Ten cars met up at Sarn Park Services on M4 Junction 36 for our last run of 2004. The weather was fabulous; bright and sunny, dry and still but pretty cold.
We drove down through Bridgend and Ewenny before taking our first stop at Ogmore-By-Sea just for a quick stretch of the leg and coffee for those who were well prepared enough to have brought flasks. After about 20 minutes, it was on towards Southerndown then on to Wick before heading off toward Barry.
The drive took a turn down through Sully and then on to Cosmeston Lakes where we stopped for a longer break with everyone calling in to the cafe for hot drinks. Whilst we were at Cosmeston, a group of people were racing radio-controlled yachts on the lake. This was a lot more exciting that it might sound and their skill in using the available wind was pretty impressive. I was just about to lead the group on to the next leg of the journey when I noticed Maureen and Bram coming out of the lake area towards their car (oops!), so once we were all ready, it was off towards Penarth and then on to the Cardiff Bay area.
My intention was that we would park up near the brand new Millennium Arts Centre in the Bay, but we were beaten to it by another group of slightly less important people who were there first. HM the Queen was coming to town that evening to officially open the centre and many of the roads around it were closed. We were able to sweep past pretty close by and the exterior of the building is pretty impressive. Then we set off towards our last stop before lunch.
A short drive from the Bay we finally all managed to arrive at Victoria Park Mazda in Hadfield Road for a look at all the shiny new cars there. One of the sales staff, Chris, was very welcoming, but as I had arranged the visit at pretty short notice, there was nothing really planned to happen whilst we were there. Many of our group were quite taken with the Arctic version on display and some even liked the dark blue model with a silver hard top (not to my liking). Once we'd all had our fill of car gazing, it was off for another kind of fill
The last leg of the journey was up towards Culverhouse Cross and then off through the lanes to St. Fagans. We then continued along through Groes Faen and Miskin before ending up at the Woodhouse Restaurant in Coedcae lane near Talbot Green for a sunday lunch at 2 O'clock.
The food was good, but the staff a bit unhelpful. Everyone seemed to enjoy the meal which was our last item of the day because I had arranged that we would all go our separate ways afterwards.
All in all it was a nice day out with various points of interest and an early finish so we could all get back before dark and with some of the day left to spare. That arrangement seemed to be quite a good way to do things in the Autumn/Winter so I may suggest that all our runs at this time are done in that way.
We're all looking forward to Christmas and The New Year with two events still to come for the club in South Wales; the visit to Llancaiach Fawr on December 8th and our Christmas Lunch on Sunday 12th. So I look forward to seeing many of you then.
Hi Ho Silver