North Wales laning: Wayfarer and others (photos)

[diggerdave]

Last weekend we took a trip to the land of mist, dragons, and beautiful scenery (and poor-quality restaurant food). The Wayfarer is thought of as one of the best lanes in the UK. It's not technical at all, but the landscape is special in a way that you can't quite put your finger on. There is a monument at the high point of the Wayfarer to 'the wayfarer' himself (Walter MacGregor Robinson), actually an intrepid cyclist who was a pioneer of cross-country cycling in the 20s and 30s. His willingness to escape the boring confines of tarmac and explore unsurfaced rights of way has led the green laning community to adopt him as one of our own in spirit. There's a metal box for people to write in a visitor book and a weird sort of ritual has developed: all visitors must leave a 'gift' in the box. It's contents this week included an (empty) can of coke, a (full) can of carling, a broken car radio, and an item of ladies sanitary paraphenalia with wings (I'm reliably informed)... We left some sweets.

 

[JakeM]

Great photos!

 

[Shayne]

Great pics looks like a fun weekend .

 

[froggy Steve]

another 90 calendar entry with the water splash!

 

[clivehorridge]

All that Welsh mist, I can almost smell the peat in the air!

Great photos, not so easy to get on a solo trip.

Yep, 2017 calendar fodder, thanks for posting

 

[diggerdave]

Thanks all! Powys next month - I can't wait. I don't know the Welsh lanes very well so it's pretty exciting. I'm looking forward to Lower Claerwen, which supposedly has some rocky climbs

Clive - it wasn't a solo trip (though me and Liz do go on solo missions from time-to-time). I just cropped our mates in a Ford Ranger out of history, Stalin-style, for driving non-Toyotas.

 

[diggerdave]

Ranger flex

LC90 flex!

 

[clivehorridge]

Thanks all! Powys next month - I can't wait. I don't know the Welsh lanes very well so it's pretty exciting. I'm looking forward to Lower Claerwen, which supposedly has some rocky climbs

Clive - it wasn't a solo trip (though me and Liz do go on solo missions from time-to-time). I just cropped our mates in a Ford Ranger out of history, Stalin-style, for driving non-Toyotas.

Ha ha! I like that, although we are slightly tolerant of other makes... as long as there's no photos of them pulling cruisers out of the mud

 

[fbnss]

I drove past a van that said digger dave on it yesterday near St Albans. Wasn't you was it?

 

[diggerdave]

fbnss - no, but there are lots of diggerdaves!

for ages I've been getting stray emails destined for some of the other diggerdaves, who evidently have similar email addresses:

• Aussie diggerdave, who specialises in mining equipment sales in Western Australia. I get lots of trade literature featuring big machines
  
• American diggerdave, who edits a biker magazine and organises ride-outs in Arizona and might also do some groundworks contracting (although that might be a second one). I get round robins addressed to bike club members and the odd contract tender
  
• Kent(?) diggerdave, who rents out mini-diggers (might have been his van?). I get fairly random stuff including offers to renew his website domain name

As an aside, at least one of the above has a 'thing' for older ladies judging by some of the dodgy websites he signs up to...

I've been diggerdave since 1998 when my then girlfriend's young son decided that would be my name (I'm a professional archaeologist)

 

[clivehorridge]

A professional Archaeologist eh?

We often come across buried artefacts, look at what we've found on one of our projects...

and containers of some sort

The above have been found underneath an existing urban railway being renewed...

 

[diggerdave]

Looks like a pretty good site (from an archaeologist's perspective)

I assume it's Roman masonry and the bases of some Roman amphorae/storage jars. It all looks very mediterraenean somehow, is that in the UK? If so, it MUST be somewhere darn sarf!

THis was one of our best sites in York in recent years (English Civil War mass graves)

View attachment 109211

 

[clivehorridge]

Looks like a pretty good site (from an archaeologist's perspective)

I assume it's Roman masonry and the bases of some Roman amphorae/storage jars. It all looks very mediterraenean somehow, is that in the UK? If so, it MUST be somewhere darn sarf!

THis was one of our best sites in York in recent years (English Civil War mass graves)

View attachment 109210 View attachment 109212 View attachment 109213 View attachment 109214 View attachment 109211

Woo, gruesome! Great photies

We've also uncovered some grave/ancient burial sites, the most interesting were identified as being circa 50AD in Oman.

The masonry pics I posted are from Istanbul, on the Asian side, but dahn sarf, nevertheless .

