For a bed with an “end” I actually slept quite well! I’m sure the relaxing hot tub and sauna, combined with some muscle relaxant beers helped a little. But this morning dawned with me feeling better than I do in my own bed to be honest, even if this bed did have an end!
The weather looked a little chilly with a small amount of fog, but by the time we reached the Inglenook cafe in Welshpool for breakfast, it was shaping up to be a nice day. We had gambled and chosen to wear just our leather jackets and armoured jeans on this trip, so sun was welcome, rain was not.
A tasty hot breakfast later and we were off exploring mid Wales. It was clear, very quickly, that there was a split in the riding groups. The “Loons” who just wanted to go fast left the rest of us standing. They all had powerful street bikes and sticky tyres… except Richard, who was just ragging the bollocks off a Bonneville to keep up – successfully, I might add.
I happily pootled along with Aimi and a few others, only occasionally squirting the go juice for a bit of speed. Travelling north we headed cross country towards Bala before peeling off up to the Ponderosa cafe for a coffee stop. As always there were about 100 bikes of all shapes lined up in the car park. We had a little wander around, admiring the bikes and the view before getting a cuppa and enjoying the sun in the warm conservatory on the side of the cafe. It’s nothing aesthetically special, little more than a truckers cafe, but the number of bikes and the little touches like a dog bowl in the corner and visor cleaner on a stand near the door, that make it special.
Langlands photography have kindly allowed me to include these images too
It was now that people started making noises about getting fuel, so we dropped off the mountain into Llangollen and the expected tourist traffic. It was pretty much gridlock. Usually in a big group of bikes you’d stick together and just wait it out but nothing was moving and we were all getting hot. Charlie eventually just started the procession of filtering between the cars to get us moving towards the fuel station.
From here I said I knew a few good roads into Snowdonia so we took off following my route. There is an easy and fast road leading from Bala over towards Blaenau Ffestiniog. It was gloriously smooth and wide. Like most of the roads today, there wasn’t a pothole in sight. Why is England so shit at dealing with road repairs. Scotland and Wales can do it but seriously, English roads are diabolical! Its so much more than just an annoyance too. On a motorbike, hitting a pothole mid corner can cause a crash!… But I’ve probably banged this drum enough.
The loons ahead were pulling over to let everyone catch back up each time they blasted off. So we were not surprised to find them waiting opposite the Oakeley Arms Hotel and flagging us down for a drink. We didn’t get to ride the road I like up towards Snowdon, it would have added another hour to the route before we even started back to the house. Already we had a 2 hour ride back, and food shopping for tonight’s dinner, so we had to leave it for another day. Instead we took a beautifully scenic road around the coast and then big roads back to the house.
I say back to the house, but we all stopped at Tesco’s then half went back to the house to get the BBQ on and hot tub warmed up. The other half (the half with top boxes) went and bought all the food for dinner and breakfast that I volunteered to cook. It was hard to keep people reigned in from buying too much stuff. In the end we only over spent by half a lettuce and a tub of coleslaw, so that wasn’t too bad.
Everyone was rocking the BBQ food baby bod when we climbed into the hot tub. But I didn’t care how rotund my belly was, my knee was calling out for some hot water and jets. Even tho I’ve been effectively sitting all day, my knee feels like it’s had a work out and needs some pampering.
