Welsh National Rally; May 2017
Obscure Clues and Circling the Great Orme
This is the story of my 2017 Welsh National Rally (or how I spent a Saturday afternoon at Llandudno).
This year Steve and I booked into the Premier at Oswestry so on Friday 5th May I left home around noon and headed off there. The weather was pretty good if a bit windy, especially on the Severn bridge. Instead of taking the A49 I decided to stay further west in Wales and go via Builth Wells, Newtown and Welshpool. The extra 25 miles were worth it as it's a much better route avoiding the car park known as Hereford. A very nice ride up. I arrived around 5 PM and met up with Steve for a few beers and a curry.
I was going to take an anti-clockwise northern route but when I read the instructions and found out that the start time was 7:30 AM I realised that I would get to the first manned control at Ruthin before it was open so I reversed the route and went clockwise instead. (Some who didn't read the instructions were disappointed at the start to find the rest of us gone.) Steve and I got away around 7:30 AM. There was a bit of drizzle at the start but this soon dried up and it was mainly dry for the rest of the day albeit overcast, cold and quite windy.
The first leg was a long one to Aberangell. After a further three controls and a dragon I was at the Harlech manned control just after 10 AM where I had a pleasant break. Then it was a control and a dragon and I was at the Caernarfon manned control. It was really early so I had a pasty and watched the aircraft get blown around as they landed at the airport there. (I may not have stayed so long if I had realised what was to come at Llandudno.) The weather sock was horizontal but there was no crosswind as I watched a Piper approach the runway. The wind was so strong it looked like it was hovering. Oh yes, I got told off by a stern guy with a pit bull at the CMC control for entering the car park via the exit and for not having my bike registration on my card. With a final warning to not exit via the entry he let me off.
A few more controls and things were going very well timewise. Then I got to the Pehrhyn Bay - Llandudno conurbation looking for a Presbyterian church and a dragon. I eventually found the church using my satnav to locate the given road. I was then off to Llandudno where I followed signs for the Great Orme. When I got to the Great Orme there were motorcyclists going all ways across it and it dawned on me that this one wasn't going to be easy. I went to the top to the visitor centre but the large visitor board there told me nothing about a gunnery school. So off I went to the visitor shop where there was an old dear serving. I waited patiently in line to ask her about the gunnery school. When I got to the front she got out a piece of paper with a list of what she had sold that day and started to tot it up. She was focussed on the task to the exclusion of everything else but she kept getting it wrong and having to start again. Unable to get her attention, I decided to cut my loses and I left none the wiser. As I wound my way around the Great Orme, I came across a cafe which I went into to ask about the gunnery school. The lady serving there thought about it and told me the gunnery school was a bit further on so off I went. I didn't come across anything to do with the gunnery school and eventually I was back in Llandudno where I asked a few locals if they knew anything about a gunnery school. None did. Then it was back to the Great Orme. At the tram station I approached a guy unloading passengers. He was very helpful and told me where a gunnery school plaque was located (I had missed it on my last Great Orme circuit). He mentioned that there was also the possibility of getting to the gunnery school via Millionaires’ Row. So it was back on the Great Orme circuit again. I came across the plaque where he said it would be. With mounting excitement I read through the text on the plaque but disappointingly there was no mention of a famous great uncle. Further on there was also no access to it via Milionaire's Row. Feeling a bit despondent I stopped to chat with a group of similarly bemused comrades. We eventually sussed out that Lewis Carroll was the famous great uncle. Now I have to say that with the Dragon theme being about all things military, I thought that Lewis Carroll having a grand nephew at a little known gunnery school on the Great Orme was bit of a stretch. Perhaps the question could have been better worded (or the theme changed to children's novelists)?
The plan was to get a Platinum but I realised that I had wasted a load of time at Llandudno looking for the gunnery school. I still needed to get to my final manned control at Ruthin before 6 PM and I was thinking it was going to be tight as it was now getting on for 4 PM with 4 controls on the way to Ruthin. I contemplated missing out the last control before Ruthin and going back for it after I got to Ruthin. In the end I just went for all 4 controls and made it to Ruthin around 5:20 PM so all was well.
After Ruthin, I had 3 controls and a dragon at Llanfyllin to finish off. What could be easier that to find 13 murals, presumably on a wall, of Napoleonic prisoners? Turned out to be a little blue plaque which mentioned the murels inside the house it was attached to. It could be me but I defintely wasn't on the same wavelength as the guy who set the dragon questions!
As always, the hard work that Clive put into the Rally is really appreciated. The meal back at the clubhouse didn't disappoint. Many thanks to Clive. I can laugh about the Llandudno dragon now but it did mess it up for me a bit so I wouldn't say this was my most enjoyable Welsh Rally. Back at Oswestry later on and Steve and I go through the rally over a few beers. He had the same issues at Llandudno. I ride back to Dorset through Wales on Sunday. Great Welsh roads and bright sunshine. Lovely!