Just to get the ball rolling on this Blogging thing, which is still very new to me, I’ll just share with you a tale about a short trip I took on the bike (a J2 Kawasaki ZX6R) on my own in March 05. It was the first weekend I had had to myself for ages, it was also a bank holiday and so I decided to head into Wales. I never had any plan on where I was going to end up, or for how long I would be away, but that was half of the fun.

Friday 25.03.05

The weather was booked for the weekend and it just remained for me to make the most of it. No good days biking should start without a good breakfast however, so my mate John and I headed for the local Morrisons for a full English. That finished it was time to go home, pack up and hit the road.
John was heading east towards his dads. I wasn’t sure exactly where I was going to end up, except that I was heading south and into Wales. The only map I had available was one of the big 2004 road atlases, so I ripped out a couple of pages with Wales on them and headed off.
To cut a long and ultimately tedious journey short, I ended up passing by Wrexham on the A5 and heading towards the Llandudno turn off which was a few miles later. The only thing of note during the initial part of the trip was filtering through the slow moving traffic at more than twice their speed while a guy on a brand new Fireblade tried to keep up.
For me, the turn off for Llangollen and the twisties is where the fun part of the weekend really began. I passed through a small village and then the road ambled through a spectacular valley along the side of a canal. There was really no need to overtake anything as the traffic was quite free flowing, and anyway there was no hurry to get anywhere. To be honest, it took a while for that fact to sink in, but once it did the weekend became that bit more enjoyable and relaxing. It is sometimes hard in the world today to forget everything and just chill and enjoy the experience of doing absolutely nothing.
The road I was on turned out to be the A539, and it led straight into Llangollen. By now the sun was cracking the flags and I decided to top and get a cool drink. Even though I was on the bike it was hard to find somewhere to park as it seemed that every man and its dog had decided to come here on this day. Eventually though, after about fifteen minutes of farting about I managed to park up between two cars.
I hadn’t been to Llangollen since I was at school, so really it was like visiting the place for the first time. It really is a beautiful place, especially when the weather is as good as it was on that Friday. The main street starts off with a wide arched bridge that spans the river Dee and then leads up on a shallow incline past shops, bars and coffee houses. I parked the bike about two thirds of the way up the main street, had an amble round and then went for a coffee in the café directly opposite where the bike was resting. I was writing a few notes on the trip so far when a female voice asked ‘is that your bike over there?’ My first contact with another person as a solo traveller. The girl turned out to be working in the café and had just brought me over my latte. She was really friendly and we ended up having a good old chat about absolutely nothing, the only thing of note being her mentioning that the A5 out of Llangollen was a very scenic road.
As soon as the village was behind me the road rose up along the side of a valley and provided some spectacular scenery. My main memory of this part of the trip was about two miles out of Llangollen where the road did a quite sharp 180 degree left turn followed by a sharp 90 degree right turn. The road surface was brilliant and every sharp bend had shell grip on it which increased your confidence in the tyres.
This carried on for quite a while until the A5 met the A494. If it was possible for the road to get any better then it just did. It just seemed to snake through the countryside till I reached my eventual destination for the evening, Bala, right on the edge of Snowdonia National Park. I was going to push on to the coast to be honest, but it was past three by now and I thought there would be no point in just passing through places without seeing them. So as I was passing through the village I noticed a pub with a sign advertising the fact that accommodation was available. Ideally, considering my fairly tight budget at the time, it turned out to be only £20 for the night bed and breakfast. Happy days.
After checking in I showered, got changed and took a walk down to Bala Lake. The view was amazing. If you wanted to lose yourself for a couple of hours this would be the place to do it. After having a chat with a friend of mine over the phone I sat and watched the world pass by. I don’t think I have enjoyed doing nothing so much for a long time.
On my return to the village I put my bike in the rear courtyard of the pub, where the landlady had very kindly allowed me to leave it, and then decided to get a newspaper and have a pint before going for tea. One pint actually turned into three, but the general idea was the same.
I had my tea in a pub just down the road from the one I was staying in. It was curry and I have to say that it was a very nice one too. It was here that I met the Welsh Jim Royle. As I was sat on my own a two couples came and joined me. It turned out that one of the men was quite a big star on S4C (the Welsh version of Channel 4). It also turned out that he was in the middle of filming a welsh version of ‘The Royle Family’, and he was playing the part of Jim Royle. They were all really nice, friendly people, but it was strange the way they swapped between English and Welsh language. In the past I would have thought that it was because they were talking about me (being paranoid and all), but now I am of the opinion that they would slip between the two languages even if they were talking amongst themselves.
So after a gut full of ale and a curry I decided to head off to bed. To tell the truth I was going to chance another pint in The Ship (the pub I was staying in), but by the time I got back there I was wiped out and just wanted to sleep. I think it was around half past ten when I finally hit the sack, and after watching a bit of telly I was away for the night.

Saturday 26.03.05

I wanted to be up and away as soon as possible to make the most of the day and the weather on the Saturday. So after a good breakfast and a photo shoot of the bike (I’ll post that later) I headed off along the side of Lake Bala and into the national park. Yet again the roads were fantastic.
The only problem with this leg of the trip was being stuck behind a Vauxhall Senator. There were plenty of opportunities to get past it, but not without going over the 50mph speed limit, and as Senators are synonymous with coppers I thought it would be sensible for me to keep my distance. I did get hacked of with the dithering in the end though and couldn’t stop myself from flying past him.
At the end of this road was a T-junction where I turned right and then left for Barmouth. I had the pleasure of riding past a considerate car driver here who flashed me to warn of a police speed trap ahead. Sure enough as I turned left onto the road for Barmouth the sneaky bastard was sat in a lay-by with his gun.
Barmouth turned out to be a lovely little seaside resort and I stopped here to get a brew (of course, I love me brews me). The views here were spectacular, but it occurred to me that although solo travelling is good for the soul, it is also good to have someone to share the experiences of the places you go to with.
I eventually headed off for Betws-y-Coed (pronounced Betsy co-ed I am reliably informed) after enjoying the view out to sea and over the hills for a little while. Now if the roads of the previous day, and earlier on this day were good, then the road that led here was fantastic. It lead through valleys, over hills, through small villages and past beautiful scenery, and all the time it gave a great view ahead as well as giving good grip and feedback through the tyres.
After stopping for another brew and a bit of a wander round Betwys I had to consider one important option, where was I going to watch the England V Northern Ireland match. The only place in Wales that I thought it may be shown was a large town, and the only large town about happened to be Llandudno. So I headed for there along a road that in comparison to the ones I had been riding the last two days was, well, pretty average really. It did get me there quite quickly though, but once there I realised what a one horse town the place really was. There was something familiar about the place too, and it took a while to twig that I had been there with my ex girlfriend about ten years before. Even back then I remember thinking it was crap. As time to kick off was running short I decided to head for Chester to see if I could catch the game there.
As it turned out there was no chance. Heading along the A55 the heavens decided to open and it wasn’t till I was back on English soil that it stopped, although it had obviously been bad here too as the roads were drenched.
By now it was obvious that the match was beyond reach so as the Brewery Tap (a local biker’s pub) was just down the road I decided to call in there to see if anything was happening. Shouldn’t have bothered as mine was the only bike there and so, disheartened after the brilliant last 36 hours, I headed for home.