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sabconsulting's avatar
Sep 24, 2014

Trip report: A week in Wales

Just realised my Virgin account where I put my photos is running out of space - ha - they are clearly too busy concentrating on zooming off to space rather than providing me with hosting space :). So I'll have a go putting my pictures on another location - so I apologise in advance if there is any difficulty viewing them.

OK, so after that distraction, on with the important stuff...

I booked a week off work in September, after the kids had gone back to school, so everywhere would be quieter. Sally wanted to visit Anglesey in North Wales because we'd never been there.

Friday

Sally suggested some cycling might be involved, so I strapped the folding bikes to the roof of the camper - not that we used them:



Friday afternoon we headed north west towards Birmingham and then up along the Welsh border. The Camping and Caravanning Club have a POI file I downloaded onto the Garmin Nuvi GPS, so as we headed towards sunset I started looking for campgrounds to use for a stopover for the night - something basic and cheap was called for. We stopped at one and and it was just what we wanted. Just and empty field really, owned by a very pleasant retired couple.



Saturday

Come the morning we checked out the toilet facilities - hmmm, these look interesting:



But quite cute inside:



We headed up further north west through Snowdonia National Park:



We didn't stop - that would come later in the week, instead we headed straight for Anglesey and the historic bridge over the Menai Straits:



Thomas Telford's bridge:



Not much clearance:



We headed up to the north east coast of the island - almost still summer:



After a walk along the beach and some sandwiches we moved inland and found an old copper mine:



Some of the copper mined here would have ended up lining the hulls of wooden warships



Then onto the campground - this one Sally had booked in advance - again, a fairly basic campground, but with a sea view:



We decided to fry some food, but rather than do it on the camper stove covering the camper in grease and making it smell, I had brought my old camping stove - it worked well:



Stay tuned for more...

Steve.
  • Wow - great adventure, and beautiful pictures.
    At some stage the Romans paved it
    There are probably a few places in Europe that have roads originally built or modified by the Romans -- but it's still an amazing bit of history.
  • Hi Steve & Sally,

    thanks for the great trip report! Great pictures, and it sure looks like you had a great time!

    That story about the old man on his bicyle is sad, though :-(

    Thanks again,
    Janina & Joerg
  • Thanks for the trip report. I do enjoy seeing where you travel.

    Thanks again and thanks for the work you have done to the trip report section.

    Cliff
  • Hi Steve,

    Thanks for the GREAT TR!!!! Just beautiful!!! Fun to see the homeland of my ancestors!!

    Hi to Sally!!!!
  • sabconsulting wrote:
    Thursday

    Today it was supposed to be raining, but fortunately the weather seemed to have forgotten. We did have a longer lay in bed though - we were a bit achy and the virus was taking its toll.

    The plan for today was to drive to the nearest village and enjoy a nice lunch. However, I spotted that the farmer had a nice rock face just above the campground - this was difficult to resist and I wanted to try out some dynamic rope, caribiners and belay devices. Sally took some persuading because she really wanted a relaxing morning, but I insisted on rushing up the hill and rigging a climb for her:



    Everything worked, and Sally also got to prove that her new Saloman hiking boots were actually quite good on rock (though hardly rock boots).

    Having got that out of my system we headed to Beddgelert for some lunch. Parking was cheap (free) because the machine was out of order - note the bilingual notice:



    Oooo, Ham, egg and chips (fat fries) in the sun:





    We walked off lunch by visiting an outdoor clothing store and then doing a small circular walk around the village:





    We therefore arrived back at the campground fairly early - time to do some maintenance.

    Firstly I bought a small folding luggage trolley to allow me to drag our grey tank when taking it to be emptied:



    I had also bought some replacement elastic cord to repair the camping table - the elastic had broken a couple of years ago when I stupidly threw the table out of the camper:



    Finally we rounded the day off by walking to the lake at the end of the farm:



    I caught the grandfather on his way back into the farm house in order to pay for the camping (he was the oldest of about 4 generations living off the farm). Sadly he was wearing a black tie and explained that he had just had to bury a childhood friend - who had all his life cycled the same route through the village, but recently, and unknown to him, the local council had placed a chain across the bollards he sped through those 80 or more years.

    Sabconsulting wrote:
    Having got that out of my system we headed to Beddgelert for some lunch. Parking was cheap (free) because the machine was out of order - note the bilingual notice:

    Steve, you thought you were in another part of England, being so close to Liverpool, but it was fascinating seeing "English People" speaking another Language!
  • Have enjoyed reading your adventure. Would love to travel in those same places.

    Dale
  • Many thanks for the comments guys.

    Dome: Thanks, glad you like the pictures, and thanks for checking them for me to confirm if the links to my new hosting provider were working.

    MacHof: Shipping a camper over may be a bit of a chore, but renting a class B or C in Europe is worth considering.

    Cewillis: Actually Cal, my previous report of Scotland did include another outhouse interior photo, though that was more of a proper bathroom complex, where as this was definitely just an outhouse. You can often tell the Roman roads from the maps, simply because as invaders they had no concerns about driving long straight roads through people's land heading for distant locations, where-as existing roads tended to (and still do) skirt around people's fields and went from one village to another.

    bka0721: Hi Bryan, yes, we love the camper - we now get withdrawal symptoms if we don't go camping in it for a few weeks.

    Silversand: Glad you liked the views. These photos are a lot better than the poor quality ones I emailed you from my blackberry. K2 - don't go giving Sally any ideas!

    bighatnohorse: That beach would have been a lovely spot to spend more time, although in truth I don't really have the patience for sitting on beaches.

    dadwolf2: The distances were pretty small - The first evening's travel (to the place with the outhouses) was only 121 miles. From there to our campground on Anglesey was about the same. From there to our 3rd campground was only around 70 miles, and from there to our 4th campground about 155 miles and from there to home another 100 miles. We are lucky that we can get to such different scenery such a short distance from home.

    Jefe4x4: Yes the weather was wonderful - lovely clear air. Sorry you two are suffering from the forest fires.

    Loulou57: I'm so glad you enjoyed the photos as a reminder of the old country. We don't have a website, but if you go to the trip reports sticky thread and search for sabconsulting you'll find more of our trip reports, especially if you scroll down to the section covering Europe.

    Bigfoot85: And there were some lovely spots to enjoy tea - in fact sally always carries a thermos flask of tea in her backpack.

    Dakonthemountain: Glad you enjoyed it - yes, it is lovely countryside.

    Joerg68: Yes, it was sad. I didn't know he had come from a funeral until it was too late - i.e. when he got out of the car and I saw his black tie, but by then I was standing there waiting to pay for the camping. Not ideal timing.

    Saltydog5435S-Tex: No problem. It was worth the work on the trip reports sticky because we have accumulated so many great trip reports in the truck camper section it was important to re-sort them to ensure they were easily accessible.

    DJ: Yes, of course, your name gives away your ancestry - I guess many in the US wouldn't recognise it, but both first and last names are very typically Welsh.

    RobertRyan: I'm not sure the Welsh would really appreciate being called "English people" :) You probably meant "British people".

    Scottiemom: Glad you enjoyed the report.

    GoinThisWay: Thanks.

    Steve.
  • Steve, Janet and I enjoyed the emails but they were just appatizers...

    We really enjoyed this report... more reason for us to go over and vist our grand son and his family. Thay have already visited Scotland from the Air Base. Our great grandson was recently born there. Our great grand daughters seem to be exploring every thing from castles, churches, and toman roads.... one is in school.

    Thanks very much

    Chet (and Janet)