Wales April 2013

[sae70]

Popped up to Wales for a weekends laning and Wild Camping a couple of weekends ago and had a very different and interesting weekend due to the weather and the way we had planned to spend the weekend. I was originally going to take my two boys Robert and Daniel, but due to concerns from my wife about the forecast night time temperatures over the weekend it was decided to leave them at home. My m8's had left at 07:30Hrs on the Friday morning for Wales and had spent the day doing some lanes just to the side of Happy Valley that they said were nicely challenging requiring some use of winches and then went on to set up camp at a Wild Camping spot that we've used often and seems to be secluded enough to have not been visited by others since we've been using it. I on the other hand could not leave Essex until 15:00Hrs due to other commitments that I was not so happy about, but in the end turned out to be fortuitousness as Giles called me about an hour before I was due to leave suggesting that I loaded the snow chains!!!

This is me on the Friday evening in Wales about 20min from our camp site. I'd pulled over just to take 5min to take in the scenery and to come down a little and stretch my legs from the 5 hour journey up to this point. Oh and to make sure I had a couple of cold beers to hand the second I got to the camp site.



Finally at the small secluded camp site and time to relax and spend the evening talking bol...ks



I say no one else has been to this spot since we've been using it, that is except for whomever dumped that sofa and a dead Christmas tree you can see in the undergrowth just over my m8's back



Christmas tree went well though

The following morning and what a morning.

Breakfast.

The best facilities in the world I wouldn't be surprised to learn

Look at the view from them

All packed away and onto our first lane of the day dropping down into Machynlleth and affectionately called 'Chuckle Lane' as it never fails to make me smile and giggle

My new suspension set up is working really well and I'm over the moon with it

New 80 series front springs with IM shocks on the rear and IM suspension on the front with a 6mm Strut Top spacer giving an extra 15mm of lift.

The end of 'Chuckle Lane' and on to 'Happy Valley' driving it from the South to the North

Happy Valley.

It was at this point here that I stopped to take a call from the wife and kids to say good morning and to email them some photos of our trip so far. I also took a moment to send Ben a text back in Oz saying 'Half way along Happy Valley wish you were here......'

So, that's the end of the lane and on to a new one for us pushing further North. It was about now that I'm starting to wonder why Giles asked me to bring up 40 plus Kilos of snow chains?!! Is he on a wind up?!!

Lots more to follow, I have 199 photos in total

http://s993.photobucket.com/user/sae70/slideshow/Off Roading in Wales 5th 6th and 7th April 2013

 

[clivehorridge]

What a good trip Steven, well prepped and good weather.

A really nice album of photos too!

Thanks for sharing...

 

[Gary820]

Nice pics, I like Wales and spent a fair few weekends laning there. My wife's first ever camping/laning trip was Wales, weather wasn't like you had lol, still went back with me tho as loved the scenery so much.

Nice looking truck btw.

 

[sae70]

Thanks guys

So at the top of Happy Valley we headed out toward the cost and joined the bottom of a new lane for us heading North West from Rhoslefain starting at Pant-gwyn and ending near Daran with coastal views on your left overlooking Barmouth.







We all got out here to take in the view and decided to stop for lunch







First sign of snow, maybe it's time for the chains











Some kind of spawn in the stream next to me.



End of another cracking Lane



The next lane was on the other side of the estuary so we decided to use a quaint little old toll bridge for 60p instead of driving around.





When we got to the lane SH 65693 20173 it had clearly been turned into a Bridle-way, so we decided to drive around it

Nice Lambs in the field next to us while we were looking at our options.





We stumbled over this little gem the Holy Grail when on a wild camping weekend. A public toilet in the middle of no where, so we all pulled in. I didn't really need to go, but decided it was to good an opportunity to pass on. After some sweating I managed to pant one out Stood me in good stead for Sunday though, so was worth the effort







When I came out I noticed there was a foreign Collie FX in the car park, should have parked up next to it and took a photo.



Still more to come.

 

[AndyCook]

great pics and report
good to see Bomber lane above barmouth has reopened after the landslide closed it last year
its a nice long lane, without any challenges though

 

[Charlie]

Looks like a good trip, and some good photos too.

