As I write this we are in south Wales with my ex BSAP buddy Dave Hillman and his wife Nicky, they left South Africa some two years ago and it has been wonderful to spend time with them again. It is cold here! We had snow on Tuesday and it has been wet most of the time but we have had time to get out and do some sight seeing in this beautiful area.
The drive here from Dorking in Surrey was interesting to say the least, we left at about 10h00 on Sunday and only arrived in Builth Wells at around 18h00, it took so long because the GPS kept trying to keep me away from the motorway and we drove for hours on narrow roads through admittedly picturesque little villages before I found me way onto the M4 West.
By the time the GPS was telling me we only had 50 miles to go it was also telling me that the rest of the trip would take two hours, I couldn't accept that because we had been traveling at a steady 50mph for ages, by my reckoning that should take only one hour! It was starting to get dark when the lady's voice suddenly said "In 300 metres, turn right." I sped past what looked like a farm track and the GPS re calculated; "In 300 metres, turn right." this time I was ready and turned onto a single lane track, tarred but very narrow that took us into the darkly forested hills!
Janet was by this time quite agitated, I won't go into too much detail but at one stage we passed through a tiny village alongside a babbling brook and took the route instructed only to find ourselves up against a farm gate, I reversed in the dark along that narrow track and took the other fork only to come up to a farm house, I banged on the door but nobody answered. We retraced our tracks back to the village where a kindly local directed us onto the correct route and eventually reached our destination. Had it been daylight I might have enjoyed that journey more, luckily there was no other traffic!
Yesterday we visited the Elan Valley area, a truly picturesque valley with a series of dams, the one we were at was "Craig Goch", with a huge spillway roaring with overflowing water - if only we could have some of that back home!
A pretty church with an unpronounceable name.
A lovely home in the Elan Valley
The roads that are typical of the area, single lane and bordered by moss covered rocks and trees, if you meet an oncoming vehicle one must reverse!
The Main Street scene in Builth Wells, the village nearest to my friend's home. Tomorrow we will be heading back to Surrey but this time I'm taking the slightly longer route to avoid the narrow roads.
Because I am missing my motorbike I took my friend's scooter for some high speed, knee down action just before we left, a bit of fun.
2 comments:
Sounds like you had quite an adventure getting there.
I have a love/hate relationship with GPS units. Sometimes they make things way harder then they need to be, especially if you have "avoid highways" on inadvertently.
Great last picture. A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do when way from his trust steed.
Yes Brandy I'm pretty sure the "Avoid Motorway" option was selected, we had a better trip back avoiding all those narrow lanes.
My friend's "GSRX" was fun to ride around the area where he lived but I wouldn't feel too good in traffic!
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