North Wales Run - Sunday 19th October 2003
For this months meeting, it had been decided in
September to do a run to North Wales instead of congregating at the Wiggin Tree
and so it was that, in the end, 6 cars headed off toward the Snowdonia
national park on a frosty Sunday morning.
We had arranged to meet at the service station on the
M56 at 10am but I have grown accustomed to MR2 time now and so it was that, at 10.45, we
set off toward our next stop, the 'Ponderosa Cafe'. (I suppose
you did have to finish off putting a new front bumper on in the early
hours and you did get a blood blister for your troubles Mark, so can we blame Sharon?!!).
I have to add that by careful planning(?), the 6 car turnout
represented all the colours available for the MK1 B and made for some good photos.
After a few near misses (missing turning offs that is)
we arrived at 11.25 and had some refreshments whilst we waited for another
member who had said he would try to make it but by 12 we decided to carry on
to our lunch stop.
Ponderosa car park
The weather was ideal, there had been no rain for a
number of days, the sun was out and it was only partly cloudy with the
beginnings of a chill in the air, traffic was light but what little traffic
there was had decided that 40mph was the order of the day, somewhat
frustrating when you have to try and get 6 cars to overtake in a matter of
seconds i.e impossible. And so it was, having seen one Isuzu off only to come
up behind another, and another, we arrived at the Swallow Falls Hotel at 1pm
where, once again, we were due to meet up with someone (from Bangor), but
could not be found.
Swallow Falls Hotel Photo Op.
Lunch was quickly ordered as we had arrived just before a
coachload of 'tourists' and at this point I have to point out that John ate
an extremely healthy meal (we'll settle up later!). A number of entertaining
anecdotes where put forward, one about a sheep and a kangaroo, and another
about a mole, both of which were met with great hilarity, although the
students sat at the next table appeared not to be amused and moved to another table, twice!!
It was also during lunch that Phil finally found out
that his car was in fact red, which I think he found a little hard to take!
After lunch we walked a little of it off by visiting
Swallow Falls, as we had done in February when we last did this run. This
involves depositing £1 into a 1 person turnstile in
order to gain entry but, in true NW style, one couple only had a £1 coin
between them and so decided to become, shall we say, openly intimate and
joined the rest of us some 5 minutes later. The 'Right Stuff part 2' photo was
taken and then back to the cars for the main event of the drive through some
of Wales best scenery.
The Right Stuff Part Two (From left to right - John, Ryan, Gary, Pete, Sharon, Mark, Phil)
This was, what I think, the best part of the day. We
headed west out of Betws y Coed toward Snowdon and onto some of the more
'interesting' roads, stopping on a number of occasions for the obligatory photos.
3 Mr Two's and 1 Mr Softy! (Any other captions welcome)
Breathtaking.
An hour after leaving the hotel we found ourselves on a
particularly 'interesting' B road on which some of us decided to see just how
well the road holding of these fantastic cars was. This however, resulted in
the pack being temporarily split into two groups as the first 3 disappeared
off into the distance and numbers 5 and 6 wishing number 4 would get a bloody
move on! (excuses were: - soft suspension, broken exhaust, scenery was too
nice to miss etc etc).
We did find time for a little rock climbing (see photo)
and stopped off finally at Lake Bala where we had afternoon tea and a
stone skimming competition (how sad are we?) It was here however that Phil
redeemed himself by winning.
Rock Climbing for beginners
All in all, a great day out only slightly ruined on the
way home when the clouds decided to open up for a short while. We did this run
in February of this year but October seemed a much better month so we hope to
make this one of our yearly run-outs.
Novembers meet will be as usual and December will
hopefully be an Xmas do, still yet to be finalised. The next run out is
scheduled for February when we hope to meet up with the NE in the Lakes.
RYAN KEVAN
