Wales 2 - England 2 & Everywhere Else Nil. And A Bit Of Cycling Too!
Hello from Shropshire, and we are back home. As I write this, I am sitting in the man shed watching the 100 cricket, and I still don’t know why they have this format when they have the 20/20, which I do enjoy watching. Maybe I will know better later this evening when it’s finished.
On Saturday we stopped at a lovely little campsite for 2 nights, a ten-minute walk from the village of Cynwyd, near to Corwen up in north Wales. It’s been a while since I wrote anything, simply because since returning from Europe we just haven’t stopped, and one of the reasons is in the title. We came home from Europe and were home for 6 nights before heading off up into northwest Wales, one of our favourite areas in the UK.
Back home in Shropshire we lasted another 6 nights before heading back to the coast area, onto a lovely little campsite just outside Penrhyndeudraeth, called Blaen Cefn Caravan Park, yet another quirky small site where many of the pitches seem to be seasonal; there were many permanent-looking travelling caravans (no statics) with awnings and furniture and plants, and some looking very good too.
Two visits and spot the difference?
Then we found this lovely site to stop on our way home. It’s called Felin Uchaf Camping and Caravan Park, and it's yet another quirky little adult-only site, with, would you believe, only 10 pitches. I believe the busier it is, the harder it is to join the Wi-Fi, as on our pitch at the bottom of the site, I got hooked up on my laptop and phone late morning, and I couldn’t connect to either when the site was full the night before, but with guests leaving during the morning, all is good. And after two delicious bacon and egg rolls, prepared by the co-pilot, washed down with a nice black coffee, there I was all ready to go home.
Since first coming here, my wife and I have loved the area; most of the people are friendly, and I say that as when we were in a pub in Penrhyndeudraeth (Penrhyn,) a visiting Englishman was at the bar, and he spoke to a local man, who totally ignored him! Maybe the guy did that with everyone; I have no idea. But when I was out one afternoon having a couple of beers in Shifnal. and having important ‘me time,’ someone I didn’t want to speak to approached me and started talking, but then I didn’t want to speak to anyone. I politely pointed out that I needed to be on my own with my beer, something we are obviously allowed to do, and the guy who approached me was okay with it. But in the pub, the local guy said nothing.
I find the people in this area are quite passionate, and there is nothing wrong with that. They are passionate about being Welsh; they speak Welsh as their first-choice language, and personally I find it good to hear. It was like touring France, trying to speak French or use the app, and people communicated. I must admit I haven’t learned any Welsh yet, but I believe the Celtic connection also helps. I start speaking with my Scottish accent, and a connection is made; after all we are both supposed to not like the English! I just don’t tell them that my wife is English until about 5 minutes into the conversation!
Because they are passionate, I can understand why they must get fed up with people from other areas of the country coming to live in their towns; it is an unfortunate part of today’s society, but young locals seem to leave quite early in their lives, as one local lady told me, and without the arrival of ‘outsiders,’ I believe many towns would be more like ghost towns, you would be surprised at how many non-Welsh accents we hear. But it seems some don’t want to accept it, and again that is their prerogative.
With this exception, which I personally thought was quite rude, as mentioned, I find the people are very friendly, and they have been good to us. People living here are from all over the country, although I am the only Scottish person I have spoken to – yes, I do speak to myself quite often!
If you have read some of my motorhome stories, you will know that when we were in Europe, I found the roads in much better condition than the UK. Now driving in Wales, I have noticed how good their roads are compared to England's, but being honest, it does only seem to be the A-class roads, yet they are used by so many vehicles, and still they are in good condition!
If the white lines are anything to go by, this is all they could find to repair - take note Shropshire Council!
I travelled on a B-class road from near Llanfor to the village of Cynwyd, where the campsite is, and the B4401 was not great, I must admit, so I can’t say Wales is perfect, but then I couldn’t say France, Italy, or Switzerland were perfect either, but what I do know is their main roads are all a lot, lot better than those in England. I had to assume it was something that the Europeans were doing that made roads and driving so much better, yet it is only on this trip, after visiting Europe, that I realised how good the main roads in Wales are; in fact I should say ‘we’ because the co-pilot noticed it too.
Photos 1 & 2 - how did they get them there?
But let’s talk West Wales, because it is a beautiful part of the country; you have mountains five minutes away from the coast, and the drive through to the west coast from Shrewsbury is absolutely lovely.
Being Scottish, there are lovely parts of month beforemy country too, but being from the south, I believe the scenery over in west Wales is nicer than my homeland. Sorry, South Scotland; that’s not very patriotic, but I’m just being honest. No wonder the Welsh are passionate about being Welsh and maybe annoyed by the so-called intruders living there!
We decided when we were in Europe that we needed to make more use of the motorhome, and much of that will be done in Wales; it is so nice, especially when we find such nice little campsites that we found on this and our last trip!
I think we will be back later this month, before heading to Peebles on the first weekend in September, returning to the town I called home – Peebles. Every year they have a roads-closed cycling event, from Peebles down to Moffat and round to St Mary’s Loch. Through Traquair and by passing the settlement of Cardrona, where my parents lived before moving back into Peebles and their sheltered housing. Strangely enough, with my dad being a shepherd all his life, the last shepherding job he had was on land where their flat was built at Cardrona! Quite ironic that they lived on land where he had last worked, doing a job he loved.
The cycle is lovely and back to beautiful scenery. Cycling down over the Devils Beef Tub does rival driving into west Wales. If I wanted to I believe I could freewheel approximately 5/6 miles from the summit into Moffat town. It would be a slow freewheel but I think I could do it. And another beautiful part of the British Ilses.
Admittedly, if we have come down, we must go back up, and the climbs on the way back are testing. I have done this route twice, a slightly different route one year, and I have also done the Etape Loch Ness, which has a 5-mile ascent out of Fort Augustus heading up the east side of the loch, and I have yet to get off my bike, which at my age does make me feel quite good, that is until I get overtaken by someone of a similar age on a single-gear bike. But when I did Loch Ness, I did cycle part of the way with a dodgy-looking monster.
The dodgy-looking monster, though I did smile when a local shouted out, 'there's a dinosaur,’ remember it was round Loch Ness!
So I need to get some hill practice in starting tomorrow, or I will have to get off and walk this year. But we can combine cycling and motorhoming, and I hope to write much more about my cycling stories and opinions at a later date.
Meanwhile, I can’t really give you many more motrohoming tips except one. Don’t necessarily get fold-down equipment; get fold-away equipment instead. After having fold down tables and other furniture for two years, we made the change after Europe, and it was definitely worthwhile. We have gone from fold-down recliners to ones that fold away into a bag, and it makes a massive difference to your storage capabilities. Here’s an example, and we also did the same with our main outside eating table!
Timber Ridge - this is the one we got, and you can see what I mean. Not quite proportional, but you get my drift?
That’s me for now.
Thanks for reading
DJ
