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It's now pretty certain that I'll be in Ebbw Vale for 4 - 6 weeks soon. I went today to look over the job, and have a look around the area. Surrounded by hills. That's a bonus, so hopefully there may be some riding available in the limited chances I'll get for time off.
Can any locals point me to something that is around a 1.5 hour round trip?
And, what/where to avoid?
And where to go for a few pints with a small group of English builders?
Mtb or road?
spoilt for choice either way👌
Ps.
avoid the women with black hair, orange skin with the severely shaped eyebrows😟
Where to avoid?
I really hate knocking towns and cites because as a visitor your opinion is usually based on a few chance encounters and you always end up upsetting someone who lives there and knows it’s actually a lovely little community full of wonderful warm people, but that said...
Ebbw Vale is a shithole full of ****s.
If you need to work there, stay somewhere else and commute in, don’t take your bike there, it’ll be stolen. Don’t wear a shirt on the high street because people will shout and swear at you in the street for being “Five Oh”, if you go into a pub someone will try to hit you. If you park on the street someone will try to break into it, and or drive into you and leave without leaving a note.
Sorry if you live there and I’m wrong, but I have to go there sometimes for work and the only way to fix the place would be a fleet of B52s armed with MOABs running day and night for a week.
Either MTB or road, I can alternate, I'll only take one bike with me each week. Luckily our site is next to the Police station, so should be pretty secure if we leave our tools there (but you do hear tales of shops next to Police station being ransacked, with the Police not even noticing!).
We're staying at the Premier Inn, just south of town. I'm not leaving anything in the van overnight, a local told me to take my tools out each night, as vans are broken into every night he reckoned.
The town looks decent enough. In fact at 8am this morning, it was a ghost town,absolutely no-one around. It changed later when a number of druggies/alchies were wandering around town, It's pretty much the same in every town centre.
Well, BPW is 20 mins down the road in the relative splendour of Merthyr. They run an evening session on the Thursday.
P jay you are evidently from Brynmawr and your venom is classic valley tribalism/envy at your neighbouring town. It's your Shelbyville to Springfield if you like.
I'm from Pontypool originally and loads of great riding. Natural on the mtb head towards Blaenavon and the Coity mountain. You can get from The Coity all the way to Cwmcarn. Road riding head out towards Llangynidir moor and down to Crickhowell or the Bwlch. Loads of great riding around there. Black mountains on the mtb are great too. It's so dry up there too.
Ebbw Vale isn't that bad. Just suffering from the past and being exploited for it's resources, both natural and labour,and now left to slowly die. Some of those areas voted for Brexit too. They're poor areas, neglected by both Westminster and Cardiff. Wrong to tar them all though with the same brush. I am sure there are some nice people in the Tory party too.
Ebbw Vale is a shithole in general as Pjay says but it really does have it's pockets of decency in it.* The sad thing is the place has been dealt a really bad hand over the last decade and made some monumental errors too. First it was waiting for the Heads Of The Valley road to be upgraded (many years too late, it's now done at that point), they did the town centre up ready for the new jobs that were coming but the delay meant it was for nothing. The proposed Circuit Of Wales was another false start that again hindered any other development and investment in the area. Now that Brexit is ongoing they have been starved of any investment whatsoever as the Heads Of The Valley road was mainly funded by EU grants, the promised jobs were going to be on EU funded industrial sites and the second phase of the town's redevelopment was also on the back of EU cash. All they've ended up with is a nice hospital, a decent leisure centre and college complex and some pretty paving on the high street.
As for riding, the Beacons are on your doorstep plus the usual trail centres. Just avoid parts of the moor that the motorbikes ride on and keep your valuables very secure!
* so I've been told by the locals, never actually found one. I'm also not from there, I grew up in Crickhowell so should have a hatred for those from 'UpTop' but they really have been shat on for a long time now.
Yeah, it's probably going get a lot worse in those areas over the next few years. The local councils are often, it seems, very poorly run. The EU funded aspect to life in the valleys is really something to get your head around isn't it? So much of the infrastructure has been funded by EU cash but councils are dictated too on what they spend the money on or so they claim. The point is that so many people live in areas that no longer can sustain large densities of people. There is no work, unlikely to be any opportunities of work in the near future, and they're voting for people that either hark back to a political age, or strange people that keep shouting 'about taking our sovereignty back'. that has been a rallying cry for demagogues of all shapes and sizes.
Thank goodness for mountain biking and tourism since they bring in loads of investment. Incidentally a nice hospital isn't such a bad thing but some people would probably want to limit migration so there won't be many doctors nor porters in there. Bit of a joke though since migration and immigration into the valleys in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries is what the made valleys the places they were. You used to be able to get an amazing cup of coffee in Pontypool from the Italians. No longer but you can get a cup of slop from Costas in Cwmbran. We've all gone mad!
