Sunday morning arrived, those clouds didn't look promising but no worries the forecast was good. Drove to our start point at Asda in Merthyr
and the question on my lips was 'why are we driving through monsoon conditions?'.
We all (37 in total, see mistake no 2) took shelter in Asda reception area from the rain causing a certain amount of consternation on the part of the duty manager. He must have thought we were an organised shoplifting gang. Looking around at some of the membership I could see why he was concerned.
We duly left Asda, drove along the A465 then off left towards Llangynidr up through Bwlch then 1st pitstop at Llangorse lake. Spent half hour there before very courageously declaring the run to be dry. Down came the roofs and off we went keeping a wary eye on the clouds to our left.
We continued through Three Cocks (lucky for some) and made our way to Hay-on-Wye. Didn't stop here and wished we had as I realised that this run was a little longer than average and there were no further planned stops before our eventual destination.
Crossed a little toll bridge (with traffic lights, oops would we all pass over before the lights would change, some tricky turns up ahead and some may get lost) before heading to Hereford, Kington (picturesque village) up to Rhayader then to Builth via Hundred House. We drove over some great driving roads with some amazing scenery and the weather held sufficiently that we could actually see some of it although there were some unscheduled stops to raise then lower the roofs again.
Approaching Builth the mobiles were starting to get red hot. There was apparently a desperate need for a further pitstop. So we dived in to Little Chef off the 1st roundabout to access the toilet there. Done a quick stop on the entrance for Lyn to dive out so she could shepherd all the cars into the carpark. The staff must have had a fit seeing all these cars turn up together, they probably started asking the manager for a pay increase at the expected upturn in work.
Vacated the Little Chef carpark as quickly as possible as we had completely filled it and made our way to Upper Chapel. Excellent driving roads followed which have to be amongst the best in the UK. Time was getting on so onwards to Libanus, through Defynnog and over to Heol Senni/Ystradfellte. Great views, waved to the numerous walkers that gather there on weekends and down into Pontneddfechan and journeys end.
Unfortunately the numbers that attended caught out the pub management as although I had informed them earlier in the morning how many would be attending they didn't appear to be fully prepared. Some of the meals took a while to produce and a couple of members went without, which took the shine off the run a little.
There was a wide cariety of roads on which we travelled from dual carriageway through A roads, B roads and unclassified. Some with brilliant mountain views, picturesque villages and always a satisfying drive.
Lyn and I hope you all enjoyed the run.