 

[AndyCook]

"When we got to the lane SH 65693 20173 it had clearly been turned into a Bridle-way, so we decided to drive around it "

yeah I looked into driving that lane last year. but found a post on here or tlocuk about it when Jim & Gav tried to drive it - ends in a bog
http://www.landcruiserclub.net/forums/showthread.php/39957-Jim-n-Gav-in-West-Wales-11-7-10

and on trailwise:
Pont-scethin

Farmer at south end advises that area around SH638229 is impasable to 4x4 so is bridge at SH634235 and farm owner is more aggressive that he is! 14/12/2009, by Chris Douglas

SE end of SH6023-6a which this joins on to is blocked and signed as BW so this doesn't go through. Have not visited NW end to survey it yet. 21/03/2005, by Jon Wildsmith


last car usage note, made 17/07/2005 (by user 1013) -
Only drove the first three sections from NW end

 

[sae70]

great pics and report
good to see Bomber lane above barmouth has reopened after the landslide closed it last year
its a nice long lane, without any challenges though

Cheers Andy It's nice to be able to put a name to a lane, 'Bomber Lane' I wonder where it get s that name from? No signs of a land slide, but a very pleasant lane to drive.

 

[sae70]

Looks like a good trip, and some good photos too.

Thanks Charlie

 

[sae70]

"When we got to the lane SH 65693 20173 it had clearly been turned into a Bridle-way, so we decided to drive around it "

yeah I looked into driving that lane last year. but found a post on here or tlocuk about it when Jim & Gav tried to drive it - ends in a bog
http://www.landcruiserclub.net/forums/showthread.php/39957-Jim-n-Gav-in-West-Wales-11-7-10

and on trailwise:
Pont-scethin

Farmer at south end advises that area around SH638229 is impasable to 4x4 so is bridge at SH634235 and farm owner is more aggressive that he is! 14/12/2009, by Chris Douglas

SE end of SH6023-6a which this joins on to is blocked and signed as BW so this doesn't go through. Have not visited NW end to survey it yet. 21/03/2005, by Jon Wildsmith


last car usage note, made 17/07/2005 (by user 1013) -
Only drove the first three sections from NW end

Interesting Well it's definitely still a Bridle-way

 

[AndyCook]

Cheers Andy It's nice to be able to put a name to a lane, 'Bomber Lane' I wonder where it get s that name from? No signs of a land slide, but a very pleasant lane to drive.

think there was a plane crash near the lane - a bomber ww2 plane! but i may be wrong?

 

[Ben]

Great trip report Steven.

Weather looked really good.

Wish I could have been there.

 

[AndyCook]

http://forum.landrovernet.com/showthread.php/71050-Lane-with-WW2-Crash-Site

 

[sae70]

After our toilet stop we head back up to the top of the Estuary and up into Coed Y Brenin Forest and picked up a short lanee that took us south out of the forest toward Llanfachreth.

Here's some photos;













It must have been along here that we met the farmer with the lost Lamb. I think that I said the farmers name was Ewan (actually spelt Iwen, I think ), but it turns out from speaking to my mate that was holding the Lamb that his name was Gwyn!! I not sure where I got Ewan (Iwan) from, must have been that episode of Gavin and Stacey I think



We then headed over to a lane that went due North until it hair-pinned South through a bit of forest.

I didn't get many photos of the start of the lane, but is was not any different to any of the others I've posted photos of so far, but soon became more and more snow-drifted as we went on. Each section of snowdrift was no longer than 30,40,50 meters long then you had long sections of clear lane until we could push forward no further and had to turn around and head out.







You can see here that the drift is not very long or deep for that matter, but the center is very solid and so you soon became bellied. My m8 is sat here on top of the snow with all his Diff-Locks engaged and all four wheels just turning. We soon had him out and where on our way again. Somehow I eneded up in front leading!








Progress was becoming slow and out of interest more than anything else we decided to fit one pair of the snow chains to see what if any difference they made and as I was now the lead vehicle on they went









Even here they were still working well and I'm sure making the difference between going forwards or not.





In the end though even the chains were defeated!





So out with the shovels and man power again!

In the end though we had to admit defeat as the next section of snow drift that we came across was a good 1/4 mile long!!!

And this is it, as far as we could get after all that graft

Before we turned tail and headed back down we took a walk up the drift and round the bend where the lane started to run parallel with the forest to find in the distance another group of 5/6 vehicles that had made their way in from the other end doing the same as we'd planned, turning tail and heading back out! Oh well, maybe another time on this one

On the way down.

By the time we'd got back down through all of the gates and removed the chains time had pressed on some what, so we decided to abort the one hour drive to the Quarry camp site that we'd planned for the Saturday night and head back to the camp site that we'd used the night before just 16min away.

It was like coming home when we arrived at the camp site

Dinner on

And another awsome evening of pointless chit-chat, still not able to Skype Ben though

 

[Ben]

On Skype last night you promised an update in time for when I got up today!

Come on........................I want to read about the rest of your adventure!

 

[sae70]

On Skype last night you promised an update in time for when I got up today!

