Gap road and Sarn Helen with Welsh Mark

[Mike Mant]

Well what a day 7 am start and meeting up with Mark at car park just the other side of Crickhowell. We headed up into the hills going in a southwest direct towards the Gap Rd. Only open to Bikers for the months of March and September and first two weeks in October. The B.B.N.P. have removed the T.R.O. signs at both ends and replaced with no entry for bikes or cars. So this is a contentious lane that has many walkers on it all looking very miserable and tired as we passed them on Saturday. Still no problems for us , We have the ROW expert Chris Barrable to tell them the issues that allowed us to use it i.e. That section 67, 2, a ,of the N.E.R.C. act applies and that section 1 sub paragraph 2 of the said mention act does not apply and if they didn't like that Welsh Mark told them to F------ Off. 7 of us went Doug M ,Mike M ,Dave A, Brian L, Conrad E, Cris B . We all had what I would call a great day leaving the Car park at 9 am and getting back to the car park 7-45 pm. None of us got home before 9 pm sat night. After the Gap road we headed West to the Sarn Helen a famous Roman Road that was at the centre of legal battle last year when 4 TRF riders where taken to the High Court by the Police and B.B.N.P. , The Crown Prosecution Service pulled out at the last minute and the 4 guys where let off with no fines ( case dismissed ) We saw only a few w-------s, sorry walkers and no park rangers. We then took lanes in down to Glyn Neath for fuel and a bit to eat. After which we took a big swinging arc around towards Merthyr Tdyfil and up over the Bog and back to towards Talybont. At this point we stopped to decide what to do it was 6-15 pm getting dark Dave was on reserve and every body tired. We decided to head across the moors to the Car park taking in two more lanes in total darkness.As we got to the car park Doug ran out of fuel and the rest of us where on reserve or running on fumes . By the time we loaded the bikes it had gone 7- 45 and we headed for home all feeling Knackered, but having had a Great day, bikes went well and everybody helped one another through some very tricky stages, I will try to post some Photos. Thanks to Welsh Mark for leading.