Wales; July 2024
Gallery and Video
Ride
I like to have a ride to Wales each year as I still feel it offers some of the best motorcycling roads in Europe. So for this year I planned a route through Wales to take in some of my favourite roads and the Welsh Carpe Diems. A three day trip, Monday 29th July to Wednesday 31st July, with a couple of overnight stops along the way. These days I plan on doing around 200 miles a day. Another heat wave started the day I set off with temperatures of 30+ C forecast for my three day trip. It was definitely the weather to be wearing my Alpinstars mesh jacket and pants.
The first three stops were all Carpe Diems, Fowlers of Bristol, Aberdare Park and M&P Direct at Swansea. I didn’t look forward to this bit as it involved the M4, a lot of dual carriageway and the omnipresent and recently introduced 20 mph speed limits. It’s fair to say it wasn’t a pleasant ride. There were roadworks on the Severn bridge which meant huge traffic jams leaving Bristol. The M4 was very busy with traffic coming to a standstill around Cardiff. On top of this, there were many roadworks and the blanket rollout of 20 mph speed limits is ridiculous (in my opinion). However, things looked up when I took the Black Mountains Pass (A4069) to Llandovery but even here they’ve installed 40 mph average speed cameras. Nice road with lovely views. The man who served me an ice cream at the lookout point halfway along told me the local lads get around the average speed cameras by having a break at the lookout point.
At Llandovery I stopped at the West End Café, another Carpe Diem, and from there rode on to my overnight stop at Sennybridge, The White House. I spent a very pleasant and comfortable night there. The owners were welcoming, the food was good, the decor eclectic and, most importantly, the bike was parked up safely. It was a nice evening so after dinner I took a short ride up to Usk Reservoir to walk off my dinner.
If riding along South Wales on Monday was a bit tortuous, Tuesday made up for it. It was a great day’s riding along some of my favourite Welsh roads. While Dorset was baking in 30+ C temperatures it was more a comfortable 22 - 25 C where I was. My first two stops were Carpe Diems at Bronllys and Crossgates which I rode between by way of Hundred House. Not the direct route but I had been told that the road from Builth Wells to Hundred House was good and so it turned out. I rode from Crossgates to Rhayader and then took the minor road that goes through Elan to Devil’s Bridge, my next Carpe Diem.
From Devil’s Bridge I rode to Llanidloes. The road from Llanidloes to Llanbrynmair via Staylittle is a favourite of mine. A fast sweeping road that goes past Clywedog Reservoir. After that I headed for Snowdonia passing through Machynlleth and Dolgellau. At Trawsfynydd I turned East and took the A4212 towards Bala. I turned off just before Bala and took the B4501 and a bit of the A5 to Cerrigydrudion. Then it was the indirect route via the B5105 to Horseshoe Pass and the Ponderosa Café, my next Carpe Diem. It was a lovely ride, light traffic on nice roads.
As I was taking my Carpe Diem photo at the Ponderosa Café there was a loud crash behind me. It was a sorry sight. An elderly couple had fallen off their Suzuki doing a slow turn in the car park. The pillion passenger was an amputee below the knee and she was in some pain on the floor. We picked up their bike and it took her quite a bit of time to recover. She was sore but OK. The Suzuki was a tall bike and unfortunately he was a small guy doing a slow turn on an adverse camber. He was very shamefaced and, unfortunately for him, he did it in a very public place. I know the feeling, having broken a collar bone while dropping my bike in a Little Chef car park.
My next stop was the Old Stores Motorbike Café at Pontblyddyn, another Carpe Diem. Then it was on to Oswestry for my overnight stop at the Wynnstay Hotel. Another comfortable stopover. I used to use Premier Inns a lot but I’ve found they’re getting a tad expensive. For less money I can find good hotels with a bit more character on booking.com where you get a good breakfast thrown in.
On Wednesday morning I left Oswestry and made my way home. It was quite a nice ride on some Shropshire minor roads, the A49 and the A466 to Monmouth. I swear the temperature went up 5 C as I crossed the Severn into England. The bike’s thermometer told me it was 31 C. I got home around 2 pm after riding around 680 miles over the three days. A very enjoyable trip and another 10 Carpe Diems bagged.