After a relatively leisurely Sunday morning lie in I left Falmouth thinking I might meet the team at the Elan Valley, but after finding very little traffic I pulled my finger out and managed to get to Brians by 11am. He fortunately had liberal supplies of tea and biscuits as we discovered that the Banbury version of "I'll be 20 mins late" means roughly the same as the Cornish "dreckly". Still it was sunny and dry and remained so as we eventually toddled off to the Elan Valley where we discovered Phillip, who coming from the railway town of Crewe had obviously arrived on time and thus been waiting for ages. The afternoon was filled with lots of dams and no water. The pub food and drink in the evening proved a bit of a let down, so we decided to eat in the B&B for the rest of the week and very good it was too.
Monday morning meant a wriggly route better suited to the GS part of the group than the K group, over the hill to St Davids where I arrived considerably overdressed for the 26C weather. En-route we visited the allegedly most isolated phone box in Wales. Having removed several layers and opened numerous vents ready for the afternoon jaunt back to Lanwrtyd Wells it turned grey and damp so we reverted to the A40. Bor-ring but so was the weather.
Lengthy discussion over Monday evenings dinner, several bottles of vino collapso, followed by "satnav reprogramming 101 for beginners experts and those using paper and a pencil" resulted in stealing a "here's one we made earlier" route from Tom, round over and through the Brecons, Black Mountain and, confusingly for those who've never walked around there, The Black Mountains, all the way to Tintern Abbey and back. Thus Tuesdays route proved to be "Most excellent" as me old mates Bill and Ted used to say, except unfortunately for Brian who was mentally writing nasty solicitors letters to Specsavers once he discovered why he was seeing 2 corners at every turn although personally I was very relieved to find it was a mechanical problem not a physical one. It wasn't much better for Matt who, having opted out of the packed lunch, found the planned brewery stop was shut, and then found that all the cafes and shops in Tintern were shut too, had nowt to eat. Weather was again stunning for wales in September, a little cooler but still dry and sunny, perfect conditions.
As Tom and I were heading towards Manchester on Wednesday evening, the route planners had us winging North all morning. Best day of the trip for me, roads through mid wales wonderful (except for Brian who discovered a fairly large patch of diesel causing his rear wheel to take a good look at the front wheel
) , Snowdonia magnificent in the sun and clear sky. A real feel good day.
It rained while we sat inside the tea room at Aber Falls distillery, but then dry as I headed for Manchester after fighting the good fight with both my phones that either refused to charge or wouldn't run the Tom Tom app (hooky version from Holland that runs great when you don't need it as all good sat navs do). Had a messy night out with a lot of old friends, sat up til early on Thursday morning talking shite (probably, I cant quite remember). The best day I have had for some considerable time
Thursday i dragged my sorry arse down to Shropshire to visit my sister and my 93 year old dad, who wasn't in on time as he was out for an extended lunch with his 95 year old mate. I tell you I hope I'm still going that well if I get to that age. Friday afternoon I headed South via Brians. As i trundled, well you know, K13 trundled, down the A49 it was a bit too busy with caravans and motorhomes. It eventually struck me people were making a holiday weekend out of QE2's funeral day off on Monday. After leaving Brians (took me own biscuits, natch) the Tom Tom (note working perfectly as I am travelling a route I know) suddenly said "59 minute delay, you will arrive at your destination eventually". This turned out to be filtering through miles and miles of 3 or 4 lanes of very slow traffic full of aforesaid vans caravans and motorhomes on the M5 from Bristol nearly to Bridgewater where I had to stop for fuel and a sandwich. When I came out they had all crawled down to fill up the motorway to Taunton or thereabout so I had to do it again. Could not have been more unpleasantly different to Wednesday. Even 110watts equivalent of LED through the back window and a largely white motorbike wouldnt shift some of them on the A30. Anyway home eventually
Great week even though I sloped off early. Thanks to all those involved in the route planning and organisation, I very much enjoyed myself. Added to the general enjoyment of the roads was blagging the tail end charlie position where I could observe everybody else's moments while nobody could see my obviously completely perfect riding technique