Come on........................I want to read about the rest of your adventure!

last night?! That was this morning surely?! Get yourself off to work you Scallywag, you've got money to earn and bits to buy I'll finish this up as soon as my senior years will allow


I'll get right on it for you

 

[sae70]

I forgot to mention that on the way to the camp site we stopped off at the petrol station in Machynlleth to fuel up and pick up some essential supplies from the extensively well stocked attached shop. We bought some Wine and a few Abbot Ales, an Onion and some Pringles. There's still many people wearing pink ribbon in memory of April Jones the 5 year old girl from Machynlleth who is still missing. I'd read a story about her family and other members of the town releasing pink balloons in her memory on what would have been her sixth birthday, just before we headed up there this time. The time we were up there when Ben's truck fell over I'd been to one of our local shops in Essex and bought a couple of rolls of pink ribbon so we could all have some tied to each of our trucks in her memory while we were in the area of Machynlleth. It was while coming back down 'Chuckle Lane' on the Sunday morning that I noticed a bit of one of the ribbons that was tied to one of our trucks caught up in a tree on the lane and odd bits of Police Tape along the lane where they had clearly been laying out grid squares while searching for her. Anyway, it turned out talking to some locals at the petrol station that this was to be the last week of searching by the the Police! I guess they still have not found her as it would have been all over the news.

So, camp all packed away, engines running and back down 'Chuckle Lane' into Machynlleth and then an hour on Tarmac down to the affectionately named (by Ben) 'Bastard Lane' just above 'Clun Forest'. We had planned to camp Saturday night at a site we've used a number of times before just a few minuets from this next lane, but due to the time we got out of the last lane on the Saturday evening decided to head for somewhere nearer. This would turn out to have been very fortuitous as we found out later on!

Down 'Chuckle Lane'





















Then an hours drive on the black stuff to 'Bastard Lane'





















Up to now the lane has been a pleasure to drive with great scenery

First small challenge of the lane.









All through with no dramas







From this point on the pain started



Not one of us got around this tree without sliding dangerously close enough to it to almost pick up damage and thus having to winch ourselves back up enough out of harms way to be able to slowly drive around it. The surface of this lane cambers towards the stream alongside and all of the run off from the adjacent fields runs across the top of the lane into the stream, so its surface is very slick. Also, as it's not often driven there's very little in the way of ruts to hold you up from slipping into the stream!!! It's a great little technically challenging lane







This photo shows really well the angle that the lane is at









While Mog, behind me in the Disc is setting himself up to get around the first obstacle this is as far as both myself and Giles got before having to set up the winches to negotiate the next bodywork eating tree!!!



As Mog was bringing up the rear he had no one to winch his rear end round! So we ran his winch line through a snatch block out to the front right of his truck back to another snatch block set up to the rear right of his truck. He then winched himself enough away from the trees that he could drive around them, JUST!!!







Then here he is at the next tree to get around, not a single vehicles length in front of him









It went on like this for the next three hours or more





































In the end forward motion of any kind was just not possible without the use of waffles!





Time for a cupa Tea and a biscuit





Nothing like a tea break for making some time to hit ones intermittent winch with a BFH



Tea break over



Finally the end is in sight and and although this dose not look much in the photo the right hand side of it as you look down the lane is almost a two meter shear drop. With this in mind Giles decides to give it a go by keeping over to the left and bang!!! Big dent in passenger door as the slick surface claims its first blood!



Needless to say that me and Mog decide to make use of the waffles for this descent, learning from Giles





It's not over for Giles with the drop off as there's a tight 'V' gully to get through and then you need to cross axle over some deep ruts as there's a well used private lane up into the adjacent woods that joins the bottom of the lane at this point, but these get the better of Giles and track him sideways up onto a hidden tree stump that stops him dead!







My turn down the drop off......





and through the gully....







Now Mogs turn....









A view back up the lane



Time for a tidy up.......



and another brew, well done Mog



Mmmmm..... That's not looking right







Ah that'll be why



All straight and back on





We had planned to go on from this lane to do another favorite of ours, one called 'Motel Lane' down near Trecastle. Alas we'd just plain run out of time though.

As we were so close to the Quarry camp site we decided to drive to it just to make sure it was still a viable wild camp spot for the future. Not matter what way we headed toward it though I progress was stopped by drifts!!! Good job we didn't decide to head down to it on the Saturday night after all











So we aired up and headed back home to Essex





The END

 

[Ben]

Great trip report Steven.

Certainly kept me entertained this lunch break.

I dont think your pics do that lane justice for just how challenging it is.

Crazy to think Karl's mate Dave drove his 80 all the way from the bottom to the top without winching or hitting any trees.

I think the tree that claimed Giles's door, also destroyed one of mine last year.

 

[Trevor]

Nice write up Steve, campsite looked a whole lot warmer than last year, brrrr the memories.

 

[Gary820]

Enjoyed the photos and the write up, looked a great trip.