excursions: Wales | Feb 2002.

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Saturday

This morning we are all up and down for breakfast by 8:45. Breakfast is a choice of serials and fruit juices, followed by a full english with plenty of toast and as much tea and coffee as we can drink.

After breakfast, as Bruce is not due to arrive from Norwich ‘till about 10:00, we set about fixing some of the problems from yesterday. The series gets its sun visor removed to improve visibility. Uriah gets a plastic bag wrapped around the ignition module and secured with a cable tie. "The beast" gets its front nearside sidelights refitted and the front wing "adjusted". The repeater flasher on the offside is also fixed back onto the wing.

By now it’s 10 o’clock and still no sign of Bruce, he’d already ‘phoned to say he was on the M54 but that was over an hour ago. After much muttering, a visit to the stables and general milling around in the farmyard he eventually arrives at around 11 o’clock. By the time he has booked in and changed etc it’s 11:30 before we set off, the group is now pretty restless.

Today we head back through Welshpool and up the A483 towards Oswestry there’s a light constant drizzle. A few miles before we turn off the main road head north west making our way across country using the network of small yellow roads. We eventually arrive at Rhydycroeasau and thence to Llawnt where we pick up the first lane of the day.

We are in the familiar formation of "the beast", followed by Uriah, with the series playing "tail end Charlie". Chris is driving "the beast" and it’s his first time off-road, all goes well at first, although going is firm it is very slippery. Chris is just remarking how easy it all is, when a loss of concentration causes the rear to try and overtake the front. Whoa boy! Now we proceed with a little more caution. Everything goes fine until we get to the next major intersection where we turn right. Another loss of concentration and we nearly do a 180. We get stuck for about 5 minutes while we sort out "the beast".

These lanes are fairly open and wind through a mixture small wooded sections, open hill tops and mountain tracks. We loop round in a sweeping arc for about an hour and half ending up on the windswept mountainside of Foel Wylfa. From here we take a sharp right fork and descend down a narrow steep track almost pegged onto the side of the mountain. At the bottom there is a locked gate with a large tractor parked hard against it. Three or four dogs run out of the yard barking and creating a great commotion. The farmer’s wife appears and starts hurling abuse at us, wanting to know what we are doing.

I’m reasonably confident that this is the right of way marked on our map (it checks out on the GPS) but I really don’t want to get into an argument. I feign ignorance and explain that we are lost and point out that it really is too difficult to back up the track 3 in a line. I point out that there is nowhere to turn so the farmer grudgingly moves his tractor and we pass through the yard thanking the woman profusely.

After this we descend a steep metalled road to the main highway where we turn east. We curve round and come back onto the same network of green lanes around the other side of the mountain. We are soon off the tarmac heading due north eventually coming to the crossroads we were at some hour and a half before. This time we turn left and make our way through the wooded areas shown on the Land Ranger map but much if has been felled so it is fairly open. As we progress across the open mountain top the tracks get deeper, cut by the logging lorries presumably hauling timber.

It is still raining hard and there is a bitter wind biting across the track. The lead Range Rover eventually grinds to halt with the axle bottomed out on the centre of the track. We attempt to Hi-lift it out but to no avail, the track is too muddy and the base just keeps slipping away. So we back the other 2 motors up about a quarter of a mile and bring Uriah up to the side to try and pull "the beast" through. It’s too slippery and we can’t get any traction if we’re not careful we will end up with them both bogged down. As a last resort we snatch "the beast" backwards and at last it is free.

We bring all the vehicles through by running adjacent to the track and once through this section we rejoin the main track where the going is good. We soon arrive back at the top of the steep track that led down to the farm we were at earlier. This time we ignore the track to the farm and continue on down the mountain by another route, this brings us back to the opposite end of "Cefn Hir Fynydd" which we drove yesterday.

We drive up this lane in the opposite direction over the part we had not driven before. When we arrive at the crossroads where we finished yesterday we turn down the same lane as yesterday to finish up in the village of Tregeiriog again. From here we proceed to Haford Adams to find the last lane of the day.

This lane is a steep mountain track surfaced with small granite chips. On the map it is shown as a relatively straight line climbing up tightly packed contour lines. About half a mile up the track does a hairpin bend and continues on up in the opposite direction. Straight ahead is a five bar gate with a rough track continuing in direction shown on the map. The track doesn’t look well used but appears to be the correct direction, doubt creeps in which way should we go? Out with the GPS to check exactly where we are then another consultation with the map. We decide to go on thru’ the five bar gate, the track climbs straight on up to the top.

We are now travelling along a grassy track on an exposed hilltop, darkness is beginning to descend and the rain is now persistent. After about a mile we come to collection of very large boulders placed across the track in front of some gates. These have obviously been placed here to prevent access but since been moved. There is just sufficient space to squeeze between them and the gatepost so on we go.

From here we descend a narrow track alongside a fast flowing stream, water is pouring down the track in a torrent and at times we lean alarmingly over but no problems for the Land rovers. Eventually we descend on to some tiny single track metalled roads into Tyn-y-celyn. From here we run down some small metalled roads until eventually joining a main road at Glyn Ceiriog.

By now it is very dark but the rain has eased off, time for home. It takes about an hour to get back to the farmhouse and the warm comfortable lounge. After a nice hot bath and a cup of coffee it’s time to decide where to eat. After a quick conference and a consultation with Sue we decide to try the village pub. Tony elects to go tea-total for the evening and we all pile into Uriah for the short drive to the village. We arrive around 8 p.m. to find both pubs are fully booked until at least 9:30. So after another quick discussion it’s off to Welshpool.

We arrive to find opinion split with some wanting to eat out and others wanting a take away. We eventually agree on an Indian take away which takes at least 30 minutes due to the size of the orders. We return to the farm and use the self-catering cottage to eat. By 9 o’clock we are all fed and watered and we have watched the video footage taken that day. The old boys now depart to the lounge to rabbit and make use of the bar until the early hours leaving the lads to watch a film on TV. Sitting back in the lounge, drink in hand, chatting in front of the fire is a perfect end to the day.

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