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Travel StoriesNorth Wales 2011 Short Break - By Ren Withnell
North Wales 2011 Short Break - Prologue
There was no plan. They say if you fail to plan you plan to fail. This should have been a disaster then.
By a strange quirk of lunar fate and royal nuptuals it fell that Easter weekend in 2011 would be Good Friday April the 22nd, Easter Sunday April 24th and Bank Holiday Monday would be the 25th. Then Wills and Kate decided to get married the following Friday the 29th and to cap it all off the first May bank holiday was to be the 2nd of May. Ahem...in english this meant that we had 2 weekends, side by side, of 4 days each, with a 3 day working week inbetween.
Traditionally the Easter weekend is unofficially the start of the Biking season. Easter Friday for myself at least has meant a ride-out, no matter what the weather. Easter Sunday would typically be the same. The problem is though recently I've been bored. Bored of the winter, bored at work, bored with going out and just sick of doing the same old same old. There's a phrase I heard at some business networking event once, "If you keep on doing what you've always done, you'l keep on getting what you've always got". It's one of those stupid "self improvement" catch phrases, yet somehow it seemed to be applicable right now.
It took a while until I eventually decided to do something a bit different. Not wildly different you understand, just not more of the same old same old. I guessed the best thing to do was go away somewhere. I didn't want to go too far or to spend too much money. I have a holiday coming up at the end of May that needs saving for. I pondered the idea of using the long weekend to go and see my Dad, but I'll be seeing him in May, I considered taking the gf somewhere but she'd got the kids that weekend. It seemed the only sensible thing to do was take a couple of nights away by myself, camping to save cash.
I've owned my CLR 125 for some time now, and put almost 20,000 miles on it. I thought if I'm to do things a little different I should use the 125 as transport. It'd save a few quid on petrol and it'd certainly be a different experience. This meant I should be sensible about how far I should go, I didn't want to find out the hard way that trying to do 300 miles a day on a 125 may be thoroughly painful.
I've been to North Wales many times in my life. This does go against the grain of trying to do something different. That said, there's not many places I've not visited within a reasonable distance of the North West of England. Wales also offers beautiful scenery and there's still a lot of roads I've not been down.
One issue with North Wales is speeding. Almost 3 years ago, whilst a little lost on Anglesey, I got booked for speeding. I guess I was in an unfamiliar place and was more concerned about getting back onto my planned route rather than being super observant and noticing the speed limits. I certainly did not want to repeat that experience, but then I did not want to avoid North Wales due to one bad experience. That was another reason to take the 125.
The weekend before I was given a tent! It had been found by a Forestry Warden I know and it had been abandoned. It was a mint condition 2 man tent, a lot smaller than my luxurious 3 manner, but also a lot smaller when packed and a lot lighter.
My final concern and one that almost stopped me going was the potential number of tourists who may also be going. With there being 2 long weekends back to back, the promise of good weather and most of the kids being on holiday I figured that just about anywhere will be rammed full. I had visions of arriving at each campsite only to be turned away as there was no room at the...er...campsite.
So on the Good Friday I finally, at long last, settled on a sort of plan. Tent...sleeping bag...clothes...bike...Wales. That was the sum total of this plan. I'd spend the Friday night at the gf's which is on the way to Wales, the Saturday and Sunday in Wales and come back home on the bank holiday Monday. So on Friday tea time I loaded the bike, checked the bungees and set off.
North Wales 2011 Short Break - Prologue
North Wales 2011 Short Break - Going To Criccieth
North Wales 2011 Short Break - Criccieth to Trearddur Bay
Roaming around North Wales and the Llyn Peninsula Ren is killing time and exploring. This is what 125s were made for.
North Wales 2011 Short Break - Going Home From Trearddur Bay
North Wales 2011 Short Break - Epilogue and More Images
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Travel StoriesNorth Wales 2011 Short Break - By Ren Withnell