Land of the Dragon

A late weekend in September was the long-planned Rogue Runners (members of SKCC) trip to Wales.

Day 1 - Surrey to Llangollen - 320 miles

For some crazy reason, we had to meet at 4am as the initial plan was for 6 southerners to meet 2 northerners for breakfast in Newport, Wales. I compounded this by waking at 3am, not thinking that the normal 30 minute journey to the meet point would be much quicker at that time in the morning - bottom line, I was first there and spent a surreal 15 minutes in the pitch black, looking at the stars with numerous nocturnal wildlife.

The first few hours were dark, cold and dull, as we hammered down the M4 to get to breakfast. To make things worse, we arrived an hour early - I could really have done with that hour in bed.

So the group consisted of 2 lovely Elise's, 2 MX5s and 4 kits (2 Tigers, a Caterham and me):

The drive up through the Brecon Beacons was lovely - the sun was out, skies were blue and the roads were empty - bliss. 

 

 

Sadly, the traffic started to build up after that and the final 10 miles to our hotel in Llangollen was a slow crawl. The hotel itself looked great from the outside but was a little past its best inside - dinner in the bar was very good, however, and a couple of beers made for an enjoyable evening.

Day 2 - Llangollen to Llandrindod Wells - 260 miles

My hotel room had a great view over the famous Llangollen canal:

Breakfast was reasonable food let down by some dubious service - the now-famous saucerGate (asked for a coffee cup, got EXACTLY that, just a cup - no saucer or spoon. Had to ask bored-looking teenager for those separately).

The weather was once again amazing, so much so that I took my doors off. Unfortunately, I had my sat-nav set to 'scenic' and it chose a very different route to everyone else, so I promptly lost them 5 miles from the hotel. Combined with a headache and blazing sun (yes, in Wales!) actually made me feel a bit queasy and the amazing, twisty roads didn't help.

I thus spent the first couple of hours alone, skirting Lake Bala and travelling up the Hellfire Pass to it's summit:

The drive was superb - despite being mostly single lane, I literally met 2 other cars all the way up and only a few more than that on the way down - great fun with beautiful scenery. I finally caught up with the others at the first coffee stop - and then lost them a bit later on with more sat-nav shenanigans (not my fault this time).

However, the roads continued to amaze - long, flowing bends, hardly any traffic - a real joy to drive. A highlight was a military road, recently re-surfaced, no traffic and was a joyous, challenging route with swooping bends, crests and even hairpins.

Annoyingly, my engine misfire started to return, although only in short bursts and not enough to cause too many problems, although it did take the shine off what was otherwise a perfect day.

The Highland Moors hotel was a better place, nice rooms, good food and with some vaguely experienced staff.

Day 3 - Llandrindod Wells to Merthyr Tydfil - 200 miles

Finally, the rain arrived, as forecasted and up went the roofs, although it was never very heavy. Today involved lots of lakes in the Elan Valley:

Again, great roads and although speeds were lower with the rain, they were still fun, although made a bit of a mess of Zedster:

                    

Enjoyable coffee stop at a steam engine train station:

...and the final hotel just outside Merthyr:

Day 4 - Merthyr Tydfil to home - 180 miles

The day was dry but overcast for the journey home, with everyone splitting off at different points, depending on where they lived.

My misfire returned and got progressively worse as the day wore on, with the last 30 miles being a stuttery nightmare but Zedster made it and I am very proud that nothing else fell off or broke and the AA were never required over the 900-odd miles of the trip.

A video of the trip:

Overall, it was a brilliant trip - exactly the sort of thing I built my car for and something I would love to do more regularly.

Next time - the Alps!