Welsh National Rally; May 2007
One More Time Around Elan Valley Reservoirs
Spring comes around and the Welsh National Rally is first up 12th May. For the 2007 Welsh we were competitor #12. We had planned to go on the silver Bird but unfortunately it never made it!
A platinum award was our objective for the Welsh. Planning a platinum route that went through 15 unmanned stops, 3 manned stops (open 10:00 - 18:00) and 4 dragon stops was an enjoyable challenge. Our last stop was a look out point in the middle of a moor and we expected to get there in the dark. Never mind!
We have two Hondas, the Bird and a Big One. The Bird has a Melboy gel seat so despite my fondness for my Big One, in the eyes of the pillion, "she who must be obeyed", it's a 'no brainer' decision to take the Bird. Unfortunately (for her), I managed to lose the small spacer on the front axle during a last minute change of the Bird's tyres. Oh dear, we had to take the Big One with it's skinny seat and a big tank bag. No topbox, panniers or Melboy seat this time!
Because of work commitments we didn't leave Dorset until around 12:30 on the Friday and it pretty much rained all the way to our B&B just outside Welshpool. We did some RBR landmarks on the way up, the fountain near Onen, the Dovecoat at Eardisland and Flounders Folly at Lower Dinchope. This was our second attempt at the Onen fountain as, contrary to RBR instructions, the fountain is not actually at Onen. Flounders Folly involved an uphill trek on a very muddy clay path through Forestry Commission land. Chris guarded the bike whilst I disappeared from sight into the mist and rain for 30 minutes or so. I'm sure she was wondering what to spend the life insurance on. We met our first RBR'r as we were leaving, John. It was getting dark and we shared our Folly experience with him. We later learnt that he wisely decided the Folly would keep for the next day.
Our B&B was Heath Cottage Farm, which is oft frequented by rallying motorcyclists. Besides us there were 5 other guys doing the Welsh staying there that night. After good breakfast, we all set off for the start at Castle Caerinion. We were aiming to get away from Castle Caerinion by 8:30 but we must of actually left around 9:00. We did say hello to Graham Flint before we set off.
Everything was going fine until I messed up a bit on the way to Disserth and lost us 10 minutes or so. However, this was nothing compared to Elan Village. I should have know better but I fell for the 'old chestnut' of following some riders who I had lazily and incorrectly concluded were also on their way to Elan Village. They weren't and I lost us another 45 minutes going back and forth on the sheep strewn unclassified road that borders the reservoir.
Now it had started to rain as we made our way on the exposed unclassified road to Aberystwyth via Cwmystwyth. When we couldn't find the Cwmystwyth speed limit signs (this was in the clue) I have to admit to feeling sorry for myself and thinking about giving up on a platinum. I had gone wrong twice already (big time at Elan), it was raining and now I couldn't even find Cwmystwyth's speed limit signs. Chris wasn't for giving up so we pushed on with our platinum route.
After our low point at Cwmystwyth we didn't put a foot wrong or dither much at our stops. We still only managed to get to the Ponderosa at Horseshoe Pass, our last manned stop, at around 17:30. This was where we had planned to have something to eat and drink before the final push. It's a strange feeling at this point because you've managed to get to all the manned stops before 18:00 but there is still a lot of riding left to do with a third of the route left to complete. It dawns on you that the sun will be well down by the time we finish. The last third of our route involves going as far east as is possible in Wales to Bangor on Dee, then all the way back west to Bala and then back east again to finish at Castle Caereinion. We also have to find the Bwlch Y Groes lookout point in pitch dark.
We did Bangor and Llanarmon Dyffryn Ceiriog, and started making our way west to Bala. At Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant it's getting distinctly dusky and we asked a young couple if we are on the right road for Bala. We are but they're not too encouraging about taking the road (B4391) at night on a bike (no mobile coverage apparently). The B4391 road quickly rose up as it is cut into the sides of the hills on the way to Bala. It was quite a buzz looking down into the valleys with the sun setting in the background. After what seemed quite a while and with the light almost gone it was nice to see the globe street lighting of Bala ahead of us.
The dragon stop at Bala was the white water centre where we had to determine the type of butterfly on the billboard in the car park. Unfortunately it was around 21:00 when we got there and it was closed. Undeterred we parked up and clambered over the gate and with torch in hang netted the butterfly. I think the people inside chose to ignore the eccentrics creeping around their car park shining torches at their billboard. It made us chuckle to see another bike arriving as we were leaving.
We made our way along Bala lake in the dark to the penultimate stop at Llangywair which thankfully was easy enough to find. Then it was back east to the last stop. We found ourselves in the middle of a moor on a gavel and sheep strewn barely made up single-track road. There was nothing in sight. If we came off I wondered how long we would be beside the road before someone found us. Always the optimist me!
Now I would have gone straight past the Bwlch Y Groes lookout point. I don't know how Chris spotted it but she did and tapped me on the shoulder to stop. I lined up the bike's headlight on the billboard and Chris read the answer we needed. We obviously disturbed some people as the light came on in a 4x4 we had missed. I wonder what they were up to?
After what seemed to be miles of single-tracked road and sheep we came across what we now know to be Lake Vyrnwy, which also seemed to go on forever. It was definitely a strange feeling to be riding around at night without seeing any houses for quite a while. Eventually we come across a town and made our way to the finish at Castle Caereinion.
I think it was about 22:30 when we got to the finish. The special test for the platinum award was a timed changing of a sparkplug. Not that easy when your hands are still shaking from riding several hundred miles. When it was all done, we had the usual end of rally meal and I bought a couple of rally t-shirts (as I always do).
We left Castle Caereinion and headed north to the Wrexham Travelodge with the intention of doing a few more RBR landmarks the following day, Sunday. We managed the Bangor on Dee, Nantwich and Melverley landmarks but decided to give the Wirral landmarks a miss owing to a weather warning of very heavy rain for that day. After the Melverley landmark we headed south and home on the A49 from Shrewsbury. That's when the monsoon started and kept going for the rest of the day. Damp and cold we took refuge in the Cirencester Travelodge for the night. We made it back to Corfe Mullen the next morning.
We found the Welsh quite challenging, probably because of my poor route planning, and it was quite a sense of achievement to finish this year. Especially given my defeatism at Elan Valley and Chris spotting the Bwlch Y Groes lookout point in pitch darkness. We must have done well on the questions at the manned stops as we came 7th overall. (We would have been best Welsh entrant this year if we had been Welsh.) Once again, a big thanks goes to Clive for putting on the Welsh National. It's well organised and fun to do. Maybe the organisers of the English National should have a word with them to see how it's done?