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An impromptu Wales trip this weekend, saw a rack on ebay and bid on it (once again for silly money...:p) anyway won it "for collection only" Neil (Badger) was kind enough to collect it for me, that ment I had a bit more time rather than shooting up to Mold and collecting it myself.

So come Saturday morning I collect up my camping gear from the AR (No it hadn't made it to the shed yet) and stuff it all in my old rucksack, bungy it to the bike and off I go, nice and sunny to start with, but that became overcast by mid morning and I passed under the darkest clouds I'd seen in a while at one point, fortunately they didn't open up on me, a couple of very light showers were all I suffered, but I'd stuck my waterproofs on by then anyway, so no harm'

I made my way on B roads to just outside Andover and then turned North, skirting Swindon and onto the forst of Dean for a little playtime, from there I followed the boarder on the English side up to Kington, crossing there into Wales, bit more playing on some wonderful roads (Mostly single track with passing places, brilliant stuff), I always feel I've suddenly gone dyslexic and spend at least the first half hour mumbling under my breath pronunciation attempts and some of the place names (I'm sure they are just having a laugh at the English's expense and some of these aren't real words anyway, who puts 5 G's in a name ?), again a bit more playing brings me to Rhayader and onto the Elan valley, from there I take the mountain road to Aberystwth, grab a late lunch in a cafe and on to the snowdonia national park, taking any road that looks wiggly and narrow basically, great fun, at about 7pm the heavens open and the breeze turns into a horizontal sheet of water, proper steroids stuff, at one point I come head to head witha ford well flooded out two and a half feet at least, so feet up by the tank; I use the "go for it" method, which worked a treat....:), the Pegaso handle everything without missing a beat, a couple more hours and I'm tired and hungrey, so I head for the campsite just outside Betws-y-coed.

it's still raining hard when I get there, but when it comes to camping I'm a well oiled machine, 11 minutes to get the tent up and my stuff squared away, off down to town to grab a meal in the pub, only the one pint as more riding tomorrow, back to site a hot shower and off to my pit, it hammered down all night, I woke early (About 5AM), had a brew (makes so much difference having your own brew makings when you camp), at about 5.45 the rain eased up some, so I took the plunge, as I had packed everything inside already the tent was struck in about 10 minutes or so, all back on the bike, and off once again, done the mountains, with the aim of turning up at Neil's for about 9 am, however I got to Conway at nearer 7, far to early for a Sunday morning I thought, so brain wave, Beth heard loads of stories of me and my brothers as children going around the welsh castles, so I thought I'd get some photos of the first ever castle Mum & Dad ever took us to see, Harlech castle here I come....., I get there and although it brings back all the good times we had there, the weather isn't playing and it's misty, so no pictures, which was a shame.

I set off back north and stop in a carpark for a brew from my kit, Neil txt'd me about meeting up at Pete's eats, so we both head that way, meet in the car park and set about afixing the rack and box to the bike, the it's me who's gagging for a brew and food, so we both go over to the cafe, 2 x fryup and big brews please, we natter about bikes and stuff and breakfast arrives, decent one as well, more talk when we're back at the vehicles (Neil came in his car), then off for petrol, I was going to follow him back to my turn off, but got sidetracked by a nice Healey 3000 and followed that for a quick look, then took a wiggly road down to the A5, a bit drizzly but mostly grey and dry, wonderful flowing road the A5 up there; soon saw me heading to Shropshire and the boarder again, low and behold, the sun comes out as I approach the "welcome to England" sign.

Over to Matlock avoiding as many big roads as I can, stop for a brew from a van in a layby and give a mate a call, he'll meet me in Matlock, a while later I'm there no sign of my mate, a quick ring, finds his bike won't start, oh well, after a bacon butty I set off south, once again satnav set to avoid major roads after a few more hours I come out near Royal Leamington Spa, I hit the M40 for a blat down to London, 90 miles later I'm sat at the ace for one last brew before the final kick home, it's beautiful sunshine and the bike and me just flow through the Sunday traffic as if I had my own lane, pull up to the house and park, rucksack off, and indoors and relax, 33 hours and a little over 900 miles, a good weekend.

Cheers Mark.