Wales: Abergavenny to Aberystwyth and the Black Mountain Pass.

I generally try to avoid driving in a convoy, it’s hard enough driving on your own let alone worrying about following someone in front or if someone behind is still in touch but on this occasion we were  driving in a sociable grouping of two couples and in a loose formation…..i.e. we knew where we were heading and the general route, if we lost sight and communication it would not be the end of the world we would soon meet up again. To assist we had a pair of walkie talkies and our driving companions suggested the call signs ‘Danny Boy’ – us, and ‘Broadsword’ – them. This no doubt sounds rather abstract if you are not aware of the cult film of 1969 vintage, ‘Where Eagles Dare’. However, our operation was set in the Brecon Beacons rather than the Bavarian Alps. I, as usual, was the designated driver accompanied by my reluctant navigator. Mr and Mrs Broadsword had a more flexible arrangement of taking turns in driving and navigating. Our arrangement suits me just fine as I enjoy driving more than being a passenger and to be fair my navigator would rather be a passenger and only if pressed a navigator. We agreed on the required etiquette of push to talk communication but my navigator was prone to be verbose and over friendly with her comms, ‘roger’, ‘over’ and even an ‘over and out’ made an appearance at the start of the drive but was soon forgotten. Mrs Broadsword is Welsh and although now living in the Cotswolds still had an insight into the Welsh terrain and culture including of course the language. My navigator found a new joy in pronouncing Welsh place names as we drove the route with a deep squelching rasp which, although I was told was authentic, did prove troublesome as we had to stop on a couple of occasions to clean the inside of the window screen.

Mr Broadsword was driving a Subaru BRZ a shiny example in the traditional and iconic Subaru blue but I’m fairly easy going and did not hold that against him. I did remind him that I had never seen a ‘My other car’s a Subaru’ sticker.

The drive was to take us from Cirencester out towards Gloucester and into Wales to tour around the Brecon Beacons using Abergavenny as a base and driving the Black Mountain Pass through to Aberystwyth.

Tour Summary

18 May – Cotswolds to Abergavenny

We set off on a fine Saturday morning heading from Cirencester towards Birdlip and stop briefly at the viewing point to take in the glorious view before heading down to Gloucester.

Our overnight stop is Ivy Cottage one of two cottages associated with the Walnut Tree restaurant where we are booked in for our evening meal. Ivy Cottage is located a couple of miles outside of Abergavenny in Llanndewi Skirrid just inside the Brecon Beacons National Park. We intend to explore roads to the North East of Abergavenny and towards Aberystwyth over the next couple of days. Our route takes us through the beautiful Wye Valley and we stop for lunch and a leg stretch at Hay-on-the-Wye a town that that lies mostly on the Welsh side of the Wales/English border. It’s usually a quiet town but today a fair is in town which makes parking a little more difficult and the blaring bass beats coming from the rides does not reflect the charm of this pretty place. Interestingly Hay-on-the-Wye is twinned with Timbuktu but this town does not feel as far away and one would be forgiven for thinking you were still in England. We follow the A479 towards Abergavenny and take a detour off to visit the Welsh Crannog Centre a peaceful spot for a stroll around the lake before heading back on the A479 and onward to Llanndewi Skirrid and our accommodation.

Once we reach our accommodation I make the mistake of turning in early and find myself in the restaurant car park rather than the cottage, but no matter, the restaurant and cottages are all run from the restaurant. We go to check into the accommodation and also make sure we have a table reserved, however, the woman at the desk appears to be more concerned with entertaining a couple of the lads working there at our expense but after some obtuse remarks she does indeed confirm we have the accommodation and passes the key over and following some dramatic searching confirms we have a table.

The cottage and grounds turn out to exceed our expectations as does the evening meal; highly recommended.

19 May – Abergavenny to Aberystwyth

The cottage is well stocked for a self-service breakfast and we take full advantage of it before we set off for a day’s driving. We decide to leave the Black Mountain pass until Monday as it will be less busy. We head North on the A40 through the Brecon park towards Brecon before joining the A470 and heading to Rhayader and onward to the Elan Valley. We plan to meet at the Elan Valley Visitor Centre but there is some confusion as we try and meet to park up together.

Broadsword is the lead car and unknown to us drives past the visitor centre towards the reservoir and then back to the car park where we hope to join them. A crackle comes over the walkie talkie that Broadsword has encountered a number of sports cars, many of them Porches, on the road to the reservoir. I would like to say at this point that in true Clint Eastwood fashion his communication was ‘We have company’ (you need to see the film) but he unfortunately was not in character I believe ‘it’s a Porchfest here’ is probably a better description of what was said. We park up next to the visitor centre its fairly quiet then we are joined by more and more sports and exotic cars obviously part of a larger tour group. The cars consist of Porsches, Jaguars, Bentley, Maclaren, Ferrari. Astons and a couple of Lotuses but as I point out to Mr Broadsword not a single Saburu amongst them save for his fine example that has now been recorded for posterity, framed in a sea of exotica. In fairness both our cars look ordinary in comparison to the highly modified and slightly pimped up versions on display but they did create a spectacle and it was great to see such a fine collection of racing marques gathered in one place.

We take some time to look over the fleet of exotica before moving off past the visitor centre and along the single lane trackway towards the Caban Coch Dam where we drive across the dam to take in the view.

We head out on the A470 and pick up the A44 to head to Aberystwyth and as we near the coast the wind picks up. Aberystwyth looks slightly sad with a lot of the fine architecture way past its former glory, as many of the UK’s seaside towns are these days. The walk down the promenade is bracing and at the start of the pier we stop to take a fish and chip lunch. This is the place for fresh fish and chips and no better time to eat it with the sun shining and a salty sea weed breeze in your face. We continue down the promenade walking off the lunch before getting back to the cars to continue our drive. We track the A487 down the coastal route looking out onto the glorious Cardigan Bay, the largest bay in Wales.

As the coastal road turns inland at Aberaron we divert off towards Lampeter to join the A40/A479 and return to our cottage.

20 May – Abergavenny and the Black Mountain Pass

We take the A465 heading West along South of the Brecon’s and make our way to Abercraf where we head up the A4067 to view the Cray Reservoir.

We continue North and join the A40 towards Llandovery where we head down the A4069 leading onto the Black Mountain Pass. The weather is fairly bright but gusty, Broadsword is taking the lead but again we’ll be driving loosely together stopping for occasional photo opportunities as they arise. We follow the pass as it cuts down the western corner of the Brecon Beacons, winding its way to a height of 1600ft providing magnificent views of beautiful countryside before the decent comprising of enjoyable hairpins and straight sections. We find the road in pretty good condition and on a Monday we virtually have it to ourselves save for a number of roaming sheep; beware they can get protective if with lambs.

With the pass behind us we make our way back to Cirencester over the Prince of Wales Bridge. The rear spoiler on the Cayman is raised at around 75 mph but it’s subtle, so subtle in fact that I have never been able to confirm its working…rather like a fridge light going out when you shut the fridge door, well only if you are the driver or passenger/navigator. Yes, I know I probably should be able to feel the increased stability as its deployed but I tend not to take many corners at over 75 mph. If it doesn’t deploy, I suspect I should get a failure warning but I sought Broadsword to provide photographic evidence.

I can now sleep easy.

My Navigator presses the walkie talkie and bids ‘Broadsword’ a farewell from ‘Danny Boy’ and even manages a very professional ‘over and out’.