We've found similar types of building remains in Armenia, Romania, Algeria and Albania. I don't have any particular interest in archaeology, only that I find anything old has some fascination. In my business, the main interest is how much a contractor will be affected on a project where such finds occur. You can imagine that once discovered, a specific dedicated Government Agency will sweep in and take over (it's the same all over the world to some extent or another) and a contractor will lose control over the affected area of the site. Depending on the find, it can take years for these Agencies to finish what they want to do and hand the site back.

 

[diggerdave]

Clive - are you some sort of risk analyst? It sounds like it involves a nice amount of travel anyway.

In a sense it's in part what I do in this country. Here, rather than government agencies, it is the developer themselves who have to fund archaeological excavations on their sites using archaeological contractors, under the supervision of and to a brief set by the local planning authority's archaeologist (the whole system was 'privatised' in the late eighties, with good and bad consequences).

I work for a company that does the excavation work but I'm often more desk-based these days, advising developers of the potential risks of their proposed development and suggesting strategies to avoid large bills for archaeology. I also have a self-employed sideline as a consultant.

 

[clivehorridge]

Clive - are you some sort of risk analyst? It sounds like it involves a nice amount of travel anyway.

In a sense it's in part what I do in this country. Here, rather than government agencies, it is the developer themselves who have to fund archaeological excavations on their sites using archaeological contractors, under the supervision of and to a brief set by the local planning authority's archaeologist (the whole system was 'privatised' in the late eighties, with good and bad consequences).

I work for a company that does the excavation work but I'm often more desk-based these days, advising developers of the potential risks of their proposed development and suggesting strategies to avoid large bills for archaeology. I also have a self-employed sideline as a consultant.

Yes you're right, the risk originates with the developer.

However, more and more, the recent trend on major infrastructure projects, is for the employer (often ministry of transport) to offload all risks to the contractor, so it's a major legal battle 9 times out of 10 to win a liability case as these often are.

Nobody blames the Agencies with the responsibility to record and protect the finds (although they never seem to hurry themselves ) but more likely than not, the Works contract will have been amended (with the intention of) putting the risk onto the contractor.

We do risk analysis, but our main task is to prepare contractor claims demonstrating employer liability. They're mostly Delay claims, and the penalties for over-running a completion date are often as high as €50,000 / day.

My task is preparing the facts and argumentation and drafting statements of claim submitted for adjudication or arbitration.

 

[Roger Crocker]

We would be dead keen to join you or anyone doing the Welsh lanes or any other for that matter.

 

[fbnss]

Digger Dave, i Never knew this digging stuff up was so interesting, ive just been transfixed by "diggin Britt" on you tube, fascinating...

 

[diggerdave]

fbnss,

Haha, Rule 34 of the internet in action there.

Archaeology isn't like that!

EVERY archaeologist of my age got into the profession because of Indiana Jones (don't let anyone tell you otherwise).

But I've been in the field full-time for 15 years:

The hot blonde women wear hi-vis jackets not evening dresses (or bikinis)
There are no whips and guns
There are no nazis
There is considerably less a) treasure, and b) sunshine

There IS mud, portaloos (we call it a "turdis", 'cos it's much smellier on the inside), and rainy building sites I feel cheated

 

[diggerdave]

We would be dead keen to join you or anyone doing the Welsh lanes or any other for that matter.

Roger (assuming you've not been laning before, apologies if I've misunderstood),

If you're not a member of a 4x4 club (and I'm not really a 'joining' type myself), just a suggestion but it's worth checking out the various companies who offer guided tours of lanes in different areas of the UK. You drive your own car and they lead in their own vehicle. You're usually part of a group of up to 5 vehicles and they supply radios for car-to-car comms. It's a great way to be certain that you're on the right routes (vital) without the additional hassle of learning how to find legal lanes for yourself. You'll meet like-minded people and perhaps get your own gang together. It's how me and my fiancee got started. They charge around £50 for a day's laning, which I guess is a lot but it's a darn sight more fun than going to a football match...

 

[Roger Crocker]

Have been laning/off reading for 30 years with a real selection of 4x4 vehicles, the last ten very rarely mostly because those I meet never get back to me even after joining local clubs, ( I think they believe me to be too old) they say they aren't doing much now or I hear about it after its all over.
I have started to go farther afield now but am still not aware of what's happening till the photos get published
Wales is a favourite area of mine so want to go along if there is an outing planned.
My hobby has been high speed motorsports for 50 of my 67 years on this planet.
I ain't no faint hearted scared cat