Saratoga
7th Jan 2004, 01:45
The group consisted of:
D90, D110, 2x Disco 2x RRC and for the Sunday a 101
A group of friends of mine from the West Midlands had a nice weekend out in Wales on the 3rd & 4th. As is their way most of the group travelled up the previous day to Tregaron and stopped at the Talbot.
I was up in that neck of the woods most the week anyway and was able to report on the local conditions.
New Years night in that neck of the woods was snowing heavily, but by the morning it was reduced to rain. The day before the Abergwesyn road had been impassable except to 4wds due to the snow and ice on top of the hill.
Initially I was worried about water height as on New Years Day the three bridges at the bottom of the Devils Staircase on the Abergwesyn Road were underwater, and as my V8 was not behaving itself had to be careful. On Friday night apparently it froze. I was in warmer North Wales by then, but on Saturday joined the group at Strata Florida, Pontrhydyfendigaid.
As all planning goes there is always something that is either not to plan or last minute. One of the “last minute” changes was that I was there on the Saturday and a good choice it was! The other was that a friend had also arranged a group for that morning starting at the same place. His route was different. We met up at Strata Florida briefly before separating, our group first and he followed about half an hour later.
The second group had a few electrical problems throughout the day which was possibly contributable to some misaligned field coils…
So on Saturday we did Strata Florida, Soar y Mynydd and a few other routes near to Tregaron. I had a map here a minute ago… Anyway. At the end of Strata Florida passed a group from Bristol with about 20 odd vehicles in. On Soar Y Mynydd were passed doing a fair whack of speed by a group that included a V8 S1, bobtailed 90!!! (The tyres ended where the back door went!!) a white 90 and some other darker coloured ones. They stopped in Aberystwyth overnight.
Only had one major problem. A friend in the group was "distracted" on a small country road and at about 15-20mph lurched off to the left, dropped about 3 across and 2 meters down against the trees. After bouncing a few times came to an angled rest. Alas my camera was out of film, but others took snaps.
The heavy duty rear and front bumpers did not move, however, the trees stopping the fall had crushed the rear panel on his Range Rover Dakar, bend the front bull bar in against the bonnet, a small dent on the bonnet and the wheel arches twisted a bit. All the occupants were very shaken but no other injuries.
3 of us to recover it. I (well, my RR) was chained to the Disco in front, and the RR was winched up to me, while the back end was held in place from slipping by a rope at the back. Although I felt the rear passenger side drop down quite a lot, Franc has since told me that some people thought my tyre was going to come off the rim. Teamwork coming through though and all ok :)
Saturday evening in the Talbot at Tregaron. Just managed to fit our 6 vehicles in the carpark.. Worked out that of my lists of ROW in the county most if not all were now ORPAs while some others were now classed as Bridleways.
Sunday was a delayed start. Synchronising 11 people, baggage and the works on a Sunday morning caused the delay. Of course the people I met up with in Aber complained they could have had longer in bed (typical!), The two groups were joined just south of Talybont. I managed to sort out a few problems with the RR the previous night, spent to about midnight in a nearby garage :) and everything is a lot better with it.
The first route was over the windfarm just north of Talybont.. I had previously heard that this route had been closed, possibly due to health and safety. Afterall, get to close to a windmill and it hurt !!!
This is from the navigators of the trip.
The wind farm lane is still shown on the OS maps as a RUPP and should therefore still carry vehicular rights. I now believe the little horsy symbols just indicated a waymarked route for horse’s and not a bridleway. Nice bit of misleading signage by Ceredigion CC. The H&S argument is an interesting one but it would be just as unhealthy to horses and walkers too! Plus, the next gate was too narrow for any 4-wheeled vehicle, so someone obviously wants to keep us out. I think that's right about the signs. There was nothing actually saying 'Bridleway'. Which reminds me, I was pleasantly uplifted by the friendly attitude of the horse-types we met, as I suspect were they by the fact that we pulled over and switched off for them.
Next was near the Bwlchystyllen Road but we went the long way round, a more difficult route than I knew, but did have some great views for the others who didn't much get out of the city. Quite surprised much better 02 signal in the area, still ******all Vodafone once 2 miles outside Aber! Soon the mist closed in, or we went into a cloud. Either way it was white.
