Jim McGurn reviews a Bicycle Beano

Bearing broad grins and bicycles, we turned up in ones and twos throughout the first day. We were mostly escapees from the cities, thankful for a change of scene and pace. So we sat round happily getting to know one another in this majestically quiet valley in Mid Wales, base for one of Bicycle Beano's cycling holidays. My first package holiday since Butlins.

What did Bicycle Beano give me that I couldn't have organized for myself? Firstly, an introduction to a delightful part of Wales which came as a total surprise. Under-populated and overlooked, Mid Wales is a charming region of lush valleys and moorlands. I also got route maps based on years of research, and which managed to be amusing as well as useful. We were also provided with two huge and varied meals a day, cooked by professionals: vegetarian feasts to convert many a meat-eater. But, above all, there was the pleasure of getting to know people and making friends - to chat, cycle, eat, sleep; all in the flow of time, not fighting against time, as so often happens back home.

Bicycle Beano cycling holidays are run by Jane Barnes and Rob Green, who have the happy knack of making the whole thing work without seeming to take charge. They talk fondly of people who were on former 'Beanos', and clearly have an affection for their regulars. Jane and Rob met in Birmingham where they were active in the cycling campaign. They began their cycling holidays with the intention of encouraging newcomers to cycling. In fact, the first holiday was packed out with fellow Birmingham bike-lovers. As Rob and Jane gained experience, and reputation, the holidays went from strength to strength.

Their route maps enable people to split into groups. The cyclists on my particular Beano were all experienced and fit. On the one occasion that some riders felt like a more demanding ride, they simply detoured from the main route and joined it again 15 miles later. All very informal: no head cases, no one-upmanship.

The routes themselves are first rate. Along with the route maps come snippets of local history. Stopping at a church in Llanbedr, for example, we could read that the Reverend Kilvert (He of the Diaries) met there a Reverend John Price, who dressed as a tramp and lived in three bathing huts until they were destroyed by fire. He then moved into a building which had once been a hen house, the ruins of which we could see. He was a man of erratic genius who lived in perpetual squalor and was much loved by his parishioners. He paid vagrants a sixpence for attending his services, and five shillings went to each pair of vagrants living in sin who would consent to being married. A good number, taking advantage of his weak eyesight, consented to being married half a dozen times. Price finally fell into impoverishment himself and friends took him away. His clothes had to be cut from his body, and he did not survive the bath which followed. This kind of local history is the perfect complement to the wild Welsh landscapes which span the routes.

They were memorable routes. So often we found ourselves lazily pedaling along pricelessly quiet lanes, going from nowhere important to nowhere in particular. Below us the gentle zip of tyres on tarmac, and around us the soothing noises of nature – the kind of lane which seems to be exclusively yours as you pass between high hazel hedges in the valley bottom and suddenly rise into the hills, with fresh views opening up all around. You ride for hours without seeing or hearing a single motor vehicle. It was on a road like this that my friend Dave suddenly turned my way, “Do you know”, he said, “I think this must be the best holiday I've ever been on”.

It had been a fine, friendly week away. It had done me good to be with such relaxed people, in the peaceful middle of Wales. And the sun had blazed away. Sign me up for next year.

© Jim McGurn, New Cyclist magazine, Spring 1988. Jim now runs Company of Cyclists.