…as and when…

Last Saturday (31st March 2007) the weather was good, the skies were largely blue and another weekend road trip beckoned. Unfortunately Lyn’s car was dirty… …so the first job of the day was to give her a quick wash (i.e. the car, not Lynda!) After a mug or two of tea, some bacon butties and a little elbow grease the car was looking a lot better – having shed it’s skin of road grime from the previous trips.

We had roughly decided on a route that would take us from my place to Lynda’s home in South Wales – a route that would take us pretty much straight through the heart of Wales. However, to mix things up a little (and because I had never been there) we decided to throw in a little detour and to extend the trip by heading over to Aberystwyth, taking in some lovely driving roads and beautiful scenery along the way.

After a brief run along the M56 and M53 we bypassed Wrexham on the A483 and hopped onto the A5 towards Llangollen. (I vaguely remembered the route from a trip there some years before and had forgotten how picturesque that part of Wales actually is!) As Lynda and I travelled the A5 some of the scenery we were greeted with looked fantastic given the fine weather and multitude of nature’s colours. The downside was that some of the more beautiful vistas were in areas where we were unable to stop the car and grab a few pictures to capture the moment… *sigh* Even so, we pushed on and made note of some places we would come back to at a future date and explore further.

As we approached Bala we jumped onto the A494; the road from Bala to Dolgellau being well-known as both a good driving road and a very scenic one, too. It certainly didn’t disappoint! Upon reaching the outskirts of Bala we jumped onto the A487 towards Machynlleth, en route to our intermediate destination of Aberystwyth. As we passed through the Dyfi Valley we passed a lovely looking waterfall and building and decided to grab a couple of photographs. The place in question turned out to be the Dyfi Blast Furnace.

Having arrived at Aberystwyth Lyn’s memories from a past visit kicked in and she successfully drove us through the small lanes and onto the sea front. Our eyes were greeted with calm seas and what was probably a mixture of locals and visitors walking along the sands.

Both Lyn and I took a handful of photographs and I was finally able to say that I had visited Aberystwyth! As we were leaving the sea front Lynda recalled once visiting a beach somewhere not too far away and thought it was a good idea to try and find it. Unfortunately it had been a while since her last visit and she was unable to remember where exactly it was… Not that it was a problem as she soon drove us onto a fantastic little road that ran north from Aberystwyth – the B4572 towards Borth. After passing over the top of a rather innocent looking hill we were suddenly presented with the following view… which caught us both by surprise…

Through Borth we took the B4353 and followed it back to the A487; and then took that back onto the A44.

Lyn had already said that the A44 was a lovely stretch of road – through some fantastic Welsh countryside – and she was absolutely right! There was a little bit of everything on that part of the route. A great road so that Lyn could enjoy her ’spirited’ driving, colourful hills, distant valleys, woodlands and lakes. We were able to stop and grab some pictures as the sun was beginning to set.

The final part of the trip saw us heading back onto the A470 and travelling south towards Brecon. By this time the sun was falling behind the hills and the evening’s long shadows were turning into the blackness that was the onset of night. It was a great end to what had been an even greater day.

Thanks Lynda – and thanks for doing the maps/route, too.

April 5th, 2007 | Category: Motoring / Motorsport, Photography | Subscribe to comments | You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed