(Written by Neil)
(With Mike away catching Moby dick it falls to yours truly to log the inaugural flight of Staffordshire’s newest stealth machine. In literary terms I am to the Beano what Mike is to the Guardian and I’m certainly no Lord Lichfield..... but here goes…)
The jungle drums have been beating for a while and the whispers slowly getting louder but finally the vision has appeared, and what a vision.
It’s common knowledge that we boys have to have our toys and it must be said that on this occasion Dean has excelled himself. On a sunny Sunday sat outside my house with Gaz drooling like a dog over a bone, it became obvious that the new kid on the block had grabbed his attention. So in time honored tradition Dean handed over the keys for the main man to give us the low down.
Have you ever experienced that energy that radiates from someone who has just got off their first REAL BIG roller coaster…. Well that was Gaz on his return, wearing Garfield’s smile from ear to ear he proceeded to enlighten us to just how cool this particular tool was. Ok initial findings aside it was time to head out to the hills.
With this being Nicola’s first experience of riding pillion , “steady away” was the initial order of the day as we chartered a route down to Cosford airport before hanging a right to Whitchurch exposing us to some “for 5miles” roads (Sorry local joke there….read Smiles not 5 miles) then into Llangollen and the horseshoe pass.
A short coffee break at the Ponderosa café at the top of the pass followed by a gawp at the other kids toys …………..
......before declaring I fancied seeing the sea……. So the trip extends a little as we head off via, Corwen, Bala, Trawsfynydd and over to Porthmadog. Beautiful scenery and sweeping dry roads it truly is possible to gain a two dimensional equivalent of flying on days like this. Reaching Porthmadog the road runs parallel to the Ffestiniog rail line and finishes at the harbour itself.
Its knocking on a bit now and having satisfied the munchies with some local hospitality its time to get back, with the sky turning ever darker and our resident optimist declaring we can get passed Capel Curig before it “persists with rain” we head north across the rail line and are rewarded with a close encounter of the steam kind (sorry folks missed that picture), then on into Bedgelert, a small village with an interesting tale relating to the young princes dog. http://www.data-wales.co.uk/beddgelert.htm Onwards into Snowdonia and past the Eastern side of Snowdon itself. There are many beautiful places in this world but you gotta go some to beat this region.
Heads down now and rattle along to the A5 (Memories of previous Dragon Rally trips over on the right. That should have Loz shivering at the thought, February on Snowdon…… go on Baldrick any more bright idea’s).
Retrace our route from Llangollen to home stopping to allow Nicola to get blood back to anything south of her knee caps. Well done for hanging in there, turned out to be a baptism of fire but she was still smiling. So an hour later we wave Dean and Nicola off and in keeping with the Jangle rules round off with a late one at the Pub.
Final Shot must go to the happy couple, Hope your toys bring you lots of pleasure.
