After a long and unpleasant battle with the holiday traffic on the M5, Mike, Simon and I finally arrived at a pub in Machynlleth on Friday evening. The other half of the group - Terry, Fred and Bonny - had arrived earlier, hooked up with Liz who had driven from Scotland, and we all sat down for a meal and a few beers. At this point we were told that Bonny had arrived without her bike - the poor Serow had deposited the contents of its petrol tank into the sump somehow, and despite a last minute effort from Jeff it was not fixable in time, so rather than miss the trip altogether Bonny decided to come anyway.
An early start was in order for the next morning, and after a hearty breakfast, superbly prepared by Fred and Terry, we were off and running shortly after 8.30. 2 miles of road, then into the first lane. Mikes new to him KLX was the only bike to be wearing a knobbly tyre, and this was blamed for his failure to conquer the first real obstacle - a short but savage rocky climb out of a stream bed. After a little bit of flailing about and a helping hand from Liz he got up it - as we were to discover, Mike was due to have "one of those days" through no fault of his own.
After a quick fuel stop the real fun started, with a seemingly endless blur of superb lanes in the most stunning environment. The views were astonishing, with mountains one side and the sea the other, the lanes although few in number were very long - I dont know for certain but I'd guess at times there was an hour of off road with no tarmac at all. I wont go into endless detail - I'll let the many photos tell the story, but suffice to say it was a spectacular days riding, with many highlights.
Mikes "day" continued with only puncture of the weekend. The usual tyre changing committee got the job done with little fuss, although Freds farting pump caused the more childish amongst us alot of amusment.
We rode across the bridge at Barmouth - a mile long foot and rail bridge across the mouth of the estuary, also open to bikes. A few funny looks from the pedestrians, and Fred got into trouble for climbing on the toll keepers garden wall trying to shoot a video.
Towards the end of the day we were searching for a lane which Liz had not ridden before. Up through the forest and out into the open was quite straight forward, but the path seemed to just peter out after this. Knowing roughly the direction we were going, we set off across country to try to find a way through. This is where we encountered our first and only real bog, just a few feet from the hard surface of the trail. Initially it was only a narrow strip - Liz  battled across it, only to come to a halt after a dozen or so yards. I followed, and managed to make it a little way further before sinking  to a halt. At this point Mikes day hit its peak. Urged on by the rest of the crew, because he had a knobbly tyre on, he hit the narrow strip of bog at speed, hoping momentum would carry him over. Sadly this wasnt the case , his front wheel sank, his bike stopped dead and Mike was catapaulted over the bars. I'll let someone who saw it happen describe it later perhaps, but after they realised bike and rider were ok the was a lot of laughing. The next half hour was charnage, as everyong battled across to harder ground, only to have to turn round and battle back. I think everyone got stuck at some point, some of us more than once, and after much pushing and pulling and sweating we gave it up as a bad job and went to the pub for a beer.

Day two was a gentler affair, with a leisurely start and many miles of wide open fast lanes through rolling moorland - again stunning views and great riding.
We stopped briefly near the Red Kite centre at feeding time - dozens and dozens of these great birds circling overhead - an incredible sight.

If anyone else has anything to add please fee.

Many many thanks to Liz for taking us there and showing us round. Its definately some of the best riding to date, and I will definately be going back there at some point.
Thanks to Terry and Fred for the breakfasts, Bonny for the huge supply of snacks and nibbles, and every one else just for being there and making it such a great weekend.

There are lots of photos, and Fred got a bit of video which he may add to this, so I think thats enough from me - the pictures tell you all you need to know.