Welsh tour June 2008
The trip had been planned for several months now – we knew the dates (weather permitting), we knew where our base would be (North Farm at Ludlow), we knew who would be coming (myself, Andy x2 and Jon) but we had no routes planned other than we wanted to see North, South and Mid-Wales.
I have the Varadero, Andy and Jon have Fazer 600s and the other Andy came on his V-Strom 650. We had all booked time off work (I only teach 3 days so no problem for me) and our leaving day was planned for Wednesday June 11 at around 3pm. Andy (Fazer) and Jon are both engineers at Siemens and Andy (V-Strom) is a missile analyst for the MOD.
Andy (Fazer Andy), Jon and I live in Lincolnshire so we would travel together to Ludlow. Andy lives in London and he had planned to leave earlier and bag us a good pitch – the site is cheap but have limited flat pitches. We were advised to book the flat pitches in advance but as we had no real plans we may have wanted to pitch at a different site each night – that lack of planning came to haunt us later.
I finished work at 3pm and raced home to complete the last minute packing and shower and change. Andy (my neighbour) wanted to eat his risotto first and Jon didn’t appear until 4pm so we finally left at 4.30pm after a cracking send-off from wives and families. The skies looked threatening but apart from a little early drizzle we stayed dry.
Joining the rush hour traffic around Lincoln slowed us down a bit but we caught up around Newark and enjoyed a fast ride down the A46 to Leicester.
I’d been designated the lead rider only because I was the only one with a satnav (Zumo 550). We took a boring ride down the M69 and then onto the M6, hopefully avoiding the M6 toll road, M42 and then onto Ludlow, via Kidderminster (I think).
I managed to lose Jon as he was worried about speed cameras on one of the motorways (M6) as there was a 50mph limit applied for a distance. We got in touch with him via text and arranged to meet him at the campsite in Ludlow. So 3 were now down to 2 (a bit of a pattern which would occur a few times in the next 4 days).
Andy and I plodded on and made good time, apart from the endless miles of recently tarred and chipped roads – made us slow down a bit with our heavy luggage on. Arrived at Ludlow at about 7.30pm and quickly found the campsite where Andy had bagged us a flat pitch, but this was only ours for 2 days as we hadn’t booked and would need to move to a sloping pitch for the last 2 nights.
Greetings were dutifully exchanged and, as the rain suddenly decided to dump down on us, we rapidly pitched our tents and unpacked.
Jon arrived about 20 minutes after us. It rained and rained and rained until about 3am so the first night was spent curled up in our respective tents eating noodles and drinking a rather tasty merlot. Being hardened bikers we retired to sleep at 10.15pm. We woke just after dawn (4am) due to the lack of heavy rain on canvas and also due to a friendly farmyard peacock shrieking at his noisiest. For obvious reasons the peacock became known by us as ‘Fecking Peacock’. We must have dozed off shortly after as we didn’t open out tent flaps until 7am – this was the point when we couldn’t hold on to our bladders any longer.
Breakfast was Nutri-Grain bars and a cup of tasty PG Tips tea. We surveyed our surroundings in the daylight – WOW!! We were camped on a slight hill directly overlooking Ludlow and had a panoramic view of all the surrounding hills.
A rough route was then planned with our trusty Michelin map and about an hour later we mounted our steeds and aimed NW and into the Welsh heartlands. I’d been in Wales a few times with family holidays so had a very rudimentary knowledge of the country and I had the satnav, so I lead again (now there were 4 of us). We had also chosen the same weekend that Shell Oil tanker drivers had picked for a 4 day strike so there was the major threat of panic buying and a shortage of fuel – you can imagine the shock we got when we found out that the nearest garage to us was, you guessed it, a Shell garage!
As it happens we didn’t have any trouble getting fuel over the trip.
As the nutri-grains were being digested our thoughts soon turned to food and after 50 minutes or so I spotted a Café. Alas this was closed. Then another one was closed (remember this was about 9.30am so not an unreasonable hour in which to want to eat breakfast). Eventually I found a small café next to a garage and, to our delight was actually open!! We were soon tucking into bacon, eggs, beans, mushrooms, sausage etc etc. I’m not sure where we were but we were heading to Machynlleth so I guess we stopped somewhere near Newtown.
After satisfying our hunger we set off for the coast road between Aberdovey and Ffestiniog as Andy wanted to visit Portmerion village. I’d also been their before and remember (this was 10 years ago) watching my toddler daughters playing with the giant chess pieces. We had stayed at a large rented house in Tywyn, the town famous for Marconi sending his first (I think) wireless message to our colonial cousins over the pond. That holiday was known by me for having been poisoned by the cryptosporidium bug after swimming in the sea – nasty!
Arrived at Portmerion to have £7 extracted by a lovely Welsh lady for admission!! An hour spent walking and admiring (and on the lookout for large balls rolling towards us – remember The Prisoner TV series?).
The tide was out and we spotted a flock of sheep on the beach.