Harsh but fair critics above. As a Merthyr boy I find it hard to stomach the valleys dissing. Some of the kindest, most genuine people you'll ever meet mixed in with some scum bags. But the scum bags are all mostly harmless (in my opinion). Maybe as a relative local I've never really felt that threatened by valley piss heads, just tell them to **** off and carry on walking.
Elsewhere in the world try running into a biker gang off their heads on meth and it's a different story. As above, the entire area has been dealt a pretty shitty hand. Doesn't make it any easier to stomach when they've just nicked your car/tools/Trek EX8 off the back of your van mind grrrrr.
On the riding front, all of the above (Trail centres: Cwm Carn close although out of action due to forest fires plus BPW) but for natural riding the Black Mountains aren't far and there are some great natural all day loops. Great road biking too - check strava for routes.
(Low) life in Ebbw Vale starts.
We finally got access to the rear yard this morning.This is a big store on the high street, that has been shut for over a year. The rear yard was accessed through a lift from the shop, or a large padlocked gate from the road. The lift was out of bounds until it had been checked over, the padlock had no key, the lift passed its exam yesterday, and we bought a new padlock, so out the back today to clear the place ready for deliveries to start.
Amongst the piles of rubbish we saw was what looked like a migrant camp - bits of sheeting held up by string, and inside were 2 druggies, totally out of it. One was comatose, the other wandering around like a zombie. Looking around, from the loading bay, we saw immediately that we were not going down there to clear them out, piles of shit all over (apparently they didnt go to their toilet in the same place every time, they just did it where they were at that moment!, 100+ needles, again, scattered all over the place, and piles of general food and beer rubbish. It wasnt a pretty site, and rather smelly too.
Round to the Police station next door to ask if they can help. Apparently the 2 were well known, and the Officer had been wondering where they were living - next door to the Police station - great intelligence guys!
And the best news, the Police reckon they'll be back tonight, and keep coming back until they are arrested. We didnt find where they had got in, as there was far too much shite and needles around, so it is quite possible they are there now.
kiwicraig - I've always said that the valleys are full of extremes, in people especially. You have your hardworking group who earn a wage and are proud to do so then you have the non-workers who really have very little hope of getting out. There doesn't seem to be anything in the middle! I work the Merthyr route at work as much as I can as it's such a great place customer-wise but it's so easy to see the desperation all around in plain sight. At least the Gurnos has improved!
alanl, you'll have your work cut out keeping those two out, they're famous locally for getting into places that are guarded like Fort Knox. And yes, be very careful of needles. Guessing you're doing the old Woolworths next to the old HSBC? That's been empty for a long time now. What's going in there then?
I know the store well, the office I go to sometimes Is just across the road.
last time I parked on that road this happed. No note, body shop reckoned it was a bus or a truck.
Yes, the old Woolworths.
It going to be a B&M Express. It'l be a nice shop when it's done.
I'm back home now, will be back on Monday we think for a day, then the following week we're in the Premier Inn for 4-6 weeks.
3 days in, and the Locals are quite prominent!
I agree with most of the above, many people are decent, there are a few that are real wastes of space. The woman talking to us today was lovely, but she was clearly off her head on some substance, and it was hard not to see she had maybe 5 teeth, and less soon, as they were all dark brown!
We've got 2 localish guys working for us, one from Cwmbran, he says it's like the 'Hills have Eyes' in Ebbw, the other guy from Tredegar reckons the zombie apocalypse has started on a small scale in Ebbw!
The hairdresser told us the phone box outside our shop is a drug dropping off point,- just watch someone go in, then ayouth will turn up 20 seconds later, and, something she had never experience before coming here was blokes having their hair cut, then doing a runner and not paying.
The scenery looks great. No biking this week as we had a van full, so no room for a bike, but I'll have it next week, and going up the hills to the East. Keepers Pond looks good, but a bit far out from the hotel.
We havent found a decent place to eat yet. Tried the Willow Tree in Brynmawr on Monday, the food was shite and not particularly cheap, one of our guy had a kebab and was on the toilet all day the next day. We just going to try the Victoria Park Brewers Fayre tonight. Tomorrow may be Dominoes!
Oh, if you're about, come and say hello, its getting lonely!
The druggies have been back, at least one of them was there last night, their bedroom was cleared today, so hopefully will put them off now.
If you want food, the Jolly Colliers on Llanellyhill is amazing.
Tonight is Tapas night, but call and book to be sure of a table.