Anglesey Unplanned

The plan was simple - head to Anglesey in convoy with SWLRC, No plan other than that 

The start wasn't so simple it took a new top hose and ... 

Plenty of cleaning up to get us going

It was a wonderful night camping in Builth Wells

And they all looked as good in the morning

 Then we went to Claerwen Reservoir Dam. Scene of the famous 1986 Land Rover Advert

And on through the lanes, sometimes taking the correct route ...

 All to end on Anglesey where Land Rover was apparently thought up by Maurice Wilks and his brother Spencer Wilks

And a quick trip to Red Wharf Bay where the first design was drawn in the sand

Sadly Katy had had electrical gremlins all the way up so after I managed to start her I decided on a non-stopping (of the engine) run back

I did stop just south of Snowdonia as the view was so wonderful - here she is with the engine Running

Anglesey - The Road Home

OK it wasn't that early and we did take time having a cuppa before we got started, but then it was time for off. Sunshine & Scenery were to be the order of the day as we headed back through Snowdonia and then Mid Wales

First stop after Llanberris was to admire the scene of a rugged Land Rover in even more rugged scenery

 

Then down to Bedgellert where we met a Subaru Owners club coming the other way. Whilst waiting in the traffic one of them was sitting next to me enjoying the sound of his sporty engines with a bit of revving so I treated him to what the sound of a 300TDi sounds like in full flow. I got a bit of a shocked look!

The journey southwards was uneventful on the mechanical front which was good as it allowed us to concentrate on enjoying the scenery and it is indeed might fine scenery.

We arrived in Cardiff just entering the red on our fuel which means we have put just £95.00 diesel into Katy for this journey. OK we'll need to fill up for the next, but I think the new gearbox has made a massive difference to the driveability and we are all (all three of us I am sure) looking forwards to our next big adventure

Mind you I do have a list of new jobs ....

1. Remove and replace cupboard shelves which stink !
2. Add shelves to the rear cupboards
3. Fix the Exhaust properly
4. Find out why the washer water isn't working
5. Find all the leaks around the windscreen and doors and fix them properly
6. find out why the fridge is only partially efficient and repair or replace it
7. replace the missing mudflaps

That should be enough to keep me busy for a few weeks or months

Anglesey - Church Bay, Holy Island, South Stack and Roscolyn

After the success of Parys Mountain we rose to some more poor weather so headed off in a slightly miserable state around the north side of the island which has some really small roads.

Church bay was nice, but we did get some strange looks in the lanes.. maybe because the blowing exhaust was getting worse. We arrived at the Llynnon Mill, the only windmill working on Anglesey. I have to say that in an earlier post I commented I would need bigger spanners for workong on katy, but to be honest that's nothing when compared to what you need to work on this gearbox !



Whilst we were there, the weather started improving which was nice so we got some pictures of a white windmill against something other than a pure grey sky.

We then headed to Bagnol Caravan Park in Treardurr Bay where we were welcomed by the owner with a huge grin and a laugh as we blew our way into the campsite and settled into a pitch. His laugh at the site of Katy was followed by him having to come and have a good look at her

The pleasant evening in the sun was followed by a super day on the cliffs at South Stack and then Roscolyn, and then we came back for a final night at the campsite.

With the long journey ahead I decided it was time for some running repairs and it didn't tale long to find the problem. One of the exhaust joints wasn't done up properly and we'd lost 2 bolts  leaving just one holding it together. So on with the overalls i had taken "just in case" and a root around to locate at least one more bolt I could use to repair it, and the blowing was quickly reduced to an acceptable level

All ready for an early start tomorrow...

Anglesey - Moelfre and Amlwych

Having been washed out of Beaumaris we headed north to Moelfre and Amlwych on Tuesday

We ended up farmyard camping at Nant Bychan Farm in Moelfre where we were lucky to get a place, and were only accepted onto the campsite when we said we didn't need electric hookup. It was a bit busy as you can see from this picture of Katy looking out to sea.

OK I can't see what the problem was either... maybe we made a little too much noise...  The exhaust is blowing a little ?!

As the weather was better we tried a little running repairs to the windscreen waterproofing with a tube of silicone sealant, but its not been successful so we need to work our where it's still coming in from

Wednesday we headed for Parys mountain which is a stupendous place, a marvel of geological and historical features and (especially after some rain) a riot of colours as you can see

Katy looked nice as well

We finished the day with a visit to see my relatives who have been on the island since 1951(ish). It was very nice to make connection again since we were last there visiting family in 1975.

Anglesey - Beaumaris

Monday it wasn't actually raining !

The first port of call was to be Beaumaris Castle and a brief respite in the rains allowed us to enjoy a few hours walking around this fantastic building. I've always enjoyed castles, but this one is a wonderful one to walk around as it has many of the wall walks and wall passages still available to walk around which is quite amazing in these times where Elf 'n'Safety has taken all the fun out of things.

After that it was off on some travels but before stopping for some diesel. £95.00 of the stuff !  

Then on to Llangefni to the Oriel Ynys Môn to have a look at the works of famous Kyffin Williams and Charles F. Tunnicliffe amongst others, and then on to Penmon Point to look aty some fascinating dirt (very young rocks) and some interesting skies

Finally we headed back past Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch where katy being a bit of a show off had to stand and have per picture taken in front of the famous railway station sign

Then we headed back in the rain to Beaumaris and another night's good rest on our very nice campsite another good day in Katy !

Anglesey - The Road North

Sunday afternoon, the packing was done, the rain was falling and we were ready for off.

Our first impressions were how much nicer it was with the noise proofing, the second was we were getting wet ! The rain was coming in from around the windscreen and dropping onto us. There was nothing we could do about it so we simply moved anything that could get damaged and continued.

The next sensation was we'd stopped moving forwards... Not a technical problem, simply that we'd reached Builth Wells and although the Royal Welsh Show didn't start until Monday there was still an awful lot of traffic trying to get into the showground and the famous traffic jams were already in full flow

Given the rather un-wonderful weather the scenery in mid Wales had to be described as "disappointing" and we pushed on as fast as we could. Next. we headed towards Snowdonia and once again all of the mountains were cut off at about 200 ft above us and there was nothing to see so we headed on again

We arrived at about 6:30 pm and settled into the Kingsbridge campsite and considered our evening meal. We'd considered eating out to celebrate, but with the weather so bad we settled in for some pasta and we cooked our first meal in Katy. It may not have been Cordon Bleu, but it tasted fantastic to me !

A wonderfully successful day on what we hoped would be be our first successful adventure since the Gearbox disaster