Wanderung 25

Fall Follies

August - September 2011


 

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Sunday, August 21st, 2011: Drive from Criccieth to Cilmery

Bob:

We sadly packed our bags, said good-bye to Ambrose the hotel cat, had a last breakfast at the Lion, paid our bill, and trundled our luggage out to the car. As much as we had enjoyed our stay in Criccieth, it was time to move down further into Wales and see what the rest of the country looked like. We stopped off at the Tesco in Porthmadog as it was on our route to the South and we knew we needed some of their ready-made sandwiches, baked potato chips, and drinks to take along. They also sold petrol at £ 1.33 per liter (about $8 per gallon), which was the cheapest we had seen, so we filled up before heading on.

Monika:

Today was the day to move our base of operations from the North of Wales to the middle farther south. I was curious where we would end up since I had picked the B&B strictly by customer recommendations on the bookings.com website. After plugging in the co-ordinates for the place, the GPS told us that it would take about 2 hours to drive 95 miles. After a taking some last pictures out of the window and another good breakfast we packed our bags, said good bye to Ambrose, the hotel cat, and checked out. For once a place took credit cards and so we did not have to get enough cash from the ATM machines, only hand over a piece of plastic.

We stopped at Tesco to stock up on some essentials, and were surprised that at about 9:45 the store was open, but the cash registered would not open until 10:00 AM. Well we waited around for 15 minutes and then checked out, filled up the car, and were on our way.

Bob:

We had to do quite a bit of driving (about 100 miles) and it was pretty slow going. It became even slower when my GPS "guided" us onto some twisty tertiary roads. Just like in Ireland during Wanderung 24, the GPS assumed that I really could drive 60 mph on the tertiary roads and since they were slightly shorter than the major highways, the GPS chose them for the fastest route.

That machine-based logic was, of course, in reality complete bogus. On tertiary roads I was lucky to get over 30 mph because of the sharp bends, blind hills, and pavement that deteriorated to the point of losing even the center stripe painted down the middle. However, the actual road surface never narrowed to one and a half lanes like it had done back in the Lake District, and that, coupled with the lack of the stone walls on either side, gave me and the oncoming traffic just enough space to slowly pass without risking a fender bash. So I had to drive quite slowly, but the driving itself was far more relaxing than my first week in the Lake District.

Monika:

For the first 15 miles, the road paralleled the railroad line we had taken the day before, only it was much farther down in the valley. But the views of the grass fields in the rolling hillsides were just as appealing. The weather was changeable. At first it was cloudy and even started to rain a little, but then the sun did peek out ever now and then.

The GPS played another one of its little tricks on me. It sent us down a minor road, since it was shorter than the major road and had the same laughable 60 mph speed limit. Of course, on the major road Bob almost made it up to 50 mph, but on this road, that started out as two narrow lanes with a center stripe but lost its center stripe, he barely kept it at 30 mph. So it was no time saving for us. The road had many fewer cars than the main highway, but a lot more motorcycles enjoying the curves, and it was really quite nice. An interesting facet was that the hedges, thank God not made out of stone, were trimmed to about 4 feet height and branched out above that, as if the cars coming by had sheared off the lower branches. Whether this was cut on purpose or happened by accident, I cannot say.

Bob:

The countryside shifted as we crossed from the lower part of the Snowdonia National Park to the more southerly sections of Wales. After seeing some rather steep, stark, and bald mountains rearing their heads above narrow valleys in the first part of our drive, we gradually saw more hills with fields and pastures working their way completely up the slopes. The countryside looked more prosperous and settled as we traveled South and it gave a more friendly albeit less striking impression.

Although it stayed cloudy throughout the drive, the skies were gradually clearing during the day. In fact, the sprinkles of rain we experienced at the beginning completely stopped and the sun peeked out a bit when we halted for lunch at a large dam after about two hours of driving. We split a ham and cheese sandwich and some of the potato chips we had purchased earlier at Tesco, so it was a pretty satisfying snack if not a lunch.

Monika:

After 10 miles on this road, we came to a reservoir and just beyond the dam I saw a sign for a parking area. Well, we both could do with a rest, Bob in particular since he had been driving steadily for almost two hours on these curving roads. There even was a picnic table, and we had a little snack. Then we walked over to the dam to take pictures of the reservoir. After we got back to main road, I vowed to pay closer attention and not let the GPS lead me onto another minor road.

Bob:

After a final hour of driving we arrived at our B&B in Pwllgwilym just outside of the booming hamlet of Cilmery. I was surprised to see a bunch of vans and trucks with motorcycle trailers parked in the "front 40" field of our B&B, and our genial host informed me that their was an antique motorcycle trials event being held in the area that day. That was interesting but our first order of business after moving into our beautiful big, sparkling white, spick and span room was to walk over the Cilmery to a local pub for lunch. Although it was not listed on their menu, they were willing to cook us each a jacket potato filled with baked beans and cheese.

Monika:

An hour later we reached the little hamlet of Cilmery and found the B&B, another farm, at the end of a lane that went through a meadow where a lot of vans were parked. The host and hostess were right there and showed us a beautiful large room that looked awfully comfortable. We found out that the vans that were parked in the meadow belonged to people that were taking part in a motorbike scramble for motorcycles that were made before 1965. Bob was all ears [Bob: A quite true, if a bit unkind, observation!] and hoped we would get a chance to see those bikes.

But first we decided to have a bite to eat at the local pub and take a little walk. The jacket potatoes we had were more expensive than any we had before and not really as good, oh well.

Bob:

After lunch we wandered around the lanes surrounded Cilmery, and hit enough dead ends and blind alleys that we were convinced of the usefulness of having one of the Ordnance Survey maps with us during our rambles. Fortunately our B&B had a whole boatload of local information available among which was a beautiful Ordnance Survey map of the area (#388).

Monika:

But the walk was fun. We passed by the local train station and walked to the local church. Bob had hoped he would find a shortcut across the fields back to our B&B, but such was not the case. So we just walked back watching in awe as a rare red kite was flying over us. It was a large raptor that resembled an American osprey. After we returned, I brewed us a cup of coffee and a cup of tea and we put our feet up for a bit.

Bob:

But after some coffee and biscuits I saw and heard the trials motorcycles starting to return to the field, so we grabbed the camera and walked over to see the old bikes. The bikes were mostly of the pre-1965 era, and since that is when I started to drive motorcycles many of the brand names like "Triumph" and "Ariel" were familiar to me. Others were not, possibly because they had been just local English brands, but they were all very classy (and very muddy after the race!) bikes.

That was enough excitement for the day for me. I posted some of the bike pictures on facebook because I had promised the gentlemen I would do so, and then we had dinner and rested and read for the rest of the evening.

Monika:

When we saw through the window that the motorcycles were returning, we walked back up the lane and Bob go to photograph and drool over them to his heart's delight. But that was about all I was up for except maybe a little more writing, reading, and relaxing.



Copyright 2012 by R. W. Holt and E. M. Holt


 

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