Possible Club trip to Bala forest Wales 13th & 14th June

[Chris]

Are we planning to meet Friday night or just arrive in Sat? Be good if we could camp in there too

 

[Chris]

No I was just looking at a map it wasn't local knowledge I know where it is I just don't know it in any way

 

[Paddler Ed]

Deep recall for me here... I used to head to Bala for the Welsh Open Canoe symposium, which was held at the Welsh (language) national outdoor centre (not Plas-y-Brenin aka the plastic breadbin) that was on the edge of Llyn Tegid... now from memory there is a campsite near there, but I can't help much. The canoe club I used to belong to also used to do a trip to Bala and camped on the lakeside, so there is somewhere...

 

[BRE Fabrications LTD]

I know Erik is heading up Friday morning and is going to do strata. I'm still trying to see if I can wangle Friday off, if so I'll head up Friday morning also. You about Friday am to do strata Chris?

Otherwise it'll be sat morning for me. I can ask about camping I the forest. Not sure they will allow it as they are clear on the hours you can have it.

I did have a quick google of wild camping around lake Bala and a few things came up. I'll do a bit more digging this evening.


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[Chris]

Incredibly just had a call from Bala they've asked if I could visit them on Friday. No I am not making this up!

 

[Chris]

Doubt I'll be able to do Strata I'd need to leave Thursday!!!!! You can camp in strata though which would be nice but the time and place would all be wrong for that

 

[BRE Fabrications LTD]

Right, I have spoken to the folks at Bala forest. We are all good for Sat. Gates open at 10am. Unfortunately they won't be able to let us camp in the forest as they have an event there on Sunday.

Shall we RV at the entrance? Or meet up at Bala lake then drive through to the site?


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[BRE Fabrications LTD]

It seems there may be one or two options to camp on the lake side but they aren't particularly secluded. I'll do some more digging tonight to see if there are better options nearby.


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[Chris]

Need somewhere to camp Friday night. We should also swap mobile numbers.

Chris

 

[Chris]

Hang on, didn't you say a minimum of four vehicles?

 

[BRE Fabrications LTD]

They are fine with 3no as long as we meet the fee, so as it stands it's a tenner each extra. £40 per vehicle as opposed to £30.


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[Chris]

£40! It'd better be good in there. Crikey my off road membership is only £15 per year.

 

[BRE Fabrications LTD]

I know, I'll make it up to you and bring biltong. I hope it's good too. That money would get me almost half a tank of fuel. I could do strata once for that...


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[BRE Fabrications LTD]

We could bail and just go green landing... But it would be fun to stick to some technical stuff


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[Chris]

I'm interested to see what's in there but I am not going mud plugging like I would off road. It's not built for that. I think it will be rutted enough to be fun and hopefully scenic.

Strata is 70 miles from Bala and that's just to the Abbey

 

[BRE Fabrications LTD]

Been in a work related workshop for a few hours. Let's touch base in the morning re camping spot tomorrow night


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[Chris]

Sure and I can ask the lads at Bala once I am there. I know one of them owns a farm. They're very local and I am sure could wrangle something somewhere for me.

 

[Chris]

Well that turned out to be a pretty good trip. Many hanks to Ryan, Erik and Alex for the company and fireside chat. For those of you who spent the weekend looking out the window at the rain, you should have been with us. Incredibly we had pretty good weather and Sunday morning especially was amazing. We camped above lake Bala on Friday night next to some waterfalls, had a fire and were plagued by midges.



Next day we bought the entire High Street stock of insect repellent but thankfully never saw another critter. Saturday night with light fading we found a superb dogging layby where we pitched and watched the sun set.



We did a lane or two, some that I have never seen before but also the Wayfarer. That's in really poor condition in places. The entry from Llandrillo is hard going. I don't remember it being like that at all but it's been washed out and is so tight were nearly didn't get the Hundee through it. Once up on the tops there isn't anything we couldn't handle, but that entry was as I said more off road site than lane.

Cars worked well and so did all the kit. We were warm, dry, comfy and well fed and watered. What more could you ask for.

 

[BRE Fabrications LTD]

Possible Club trip to Bala forest Wales 13th & 14th June

All in it turned out to be a great weekend. I got away a bit late on Friday but we still managed to slip in strata Florida.

It was fairly dry and we didn't have any issues getting through the bomb hole.

Friday's camp spot was very cool.

Sat we explored Bala 4x4. It had some fine technical sections but did claim one of my tyres on this hill...

Then we headed off and explored, did wayfarer as Chris mentioned. Then camped
And cooked to a rare Welsh sunset.

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[Chris]

Great last shot Ryan. I logged that lay by in my sat nav