finally dragged rhi to coed cefn-pwll-du. don’t think she will forgive me anytime soon 🤭

proper off-road effort just up from Caerphilly near a large village called Machen. quite a drive for us but we’ve been promising ourselves a visit for so long it was turning into a bit of a joke!

the lowdown:

📍: Coed-cefn-pwll-du, Rhyd Y Gwern Lane, Machen, Caerphilly, CF83 8UH
🅿️: park at machen village hall (free and plentiful) The Crescent, Machen, Caerphilly CF83 8ND
🚶🏼‍➡️: start is a short walk away and well signposted from the car park
👟: trail shoes if you have them – especially in wetter months. you will be ok in “normal daps” but prepare to get wet feet and muddy as hell
🏔️: course is hilly AF. best described as a mile uphill, a mile of undulating and a speedy mile downhill.
🙌🏼: attracts a small crowd (35 runners when we visited)
💻: Coed Cefn-pwll-du parkrun

late night and an early start meant i was knackered and really not expecting very much but i pushed on regardless and ran the whole way. no walking breaks and only a minute slower than my last effort two years ago.

river was absolutely raging – we’ve had a few days of torrential rain after a good dry spell. roads were like rivers too!

we drove back into caerphilly for breakfast as we’d been told there was a good cafe not too far off our route home. the options for a plant based diet were slim (but they usually are it seems) but the food was nice. absolutely ridiculously priced for what you get though! I paid just shy of £20 for avocado on toast, 2 vegan sausages, a coffee and a carton of juice 👀 lesson learned there and i won’t mention the name of the place.

so, all in all a good morning out.

bloody love parkrun