Trip to Wales – Snowdonia & the Brecons – 12th to 15th September 2024

Keith, David & I met up at Thickthorm MacDonald’s about 9 am the morning of Thursday 12th and opted to take the easy – if rather boring – A11 / A14 / M6 up North. The weather was kind to us all day.

We also opted to stick to the original M6, because then we were able to truly appreciate the elevated levels of congestion and pollution, to say nothing of much inferior road surface compared to the M6 Toll.

That stretch of the M6 was definitely the only bad part of our 200 mile journey, but hey, we saved that £4.70 toll !

The Crewe Arms Hotel is actually in Keele in Cheshire , so just a few short miles off the M6. Very easy to recommend: dated but very clean, everything worked, lovely staff, great breakfast – all for £60. We walked the mile or so down to the rather picturesque village of Madely for a pint (Joules, very local and very good) in the Six Bells and a pretty good curry in the very smart but rather sadly empty Mishu Indian restaurant.

Saturday’s was an epic ride: Keele to Colwyn Bay to Bangor with a look at Anglesey. David then led down to the spectacular Llanberis Pass well into Snowdonia.

We stopped for a break around Bedgellert then went on to Dolgellau, then I led down to Machynlleth and on to the Devil’s Bridge.

And again, the weather was great! Keith then led us to our Hotel in Llandrindod Wells via fifteen fabulous miles of isolated lanes with sheep all over the place!

I was unwell and feeling knackered, especially when we had some difficulty finding our Hampton Hotel – and getting our bikes in and out of their storage shed that had about a quarter of a million quid’s worth of bikes parked up for the night! We wandered round to a pizza house for our supper, popped out for a beer in the rather dodgy Log Cabin, then back to Gino’s where we had an interesting chat with the barmaid – when she’d let us get a word in. The Hampton actually turned out to be rather better than we’d expected, with more good beer

Next morning I felt very rough and sent David and Kevin off on their own rather than be a liability, and they immediately went back through the beautiful Elan Valley to explore the reservoirs and dams

I bimbled off to catch up with an old mate down in Bronllys, then crossed the river Wye and went to explore the town of Brecon itself,.

Brecon seemed busy so I decided to head West for Llandovery. I called Keith & David as I was about to leave and, by some strange coincidence, they were just about to set off for for Llandovery too! We met up there for lunch in the West End café, then headed south-west then south-east to the lower side of the Brecon Beacons, then back north-east through the heart of the hills to rejoin the A40 at Sennybridge.

From Sennybridge it was a pretty straightforward bolt eastwards back through Brecon and Abergevenny to Raglan, south to Newport, then east again just a few miles to our Hotel in Magor. The Ty Magor is a very modern and smart hotel – feels like a Holiday Inns sort of place – but we had a disappointing linguine pasta meal in their nearby Sawyers Bar & Grill – avoid!

In the morning we left a bit late – the hotel had screwed up our billing, and we’re still trying to sort it out with Booking.com – so again decideded to take an easy (lazy) route home along the M4 to the M25 orbital car park, then back home up the M11, A14 and A11.

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