Was quite miffed to find that the well known axle twister on that road has been graded and after a complicated bit everything is accessible in a 2wd drive car. A bit bumpy in stages, but better on coils than leaves :)
We stopped at the top of this road and had lunch, chatted and stuff. The rest of the group were around the D90 when they called the, er, group leader and navigator over for an electrical problem. I thought it was strange everyone was over there, but then he got his birthday cake :) Drawbacks of birthdays while laning ? The diesel Disco left us at that point as they had quite a long journey ahead.
We took the tarmac for a short distance then back onto a track again for running next to Bwlchystyllen cottage, if you can call it that. Found the GPS and the map disagreed but as this is a local well known problem :) which I forgot to mention, we soon carried on. After this we detoured via Ponterwyd for civilization, then back to the tracks
There is a road that goes from the Nant yr Arian Forest Centre, crossing the Ponterwyd to Talybont road twice and ending up on the A44 to Llangurig. The first section is apparently now a bridleway, despite evidence of recent use. The second section was aborted after the group lost traction. Of course, the 101 had yet to engage the difflock, and I only used it when I thought I'd slip too much. The 3rd section of this track was a no-go as it was getting dark and would of required about a day to do it. After cresting the first hill the road no longer is visible on the ground and most people had worked out that bumper mounted spot lights, however massive, were kinda useless on this sort of ground...
So then we trundled back home via the A44. Spent most of the journey behind a Safeway HGV that kindly stopped every 10 miles to let traffic behind pass. As the roads travelling back were unusually smooth and steady, managed to get my CD player working and so had that up loud. Need to sort CB speakers though, as they're a bit muffled... Managed to prove the BFG Trac Edges are good at road holding when after passing a garage at 60mph found they'd stopped for fuel. Ahh. 60-20 braking hard slowed rapidly, then the wheels squealed a bit. So parted company with the last remaining Disco.
The 101 will no doubt join us next time we do laning in the area, but all the lanes we did were, compared to previous laning in the area, rather tame. But it is what was wanted. Summer time will be different.
Anyway. NGRs posted as soon as I find where I left my maps.
Spent a wee bit more on petrol than I should of due to bad planning, but new base of operations now in that area, so should be easier next time :)
D90, D110, 2x Disco 2x RRC and for the Sunday a 101
A group of friends of mine from the West Midlands had a nice weekend out in Wales on the 3rd & 4th. As is their way most of the group travelled up the previous day to Tregaron and stopped at the Talbot.
I was up in that neck of the woods most the week anyway and was able to report on the local conditions.
New Years night in that neck of the woods was snowing heavily, but by the morning it was reduced to rain. The day before the Abergwesyn road had been impassable except to 4wds due to the snow and ice on top of the hill.
Initially I was worried about water height as on New Years Day the three bridges at the bottom of the Devils Staircase on the Abergwesyn Road were underwater, and as my V8 was not behaving itself had to be careful. On Friday night apparently it froze. I was in warmer North Wales by then, but on Saturday joined the group at Strata Florida, Pontrhydyfendigaid.
As all planning goes there is always something that is either not to plan or last minute. One of the “last minute” changes was that I was there on the Saturday and a good choice it was! The other was that a friend had also arranged a group for that morning starting at the same place. His route was different. We met up at Strata Florida briefly before separating, our group first and he followed about half an hour later.
The second group had a few electrical problems throughout the day which was possibly contributable to some misaligned field coils…
So on Saturday we did Strata Florida, Soar y Mynydd and a few other routes near to Tregaron. I had a map here a minute ago… Anyway. At the end of Strata Florida passed a group from Bristol with about 20 odd vehicles in. On Soar Y Mynydd were passed doing a fair whack of speed by a group that included a V8 S1, bobtailed 90!!! (The tyres ended where the back door went!!) a white 90 and some other darker coloured ones. They stopped in Aberystwyth overnight.
Only had one major problem. A friend in the group was "distracted" on a small country road and at about 15-20mph lurched off to the left, dropped about 3 across and 2 meters down against the trees. After bouncing a few times came to an angled rest. Alas my camera was out of film, but others took snaps.
The heavy duty rear and front bumpers did not move, however, the trees stopping the fall had crushed the rear panel on his Range Rover Dakar, bend the front bull bar in against the bonnet, a small dent on the bonnet and the wheel arches twisted a bit. All the occupants were very shaken but no other injuries.
