Whoosh! What a windy weekend, but what an enjoyable one as well. This was a weekend trip, organised by Keith, to South Wales and back - just to enjoy the roads and scenery. No hidden agendas (like visiting railways or airports), just get on the bikes and ride down there, stay the night and come back. The full party were:

After picking up Sam Ogden (my pillion for the weekend), we all met up at Poplar 2000 for the 10am start. Which, in the best MANHOC tradition, was about 30 minutes late. Geoff & Karen arrived in their car because Karen wasn't feeling well but still wanted to come along. We set off to head down the M56 to J10 and join the A49. Which is where Keith made his first mistake. "OY!!!! You're supposed to go left here" I yelled at him as he headed blissfully off down the M6. No answer - and no moving left. Oh dear - and we've only done half a mile. Everyone, apart from myself and Geoff (remember Geoff? He has the car) followed like sheep. Neil radioed to me that he would get them back on track and we arranged to meet up at the A49 roundabout. Karen phoned me to find out what was going on and had a good chuckle when I told her. So, that was the first adventure!

10 minutes later, we all regrouped and carried on down the A49 to the Raven cafe for our first brew. This is MANHOC, remember and our motto is "If you can't ride, eat; if you can ride, head for somewhere to eat". Then, onwards and down towards a lunch stop. As we went through Craven, I remembered a nice pub (the Craven Arms) and we stopped there to re-fuel the bikes (Tony and Neil being the main contenders for small tanks) and to refuel our stomachs. By this time we were half way there and the pace was good. The weather stayed OK if a bit breezy.

We carried on after lunch down the A49 and onto some nice back roads (the B4521) where we had about 10 miles of fabulous twisty and EMPTY roads to play on. Great stuff. We got to Skefrith and I noticed a nice castle. "That looks a nice place to stop" I radioed to Keith. "Oh bugger" he responded, "I was supposed to stop there". So, a quick U-turn in the road and it was another stop to look round the castle and have some tea and cakes (well, it would be rude not to). After about 40 minutes, we set off again and headed down into Wales, across the A40 and towards Pontypridd and our final destination. By this time, the skies had gone black (time for the clear visor) and it was starting to pour down. On with the waterproofs and we carried on to our B&B. We got there around 6pm going round more roundabouts than in the whole of Manchester (at least it felt like that), by which time it had stopped raining.

Our B&B host, Alun, met us and guided the bikes into his secure yard. The welcome couldn't have been nicer and my room was great. While everyone else was getting changed, Pete and I wandered up the hill to find a pub for the evening. Alan's advice (turn left, up the hill & 100 yards along) was a but misleading. About 1/2 a mile away, after a heart attack of a hill we did find a pub - "Live entertainment and bar snacks", but decided that another one we had seen over the other side of the railway, was better. So, we walked there (another 1/2 mile), checked it out - Carvery was £3.69 - had a swift beer and went back, the quick way (about 400 yards) to report our findings. Only to find most of the others had been given the same directions and had already gone. Oh well, Malc and Val can pass on our findings while we get changed.

A bit later on, we all met up in the Lord Tonypandy (the nice pub) and had a good evening eating and drinking before it was time for bed. And so the first day ended happily.

Next morning I woke up much refreshed after a good nights sleep in a very comfortable bed in a very quiet room - what could be nicer? I wandered down to the breakfast room (Alan's kitchen) and was greeted by a large mug of tea. Great stuff. The breakfast on offer looked very inviting, but I limited myself to poached egg on toast. Of course, the rest of them had the full breakfast. Once that was done, we went outside to load up and extricate the bikes from their moorings (well, the Gold Wing had a small lake on its cover). We did attempt to share the route back, but the Garmins of rob and Geoff wouldn't accept them (more on this later).

Alun had offered to take us to the local petrol station and then show us some nice roads over the Brecon Beacons. Which he did. And they were fantastic. It was a shame the roads were a bit wet, but we still enjoyed it. We all stopped at a local roadside cafe to say our goodbyes and, of course, have a quick brew while we were there. Then, onwards along the A470 to Newtown and lunch. We had to negotiate Bulith Wells where the Welsh bike show was causing traffic problems. No issue for the bikes - but the Nissan got caught. I phoned them to tell them the route (carry on along the A470 to Oswestry). Rob, with no radio and no route, decided to do the right thing and stop and wait for them at the first turn. Which was the wrong thing since, about 20 miles up the road, we found we were on the A483 and not the A470. Oops. I tried to call Geoff, but there was no signal. So, we carried on (what else could we do?).

Arriving in Newtown, we stopped and I phoned again. This time, I got through and told them what was going on. Rob was with them and after a brief excursion up the wrong road, we all met up for some lunch at a local McDonalds. By this time, it was REALLY windy, although not raining and, once we had finished eating we decided to push on to Poplar 2000 in one go (about 80 miles). The ride was fine, no hold ups, no incidents and we got to Poplar in time for a welcome drink (and cake) and Costa. Then, time to say goodbye and head home for a bath.

A brilliant weekend - and thanks to everyone who made it so. 172 miles down and 178 miles back. The routes are here:

A plug for the guest house - Ty Lily Mea - the web site is http://www.rhonddaguesthouse.co.uk/home  - give it a try.

And now, photos - these are mine, others will be uploaded when I get them: