocky and steep at the start of the climb but once you get to the top you get a good view looking down on Knighton which is a good refuelling stop.
After Knighton, I could have made it a little easier honestly and actually follow the border around the Shropshire hills, however I decided to cut across the Shropshire hills. By doing this though, you get to ride along some great double track. Still plenty of climbing, though. After cutting across the Shropshire hills you will be able to ride along the actual border as you make it over to Kerry Ridgway. Although not tonnes of spots to camp there were a few places I found to set up the tent. Quite cool to camp on the actual border.
Once you get over this part of the ride really you have got over most of the hard parts. There are still some tough climbs but they get further apart, and you will find yourself on some smoother faster trails. Might be the odd big puddle though. From this point onwards you will find yourself on some canals the odd bridal way and plenty of very quiet narrow country roads. The only real not worthy part here is one last stretch through Fenn’s and Whixall Mosses National Nature Reserve the third-largest area of lowland-raised peatbog in the UK. I manage to find a little section of woodlands here that I was able to camp which works out really well for an easy 30ish miles to the end of this route. Once you arrive in Chester there is a nice easy flat ride along the millennium Greenway all nice and traffic free to the end. Which ends and the final crossing of the border along the national cycle route.
Closest Train stations - Start- Chepstow End - Shotton
The best bike for the job is going to probably be a big tired gravel bike for them really rough section 45-50mm or some kind of fast rolling XC bike there are lots of road slogs, but the off-road can be pretty tough. Easiest gearing the better for this one.
Camping along this route varies but does follow quite a lot, but I’d say a tent is best, perhaps a bivy in the warmer drier months.
This route isn’t completely off-road and traffic free I think the busiest part of this ride was coming into Chester, but I was coming in at rush hour so might not be quite as busy if you time it right.