3 of us to recover it. I (well, my RR) was chained to the Disco in front, and the RR was winched up to me, while the back end was held in place from slipping by a rope at the back. Although I felt the rear passenger side drop down quite a lot, Franc has since told me that some people thought my tyre was going to come off the rim. Teamwork coming through though and all ok :)
Saturday evening in the Talbot at Tregaron. Just managed to fit our 6 vehicles in the carpark.. Worked out that of my lists of ROW in the county most if not all were now ORPAs while some others were now classed as Bridleways.
Sunday was a delayed start. Synchronising 11 people, baggage and the works on a Sunday morning caused the delay. Of course the people I met up with in Aber complained they could have had longer in bed (typical!), The two groups were joined just south of Talybont. I managed to sort out a few problems with the RR the previous night, spent to about midnight in a nearby garage :) and everything is a lot better with it.
The first route was over the windfarm just north of Talybont.. I had previously heard that this route had been closed, possibly due to health and safety. Afterall, get to close to a windmill and it hurt !!!
This is from the navigators of the trip.
The wind farm lane is still shown on the OS maps as a RUPP and should therefore still carry vehicular rights. I now believe the little horsy symbols just indicated a waymarked route for horse’s and not a bridleway. Nice bit of misleading signage by Ceredigion CC. The H&S argument is an interesting one but it would be just as unhealthy to horses and walkers too! Plus, the next gate was too narrow for any 4-wheeled vehicle, so someone obviously wants to keep us out. I think that's right about the signs. There was nothing actually saying 'Bridleway'. Which reminds me, I was pleasantly uplifted by the friendly attitude of the horse-types we met, as I suspect were they by the fact that we pulled over and switched off for them.
Next was near the Bwlchystyllen Road but we went the long way round, a more difficult route than I knew, but did have some great views for the others who didn't much get out of the city. Quite surprised much better 02 signal in the area, still ******all Vodafone once 2 miles outside Aber! Soon the mist closed in, or we went into a cloud. Either way it was white.
Was quite miffed to find that the well known axle twister on that road has been graded and after a complicated bit everything is accessible in a 2wd drive car. A bit bumpy in stages, but better on coils than leaves :)
We stopped at the top of this road and had lunch, chatted and stuff. The rest of the group were around the D90 when they called the, er, group leader and navigator over for an electrical problem. I thought it was strange everyone was over there, but then he got his birthday cake :) Drawbacks of birthdays while laning ? The diesel Disco left us at that point as they had quite a long journey ahead.
We took the tarmac for a short distance then back onto a track again for running next to Bwlchystyllen cottage, if you can call it that. Found the GPS and the map disagreed but as this is a local well known problem :) which I forgot to mention, we soon carried on. After this we detoured via Ponterwyd for civilization, then back to the tracks
There is a road that goes from the Nant yr Arian Forest Centre, crossing the Ponterwyd to Talybont road twice and ending up on the A44 to Llangurig. The first section is apparently now a bridleway, despite evidence of recent use. The second section was aborted after the group lost traction. Of course, the 101 had yet to engage the difflock, and I only used it when I thought I'd slip too much. The 3rd section of this track was a no-go as it was getting dark and would of required about a day to do it. After cresting the first hill the road no longer is visible on the ground and most people had worked out that bumper mounted spot lights, however massive, were kinda useless on this sort of ground...
So then we trundled back home via the A44. Spent most of the journey behind a Safeway HGV that kindly stopped every 10 miles to let traffic behind pass. As the roads travelling back were unusually smooth and steady, managed to get my CD player working and so had that up loud. Need to sort CB speakers though, as they're a bit muffled... Managed to prove the BFG Trac Edges are good at road holding when after passing a garage at 60mph found they'd stopped for fuel. Ahh. 60-20 braking hard slowed rapidly, then the wheels squealed a bit. So parted company with the last remaining Disco.
The 101 will no doubt join us next time we do laning in the area, but all the lanes we did were, compared to previous laning in the area, rather tame. But it is what was wanted. Summer time will be different.
Anyway. NGRs posted as soon as I find where I left my maps.
Spent a wee bit more on petrol than I should of due to bad planning, but new base of operations now in that area, so should be easier next time :)