The Last Trip!!!!

This was going to be my last trip to finish my photo’s for the 2006 Round Britain Rally but things don’t always go to plan, I was left with 18 photo’s to do one of them was a re-visit to the Packhorse Bridge over Horner Water.
{We had done this one on the summer holiday trip, when we got there the wife went for a cream tea and we went to take the photo but we used the wrong bridge it turned out there were four bridges around the village of Horner, but the cream tea was just great}.

The plan was to use the Reliant for this trip starting after I finished work on Friday, but on the way to do Papplewick pumping station I found that the head gasket was starting to fail so the photo was taken at the pumping station and I made my way home, all was not lost, I would use the Goldwing and hope the weather would stay fine for the trip, and do Wales first. So I planned to get away at 4-00 in the morning on Saturday well it was nearer 5-00 when I did get going, it was a fine morning but there was a very cold mist around Manchester. On the way to Flint I needed two trips round the town to find the way into the station car park. The next on the list was the Sportsman's Arms this was a very nice run in the early morning sun and no traffic on the roads. The sat nav was spot on at the next place Capel Curig and the Ugly House not a good name for it as I think it looks very nice in the setting with all the trees around it. But pressing on the next, Llangaffo and the Preaching Cross on Anglesey as you can see you could put the cross and the bike in one photo and a lot of RBR’s did this. As well as leaving my RBR card by the cross, well I think that was 4 or 5 cards around the country that I have left over the years doing the RBR now. The next bit is onto Corris, little did I know but things were about to go very wrong, on the A4085 to Bedgelert I came round a left hander to find a bike broken down.

It being out in the wilds of Wales I decided to see if I could help, just as I stopped, I put my foot down to find there was a ditch so the bike went over, four people and five minutes later it was back on it wheels with a bent crash bar and a small piece of plastic broken, [these Honda's have strong clutch levers Jim] well after a dust down and a drink I continued onto Corris and the Alfred William Hughes Memorial. On most days you could drive past this one, but it was still a nice day and after a short break it was onto Tan-y-groes and the Internal Fire Museum of Power. This was a 60 mile run, when I got there it was shortly before closing and I had to make Pembroke before dark, around 7pm at this time of year. So just time for one more at Pembroke the Chieftain Tank and Propeller, for this one I had help it was in a super market car park after a trip round Tesco cark park I found it in the Asda car park, good job there was only two super markets I think the Propeller came from a Sunderland Flying boat that sank in Pembroke dock in a gale in 2WW, and TV made a documentary how they found the Flying Boat. By the time I got this done it was 6-00 and in one hour it would be dark, now to find a camp site.

Camp sites are a bit hard to find in this part of Wales, it was late and almost dark when I found a camp site at St Clears [Ant Hill] asking the price £14-00 per night I don’t think he wanted a biker on his site and I could have got 4 nights on a Camping Club of GB Site for what I got charged for 1, so after putting up the tent up I went to St Clears for some food, the village was packed out as there was a fair was on. The Chinese take away owners had gone on holiday and it was shut, so it was a sandwich from the One Stop Shop, the family that run it were very helpful. Next day I was up and away by 8-00 before he could charge me to take the tent down, next on the list was the Limekilns at Llandybie this was found by riding round town till I could see it, I think this is one of the biggest things we have had to take a photo of, some people found two more lime kilns but I was short of time and this was the one that Dave wanted. Then a trip on the M4 to the Wheel of Drams these Welsh Valleys are nice and all different and all bear the mark of their coal mining history, and this is a way of marking their history, makes a change from the pit wheel. Next was Runston Chapel and the shooting range, I found the range easily and it looked a good place to park the bike in the their car park. I went in and asked if it was ok to go to the Chapel and would they show me where it was, they asked if I would like a tea when we got back from taking the photo’s his son took me to the chapel and back, a very nice guy he said 2 years ago it was covered with weeds and he had cleared it so it could be seen. The next bit was a long run to Horner and that bridge for the 2nd visit this year and the right bridge I could have used a long shot from the tea rooms that I took on the 1st visit. There were 3 more bridges near this one there was 1 up the track by the tea rooms this was too wide for a pack horse bridge and that goes for the 1 on the road into the village and the pack horse bridge to its right these 2 bridges were not in Horner. Next after logging in with the GPS it was going to be a long run to the next one at Eastleach. A 122 miles long run on the M5 and M4 but when I got there I had to wait a bit till the farmer had got his cow away [it had done a runner from the farm] so I could take the photo, as I wanted fuel now as I had followed the sat nav to this location.

I had to ask two locals if they could show me on the map where I was and which way to get some fuel. After getting that sorted I was on my way home with just 5 locations left to do. By the time I had got home I had done 866 miles in total, but they say that's what the Goldwing was made for.