Long weekend in Wales & the ABR Festival

Flintlock
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Re: Long weekend in Wales & the ABR Festival

Post by Flintlock »

Saturday morning, and another early morning fishing session resulted in three more Brown Trout.
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Then a spot of breakfast and everything packed away and on the bike. I had an hour to kill so explored a few single track roads in the area, before making my way back up over the big hill
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The area is called The Long Mynd - well worth exploring - first time in the Shropshire Hills, a beautiful area.
Flintlock
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Re: Long weekend in Wales & the ABR Festival

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Made my way back down to Church Stretton and checked out Carding Mill Valley, again another lovely spot - but i imagine would tend to get quite busy at times.
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So met up with Jon, had a catch up over coffee and Jon who lives in the Kidderminister area, took the lead on his 1200GS WC. We made our way to the Elan Valley, I had been here before, but this time we did it in the opposite direction - fantastic piece of road with views to match. We then went to the Devils Falls, then covered numerous great roads to Aberystwyh, before heading back to the Lake. Vyrnwy Hotel where I had booked a room for my last night - a nice bit of luxury. The hotel sits above the lake and the old part has lots of character - looked like it dates back to the Victorian era.

The view from our dinner table was impressive to say the least
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Flintlock
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Re: Long weekend in Wales & the ABR Festival

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Sunday morning, and after a huge breakfast and watching the activity round the bird table
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A squirrel, a couple of phesants and numerous song birds, we were back on the bikes and did a nice leisurely circuit around the lake
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Last edited by Flintlock on Sun Jul 21, 2019 7:44 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Flintlock
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Re: Long weekend in Wales & the ABR Festival

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I had not forgotten about the wee single track road that we had to miss out on the Friday evening due to the weather closing in, so that was to be our next area to explore, so we made our way to Bala, stopped at the National White Water Centre for a coffee and watched the activities on the river
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And continued onto Trawsfyndd
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Re: Long weekend in Wales & the ABR Festival

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We were not dissapointed with this road that links Trawsfyndd to Llanuwchllyn. A great road passing through a remote and rugged landscape. An extra bonus, a nice river for another spot of fishing on the way through.
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Flintlock
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Re: Long weekend in Wales & the ABR Festival

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From memory there are three gates to open and close after you, but a good opportunity for a photo whilst doing so.
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The last gate was opened forus by a group of KTM riders coming the other way - cheers lads.
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Re: Long weekend in Wales & the ABR Festival

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Another stop for a bit of fishing
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Then back to Bala, where Jon took the lead and we headed off for the Ponderosa Cafe on the Horseshoe Pass where we were hopeing to meet up with the rest of the N.Ireland party before heading back to the ferry. Again, some more nice Welsh roads were sampled, however on the A5104 it got very busy and we found ourselves in a long line of traffic moving about50mph. Luckily Jon's satnav took us off it and unto a single track road that went down into a valley then up the other side, getting steeper and rougher as we went, it looked like it was leading us to a quarry at the top and i thought it was going to take us to a dead end. As we continued up it we were joined by a large Hare that ran alongside us for a short distance. As luck would have it the road joined the A542 on the opposite side of the Ponderosa.
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Flintlock
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Re: Long weekend in Wales & the ABR Festival

Post by Flintlock »

I had never been to the Ponderosa before and it was great to see all the other bikes there.
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Was lovely to see this GSXR 750 - I remember when they came out, I had a GSX1100EF at the time and lusted after the GSXR1100 but could not afford to change - maybe it was for the best :twisted:
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Anyway, one of the party was there, and we killed a couple of hours looking at bikes, eating icecream, drinking coffee. The rest of the party were slightly delayed ( something to do with alcohol the night before apparently!!) So we ended up arranging to meet at the ferry terminal at Holyhead.

So we bid Jon farewell and Pete took the lead , back down the Horseshoe Pass , over the River Dee and unto the A5 back to Holyhead via Betws-y-Coed, where we re-grouped for the ferry home.

So another trip over - a short one but alot squeezed in.

Wales - an impressive country, with roads and scenery to match.

As for the ABR Festival? some of the Northern Ireland party have already purchased their tickets for next year - enough said.
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