On the Road Again!

A joke a friend shared with me recently.... Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch  is a town on the small island of Anglesey.

Interesting drive down. Hotel not bad for under £40 a night. Superb meal at the Black Cock Inn on the Caerphilly Mountain. Beds too small. Reggie to kennel. Us to wedding. Great day. Bride looked like a princess. Groom scrubbed up nicely. Father of the bride did a great job.

Not a celebrity wedding but my eldest niece, Jennifer,  is tying the knot down in Wales, to her long time partner Chris.  In Cardiff to be exact. I booked us into a hotel months ago and time seems to be flying.   The perennial "what to wear" question arises. At work I wear a logo'd polo shirt in summer and a long sleeve variant in winter, with a v-neck similarly logo'd on the chest, and jeans.  The dress code is quite lax here as long as we are clean and tidy. The whole idea of uniform. We decided to make a weekend of it. The wedding is Friday afternoon, and so Reggie will go with us. The hotel is dog friendly so that's okay for two nights.  Jennifer's dog will be in the local kennel and so for the wedding day I booked Reggie in too. Drop him off in the morning and collect him next morning. Then we are off a few hours north to the Brecon Beacons, and area of outstanding beauty and fresh air.   What could be simpler? Food for Reggie? ...

My rally weekend started on Friday. I packed my stuff and then had l lunch with Claire, at home, before setting out on the run up to the Youth Hostel in Coalport, near Ironbridge in Shropshire. The weather was hot and I was wearing my new cordura trousers for the first time.  I had removed the quilted lining for both comfort and to avoid death by over heating.  The run up was pretty straightforward with the satnav deciding on the M1/M6 route. As it turned out this was a bad idea as apart from the road works plaguing the M25, the M1 was dug up from Luton Airport to past the Bedford junction, with two lanes chocked full of trucks. Whatever happened to the railway for heavy loads. I stopped for a break and a coffee at the Watford Gap services before continuing.  Petrol seemed to be lasting okay and it was only at Birmingham did I need the first top up.  Managing just over 204 miles for 16.5 litres.  A tip here.  If you are on the M6, avoid the services ...

When we were in Ironbridge last week we visited the Coalport China Works. In one of the buildings there is a newish Youth Hostel. We booked in last year but I missed out as the GS broke down on the way. Whilst there I booked for the Friday night before the rally. For the Saturday night after the rally I am looking for alternative accommodation so when a "sale" email arrived offering rooms from £10 I had to look on http://www2.travelodge.co.uk /. A bit like Ryanair it is almost impossible to find any rooms at that price! Search on still!

It's that time again when attention turns round to the Welsh National Rally in May. My rally last year lasted about a mile when the rear drive on the GS went phut. Or rather crunch-graunch. Forms should be available soon and time to wake up the rest of the team!

The route Andrew has planned covers over 320 miles of Welsh roads. Sadly the route misses out a section I was looking forward to, across the mountains between Tregaron and Abergwesyn. When we did it many years ago it was too dark to check out the scenery and the enjoy the fords!! I'll have to check a bit deeper to see if we are going through Llanddewi Brefi, home of Daffyd, of "the only gay in the village" fame.  After the Rally finishes in Castle Caereinon (also where it started!) we go our separate ways. I want to set off back towards London and looked at another youth hostel but in the end fell for the charms of a Travelodge in Walsall. Okay, maybe it's not that splendid sounding, but it is only £12 a night!! As in 2006,  Sunday morning it's up bright and early (not!) for the ride to London to see the Arsenal's last game of the season. In 2006 it was the very last game at the old Arsenal Stadium in Highbury. This year it will be less of a "must...

The WNR kicks off this year at 0830 from Castle Caereinon near Welshpool on May 8th. Once again this year it will be a day time only rally. I didn't say daylight rally! The last time I did the rally was with Dave Clark in 2006, and we did the north Wales loop that went as far as LlanfairPG on Anglesey.  It was a later start back then and so the mileage had to be compressed into a shorter time. By the time I got to my hotel at the M6 Services formerly known as Hilton Park it was after midnight and I was a little sodden. This year there are three of us. "The Three Amigos" are Andrew, me and Steve Hazlehurst.  Once again I have merely toyed with planning a route and have left it to Andrew again. The route he has come up with for us to enter the Platinum Award plus Dragon Award takes in a more southerly route this time. It's a while since we went south.    My plan is to have the day off on Friday and ride up to Coalport near Telford to stay in the Youth Hostel. The ot...

This year we entered the WNR as a team actually from the Kent Centre of the Suzuki Owners Club. As you can see from the top picture, the team was team made up of two members and their bikes, but can you spot a Suzuki? Nope! In fairness we both own a Suzuki. My riding partner for the long day was Dave Clark from the Medway. Although both setting off from Kent (I was supposed to be working half day) we decided to make our own way to Oxford and meet at the services on the A40/A34/A44 junction to the north of the city. Not far from the local BMW garage as it happens. From there on we made our way off motorway in the warm sunshine to Woofferton where we stayed in the Travelodge. Pic 1 was taken in the car-park on the Saturday morning before we set off for the start of the rally. Our route was for mainly north Wales although we dipped down to take in a few industry sights before a sort of clockwise loop bringing us to the close at Castle Caereinon. We decided to do the Platinum Award and t...

This year we entered the WNR as a team actually from the Kent Centre of the Suzuki Owners Club. As you can see from the top picture, the team was team made up of two members and their bikes, but can you spot a Suzuki? Nope! In fairness we both own a Suzuki. My riding partner for the long day was Dave Clark from the Medway. Although both setting off from Kent (I was supposed to be working half day) we decided to make our own way to Oxford and meet at the services on the A40/A34/A44 junction to the north of the city. Not far from the local BMW garage as it happens. From there on we made our way off motorway in the warm sunshine to Woofferton where we stayed in the Travelodge. Pic 1 was taken in the car-park on the Saturday morning before we set off for the start of the rally. Our route was for mainly north Wales although we dipped down to take in a few industry sights before a sort of clockwise loop bringing us to the close at Castle Caereinon. We decided to do the Platinum Award and t...