Wales
Following our acquisition of a Honda S2000, a convertible two-seater sports car, we decided that we should take it for a spin and see how it managed to take on a longer journey (and in particular whether we could fit enough in the boot for a week away), and then some glorious twisting mountain roads with the top down and the sun out. We managed most of that during a week in Wales - although the sun was a little harder to come by than the twisting mountain roads.
The original plan was to do a proper road trip - staying somewhere different each night as we made our way across to, around and back from Wales. However, we decided that as we were not sure how we or the car would cope, we instead booked a cottage close to Devil’s Bridge, about 15 miles inland from Aberystwyth.
The journey across was not brilliant due to the weather - rain most of the way to Wales, and then rain every time the roof came down. However, we did manage to get everything into the car that we needed, and also managed to get a few essentials from the supermarket in Shrewsbury after stopping off at Attingham Park, a National Trust property that we saw signposts to when we were getting ready for a break.
Once we got to the cottage we were staying in, we were pleased that we did not need to keep packing up every morning and getting to the next place before unpacking in the evening, as some days the weather really was not the sort that you want to drive too far in, and as there were some lovely places to drive and walk around close by. My favourite was the mountain road from Devil’s Bridge (where there are actually three bridges built one on top of the other as a stack over a waterfall) to Rhayader passing through the Elan Valley, beside the various reservoirs. It was a route that we did a few times, and was generally quiet (which was good as in many places there was not a lot of room for too many cars!). We also managed to see lots of red kites - something that you do not see in the east of England. When it came to feeding time and there were probably about 100 kites coming down for their food, it was difficult to image where all these birds found space to live.
The holiday was mainly about taking the car for a spin (we managed nearly 1000 miles in the week) rather than taking photos or walking, but I managed a few shots all the same.
