| If Wing Commander Guy Gibson looked
down from the heavens on the glorious Welsh landscape he would
have nodded his approval as nearly twenty five MGFs and TFs
gathered at Llantwrtydd Wells to set out on a mission to explore
the dams and reservoirs of the Elan Valley. First however a
small group met at Abergavenny in the not so glamorous location
of the Safeway car park for a run across the Brecon Beacons to
the first reservoir of the weekend at Talybont on Usk. From here
the forward group carried on to a smaller reservoir at
Ponsticill near Merthyr Tydfil. With two dams already down
the group headed for Llantwrtydd Wells - famous for many things
including being the smallest town in Britain. The Fs took over
the two hotels in the town with MGF base being the Belle-Vue
hotel, a secondary base across the road at The Neuaadd Arms and
an outpost at the Stonecroft Youth hostel. Llantwrtydd Wells
hosts the world famous bog snorkelling championship and the
recent variation of the mountain bike bog snorkeling
championship - The MGF bog Snorkelling has yet to be invented
thankfully. The Neuadd Arms is also in the political arena being
the headquarters of the Monster Raving Loony Party - Screaming
Lord Sutch was a regular and played his last concert in the bar.
Not content with that the town also hosts the Man Vs Horse race
across the mountains and is a centre for walking and adventure
holidays. Once the credentials of the town had been established
the group settled down for an evening meal and slide show of
various MGF gatherings on the overhead projector and to await
the arrivals of those not lucky enough to get Friday off work.
Saturday morning started with sunshine and the cars gathered
on the forecourt of the Belle-Vue Hotel ready for the run to the
Elan Valley. A straightforward run to the valley behind a coach
with burning tyres saw us arrive at the Elan Valley Visitor
Centre where we learnt about the dams of the valleys - built
with foresight by the burghers of the Birmingham Corporation to
supply water to the city. The Visitor centre is in the lee of
the first dam built at the turn of the century - Caban Coch.
With Percy Bysshe Shelley entertaining his muses in statue form
on the river's edge we left the centre and climbed to the top of
the dam for a windswept view of the reservoir and the valley
below.
It was then on to the highest of the dams at Caerwen past a
slew of walkers along the reservoir's edge. Parking at the base
of the huge dam we climbed the banks to walk along the top of
the 56 metre high and 355metre long dam looking down at the tiny
dots that were our MGFs below. Dave forgot to mention that you
could actually drive to the top !!
The drive along the valley walls continued on to the next dam
at Pen Y Garreg - a smaller dam but more spectacular as it had
water cascading over the side of it like shimmering white lace.
Further on was the last dam in the series at Graig Goch - it
was possible to drive along the top of the viaduct on top of
this picturesque Victorian engineering marvel.
Carefully avoiding the myriads of masticating sheep the Fs
drove out of the valley along steep winding roads to explore in
different directions - some along the mountain road to
Aberystwyth and other s back towards Rhayder . We chose the
latter and sat in Carole's cafe where we counted twenty one
European registered Lancia Betas drive by the window.
After returning back to base through some increasingly heavy
showers and driving wind we settled down for the evening's
entertainment consisting of a night at the Belle Vue where a
three course roast beef dinner waited for us followed by Dave's
Raffle and a disco for those not too exhausted to join in -
Caroline led the way with some energetic dance routines leaving
organiser Dave Morris red faced and gasping for another Brecon
Vodka !
Suitably rested after the excesses of the night before the Fs
once more gathered on the forecourt of the Belle Vue prepared
for another day of driving the Welsh mountains.
We bid farewell to the smallest town in Britain and headed
towards Tregarron and the reservoir at Llyn Brianne carefully
avoiding the docile sheep munching the roadside verges. Some
fantastic single track roads here scything through the pine
forests including a challenging stretch where heavy logging
lorries had turned what used to be a road into a series of
potholes and crumbling tarmac. After a special warning from Dave
we picked our way along here to the top of Llyn Brianne
reservoir . Completely missing the turning to the dam itself we
began a series of stop start routines as the showers began and
the hoods went up and down.
Arriving in Llandovery just as the heaviest shower pelted the
motorcyclists outside the West End Cafe we took sanctuary and a
warming cup of tea and sticky bun.
Retracing our steps we then headed for the Military Ranges at
Eppynt Forest. What a fantastic road across the bleak moorland
and a fantastic F moment as a line of cars snaked across the
winding well tarmacced road with spray being thrown out of the
wheel arches from frequent showers and big grins on the drivers
faces. We passed the eerie hilltop village used for urban
military training complete with church, shops and houses but
devoid of any people to descend to the end of the Dambusters Run
at the small hamlet of Llywel. MGFs surrounded the grass
triangle at the base of the church to bid farewell to each other
- curtailed by yet another shower which sent us scurrying to the
relative dryness of our raised hoods and the journey home.
Mission accomplished.
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