A lovely Welsh lady (bit of a pattern here – the Welsh are a very friendly nation!!!) kindly took our photo. Stopped at the restaurant for tea and cakes and were laid siege to by Robins, Great Tits and Chaffinches as they tried their best to pinch our crumbs.
The motley crew...
Sadly Portmerion no longer has the giant chess board and chess pieces (health and safety?). After there we headed away from the coast and aimed towards the Ponderosa café in Snowdonia – some superb biking roads here, just need to watch out for Police and speed safety (tax) cameras. We’d heard a lot about the attitude of Police in North Wales to bikers but none were spotted the whole trip in all of Wales. Arrived at the Ponderosa at 4.30pm looking forward to have a snack and tea – must be a Welsh thing here as the café part was closed!!! As we were moaning to ourselves a lovely Welsh lady who worked in the shop said that she could rustle up a sandwich and coffee for us - very kind but we were really looking for a hot meal at this point so reluctantly turned her down and thanked her for the offer. I don’t think she heard our thanks as she remarked to Andy as we left that we were ignorant!! We may ride bikes but ignorant we aint.
Follwed the road via the Horseshoe Pass and headed towards Llangollen and then South back to Ludlow. A fantastic days riding and all dry as well! On our way back we hit heavy traffic at Shrewsbury – approaching a roundabout we became separated. As I was filtering through the traffic I didn’t notice for several miles so pulled up in a layby and waited. With 20 minutes gone and still no sign of them I was about to pull off from the layby when a car with 3 men inside pulled up in front of me and then reversed to within a few feet of my bike. Getting rather worried at this point the driver leapt out of his car and walked towards me. As I was wearing my bike gear and helmet I knew I was well protected but thought that this was an enraged driver who may have had a grudge against bikers. Anyway, all he wanted to do was tell me that the garage further down the road had now closed due to running out of fuel due to panic buying – crisis now over I thanked him and he left with a cheery wave. As it happens I was okay for fuel with the 25L Varadero fuel tank so sent a text to the others and re-joined the traffic. I filled up nearer to Ludlow, bought some burgers, bread, relish and wine and arrived at the campsite to meet the others who explained that they had turned right when I had gone straight on – all were safe so no problems caused (maybe I needed to slow down a bit and look in my mirrors more as this was the second time and one more was soon to follow). As the others hadn’t bought their food yet we found some rice and cooked my burgers and had a well-anticipated meal washed down with several glasses of wine and, again, retired to bed at 10pm!
More to follow.....
The trip had been planned for several months now – we knew the dates (weather permitting), we knew where our base would be (North Farm at Ludlow), we knew who would be coming (myself, Andy x2 and Jon) but we had no routes planned other than we wanted to see North, South and Mid-Wales.
I have the Varadero, Andy and Jon have Fazer 600s and the other Andy came on his V-Strom 650. We had all booked time off work (I only teach 3 days so no problem for me) and our leaving day was planned for Wednesday June 11 at around 3pm. Andy (Fazer) and Jon are both engineers at Siemens and Andy (V-Strom) is a missile analyst for the MOD.
Andy (Fazer Andy), Jon and I live in Lincolnshire so we would travel together to Ludlow. Andy lives in London and he had planned to leave earlier and bag us a good pitch – the site is cheap but have limited flat pitches. We were advised to book the flat pitches in advance but as we had no real plans we may have wanted to pitch at a different site each night – that lack of planning came to haunt us later.
I finished work at 3pm and raced home to complete the last minute packing and shower and change. Andy (my neighbour) wanted to eat his risotto first and Jon didn’t appear until 4pm so we finally left at 4.30pm after a cracking send-off from wives and families. The skies looked threatening but apart from a little early drizzle we stayed dry.
Joining the rush hour traffic around Lincoln slowed us down a bit but we caught up around Newark and enjoyed a fast ride down the A46 to Leicester.
I’d been designated the lead rider only because I was the only one with a satnav (Zumo 550). We took a boring ride down the M69 and then onto the M6, hopefully avoiding the M6 toll road, M42 and then onto Ludlow, via Kidderminster (I think).
I managed to lose Jon as he was worried about speed cameras on one of the motorways (M6) as there was a 50mph limit applied for a distance. We got in touch with him via text and arranged to meet him at the campsite in Ludlow. So 3 were now down to 2 (a bit of a pattern which would occur a few times in the next 4 days).
Andy and I plodded on and made good time, apart from the endless miles of recently tarred and chipped roads – made us slow down a bit with our heavy luggage on. Arrived at Ludlow at about 7.30pm and quickly found the campsite where Andy had bagged us a flat pitch, but this was only ours for 2 days as we hadn’t booked and would need to move to a sloping pitch for the last 2 nights.
Greetings were dutifully exchanged and, as the rain suddenly decided to dump down on us, we rapidly pitched our tents and unpacked.
Jon arrived about 20 minutes after us. It rained and rained and rained until about 3am so the first night was spent curled up in our respective tents eating noodles and drinking a rather tasty merlot. Being hardened bikers we retired to sleep at 10.15pm. We woke just after dawn (4am) due to the lack of heavy rain on canvas and also due to a friendly farmyard peacock shrieking at his noisiest. For obvious reasons the peacock became known by us as ‘Fecking Peacock’. We must have dozed off shortly after as we didn’t open out tent flaps until 7am – this was the point when we couldn’t hold on to our bladders any longer.
Breakfast was Nutri-Grain bars and a cup of tasty PG Tips tea. We surveyed our surroundings in the daylight – WOW!! We were camped on a slight hill directly overlooking Ludlow and had a panoramic view of all the surrounding hills.
A rough route was then planned with our trusty Michelin map and about an hour later we mounted our steeds and aimed NW and into the Welsh heartlands. I’d been in Wales a few times with family holidays so had a very rudimentary knowledge of the country and I had the satnav, so I lead again (now there were 4 of us). We had also chosen the same weekend that Shell Oil tanker drivers had picked for a 4 day strike so there was the major threat of panic buying and a shortage of fuel – you can imagine the shock we got when we found out that the nearest garage to us was, you guessed it, a Shell garage!
As it happens we didn’t have any trouble getting fuel over the trip.
As the nutri-grains were being digested our thoughts soon turned to food and after 50 minutes or so I spotted a Café. Alas this was closed. Then another one was closed (remember this was about 9.30am so not an unreasonable hour in which to want to eat breakfast). Eventually I found a small café next to a garage and, to our delight was actually open!! We were soon tucking into bacon, eggs, beans, mushrooms, sausage etc etc. I’m not sure where we were but we were heading to Machynlleth so I guess we stopped somewhere near Newtown.
After satisfying our hunger we set off for the coast road between Aberdovey and Ffestiniog as Andy wanted to visit Portmerion village. I’d also been their before and remember (this was 10 years ago) watching my toddler daughters playing with the giant chess pieces. We had stayed at a large rented house in Tywyn, the town famous for Marconi sending his first (I think) wireless message to our colonial cousins over the pond. That holiday was known by me for having been poisoned by the cryptosporidium bug after swimming in the sea – nasty!
Arrived at Portmerion to have £7 extracted by a lovely Welsh lady for admission!! An hour spent walking and admiring (and on the lookout for large balls rolling towards us – remember The Prisoner TV series?).
The tide was out and we spotted a flock of sheep on the beach.
A lovely Welsh lady (bit of a pattern here – the Welsh are a very friendly nation!!!) kindly took our photo. Stopped at the restaurant for tea and cakes and were laid siege to by Robins, Great Tits and Chaffinches as they tried their best to pinch our crumbs.
The motley crew...
Sadly Portmerion no longer has the giant chess board and chess pieces (health and safety?). After there we headed away from the coast and aimed towards the Ponderosa café in Snowdonia – some superb biking roads here, just need to watch out for Police and speed safety (tax) cameras. We’d heard a lot about the attitude of Police in North Wales to bikers but none were spotted the whole trip in all of Wales. Arrived at the Ponderosa at 4.30pm looking forward to have a snack and tea – must be a Welsh thing here as the café part was closed!!! As we were moaning to ourselves a lovely Welsh lady who worked in the shop said that she could rustle up a sandwich and coffee for us - very kind but we were really looking for a hot meal at this point so reluctantly turned her down and thanked her for the offer. I don’t think she heard our thanks as she remarked to Andy as we left that we were ignorant!! We may ride bikes but ignorant we aint.
Follwed the road via the Horseshoe Pass and headed towards Llangollen and then South back to Ludlow. A fantastic days riding and all dry as well! On our way back we hit heavy traffic at Shrewsbury – approaching a roundabout we became separated. As I was filtering through the traffic I didn’t notice for several miles so pulled up in a layby and waited. With 20 minutes gone and still no sign of them I was about to pull off from the layby when a car with 3 men inside pulled up in front of me and then reversed to within a few feet of my bike. Getting rather worried at this point the driver leapt out of his car and walked towards me. As I was wearing my bike gear and helmet I knew I was well protected but thought that this was an enraged driver who may have had a grudge against bikers. Anyway, all he wanted to do was tell me that the garage further down the road had now closed due to running out of fuel due to panic buying – crisis now over I thanked him and he left with a cheery wave. As it happens I was okay for fuel with the 25L Varadero fuel tank so sent a text to the others and re-joined the traffic. I filled up nearer to Ludlow, bought some burgers, bread, relish and wine and arrived at the campsite to meet the others who explained that they had turned right when I had gone straight on – all were safe so no problems caused (maybe I needed to slow down a bit and look in my mirrors more as this was the second time and one more was soon to follow). As the others hadn’t bought their food yet we found some rice and cooked my burgers and had a well-anticipated meal washed down with several glasses of wine and, again, retired to bed at 10pm!
More to follow.....
