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Tuesday : Overcast with sunny breaks
Can you believe it?! The tropical storms continue! Haha! Two days in a row we have woken up to thunder and heavy rain, has to be good luck. Only today the sun didn't come back until after lunch.
In desperate need of a coffee, we said thank you very much and goodbye to Carly and we were off in search of a cafe.
Had a shocking time on the road this morn. Missed the turn off for the cafe, big mistake! Then I miss read the toll booth signs, ended up with notes wanting to pay in a coin only lane! So there I am, arm over the passenger headrest looking out the back window screaming backup the lane in reverse then dart across 6 lanes to get to a booth attendant.
All was forgotten once we crossed over to the other side of the impressive suspension bridge into Wales. For some reason things seemed to change. The roads were quieter and the grass was greener. No joke it really is greener on the other side!
We headed directly west just past Cardiff, and headed north right up the guts of Wales. Taking as many B roads as possible, because if there's one thing I love about driving over here is the B roads. The way they twist and wind. They cut such a narrow passage through the countryside that sometimes when the other car comes flying past, your amazed that you have your side mirrors still attached! Bloody brilliant!
We past through two amazing National parks today the Brecon Beacons & Snowdonia National Parks. The first one was jammed full of lakes, mountains and forests, and it's where we found this gem of a spot for lunch. On top of a hill overlooking a lake, it was stunning. I lost count of how many small old medieval towns with bridges, crossing rivers and creeks we drove through today. One of the towns was having a huge Agriculture show too, blew the 4WD and camping show in Sydney out of the park. it was massive, it was caravan NYC!
Glad we got to stop at a couple of towns for a walk and break, but the real pleasure in Wales is out in country. Well so far the whole place for us has been country. The towns are so small that if you blink you'd miss them. It's been a lot like driving around Ireland really, it's been great! Wish I'd come out here before.
On our way to seeing one of many castles in Wales, we got the shock off our life and stumbled across where the RAF does their low flying valley training. One of the jets screamed over head sideways through a mountain pass. I had read about this before, and the videos looked wicked. So we changed our plan, and started to trek it up one of the mountains to a point where we would be higher than the jet aircraft. We were up pretty high already, probably too busy taking in the view then SCREAM!!!! Another jet zooms sideways so close overhead. Turned out to be the last jet flyby of the day they stopped at 3pm.
So down we went and instead of heading out to the castle today we went over to find our hostel for the next three nights. The hostel was on a farm on the high slopes of the Conwy valley bordering the Snowdonia NP. It was a very steep climb most of the way up the windy drive the rio was is first gear. Thankfully it was Tarmac and not gravel. The position of the hostel couldn't be much better, it has a stunning view of the Conwy valley and some Snowdonia mountains with outdoor benches to take it all in.
We got setup in our room, then got cleaned up and made dinner as fast as possible so we could take it outside to eat on the benches and enjoy the magnificent view playing some cards.
After dinner we headed back up into the room, where it was nice a quiet. Well except for the sheep, but we had the whole place to ourselves, we just read up on the surrounding areas and planned our next few days before crashing.
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