Wales – Motorcycle tour: Wales in Suzuki DL 650 V-Strom –

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Motorcycle tour: Wales on a Suzuki DL 650 V-Strom

Wales - Motorcycle tour: Wales in Suzuki DL 650 V-Strom -

After my trip to Morocco, I was invited to spend the long Easter weekend in a cottage in Wales (Wales for English speakers). The opportunity to take my V-Strom to the land of Dungeons and Dragons! As if I needed a cultural pretext to want to ride …

After my, I was invited to spend the long Easter weekend in a cottage in Wales (Wales for English speakers). The opportunity to take my V-Strom to the land of Dungeons and Dragons! As if I needed a cultural pretext to want to ride …

So I started to explore the web to get some information and ideas for visits. When I go to a place I do not know, I note the places recommended by tourist sites and when I have a substantial list, I prepare two road books.

For the first one, I leave it to Google Map to decide which roads I will take. For the second, I have fun moving the proposed route on secondary roads to do a little exploration. I try to go through small villages and if I find unpaved tracks … so much the better !

Sometimes I have nice surprises … and from time to time not at all! It happened to me to enter the course of a golf club, or to find myself stuck on a steep slope facing a closed gate … Beautiful moments of stress and learning !

Then, I go to the website of my GPS and I download the proposed road book: the best bend in the region, the most beautiful castles, etc. I add to all this a paper map of the region in case the little magic box breaks down, and that’s it: ready to travel !

Paris – Birmingham: approximately 660 km, via the A1 motorway towards Arras, then A26 to Calais. Route without much interest, except that this is the first time that I go for such long distances in duo, with my partner. The girl at the counter where we go before boarding us smiles to the fullest when she sees us and I still wonder why she was laughing so much…

The choice of the boat was strategic: it will allow us to rest during the trip (1h40) and possibly to meet some bikers. It was not the case this time: we were the only ones on motorbikes on the ferry.

"Stay on the left, stay on the left"

The English section, that’s it: the adrenaline rushes back up! Driving on the left with the famous roundabouts … Concentration to the max and I repeat to myself over and over again "stay on the left, stay on the left" to prevent reflexes from resurfacing.

Arrival in Birmingham in the evening went smoothly. The roads are well lit and the signs are spotless. We are among the British! Sometimes I check that my partner is there: she doesn’t flinch, whereas 150 km in the night and the cold as a passenger, it’s not that great. Fortunately we had a few coffee breaks, it made us smile again, and then we were there, traveling England on a motorbike. !

Later, our friends we will admit that when we took off our helmets, hair all over the place, faces white and marked, "surprisingly you looked light and happy. In short, you were happy".

The next day, visit the waterfall, Pistyll Rhaeadr, Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant, Powys, UK. No comment on proper names, pronunciation and spelling in Wales. Let’s just say that it’s impossible for a Franco-Argentinian to memorize them and I always used copy and paste for this text !

We stop by the side of the road for a delicious English breakfast.

Visiting the Waterfalls is highly recommended, not only for the waterfall but also for the small roads that you have to take to get there! We find ourselves in small paths with fields on both sides, generally a little higher, as if the road had been dug between the fields. Mud piles and the remains of animal "needs" require caution … A few tractors and cars with tourists, but everyone remains courteous and cooperative.

As I arrived before my friends (they were by car) I parked at the entrance to the site next to a camper van (note: the parking at the end of the road is chargeable, £ 3 for motorbikes and £ 5 for cars). There, I see a group of four people and one of them catches my attention, a tall man with a long 80’s style black fur coat. The conversation starts right away, I explain where I come from, where I am going, etc., and after having kindly refused a tea (personally I was dying of heat), he tells me that they are two couples and that they always travel together with the van. I wonder if I haven’t run into some hippies.

Obviously, the conversation turns to the motorcycle: he himself owns a Triumph XC. He tells me which route to take to venture into the tracks around the site of the waterfalls.

I get my trekking sneakers and it’s time for us to walk around the waterfall! The fresh air is good, the walk lasts two hours at most, until tea time. And then – finally! – I go up on the V-Strom towards the cottage, 1 km from Glaspwll, Machynlleth.

I take the opportunity to go once again through the small country roads, surrounded by sheep, stone houses and fields of a "very British" green (an almost fluorescent green that never ceases to impress me).

Arriving at the cottage is a mini adventure: the tar has disappeared to make way for a stony path that goes up. The stones roll under the tires, the V-Strom slips, but a stroke of the accelerator and it passes. The bike is happy, me too:

–    Go a little faster, she tells me

and then she insists:

–    We will have time to be bored in Paris !

The bike is safe, I hear the stones hitting the protections, the rear tire spinning, and the handlebars shake. But the V-Strom keeps taking me where I want. My friends in the car had left before me because I wanted to be able to take pictures in peace, it is my job and I stop regularly. Very, very regularly … Sometimes I think the landscape calls out to me:

–    You continue your journey without taking a picture of me ?

And I get off the bike for the tenth time and click, I go back up … 200 m further:

–    Hey, what about me? Have you seen the sheep in the fields with the sun setting behind the hills ?

And rebelote, another photo … I decide to move forward, because I tell myself that they will be worried. In fact, I find the girls who walk the road. The car being too low to pass between the stones, they decided to walk.

The cottage is a farm, between hills and fields, with all modern amenities … except Wifi and network for mobile phones.

The next day, walk in the Welsh fields. A little trekking after all that devoured bacon, it can only do good! This walk of a few hours allows me to spot some very rolling tracks between the forest paths.

And now the next morning, I decide to go do a little exploration with the V-Strom. I’m a little sleepy, so be careful, but the place is superb. I cross a bridge: photo click, I advance a hundred meters: photo click … I should have come on foot! I see squirrels again and again crossing the track, the sun goes through the trees, a stream to my right. What place !

The schedule for the day is to see the Evil Bridge (Woodlands, Devil’s Bridge, Aberystwyth, Ceredigion SY23 3JW, United Kingdom) via the A4. The road is superb. The tar is almost new, the grip is not to be feared, the turns are great and the anticipation of the curves is done without problem since the signaling is very effective. And all this in a setting from the Game of Thrones series !

The Evil Bridge site is well worth a visit, with a forest of dry trees and a trail that takes us very close to the waterfall (£ 3.70).

As it was a Sunday and tradition demands it, we left for the "Sunday Roast". The English are used to having lunch with friends or family, with beef and vegetables that vary according to the seasons and regions, all in a succulent sauce. Almost all pubs offer it, all in an English pub atmosphere !

The next day, head to the Dinorwig hydroelectric power station, also known as Electric Mountainle (I would rather say Mondor mountain, in Lord of the Rings), in Snowdonia National Park. A mountain of black stones, impressive.

The road to the Dinorwing is once again perfect. However, the bends come nonstop, and again, in a magnificent setting. I don’t know where to look, the plains and the mountains keep calling out to me.

Now it is evening and I am alone because my friends and my partner have each had to go home. I found a Bed and Breakfast (BnB), formula which ensures to have a room and a breakfast in someone’s house.

I figured it would be friendlier and cheaper than a hotel but the cheapest I found is £ 45. The budget will explode … I am not at ease. We’ll have to tighten our belts. The next morning, for breakfast, I take the opportunity to make myself a sandwich and save on lunch. Idea that worked very well and that I repeat the next day.

Throughout the day I devote myself to exploring the back roads of Snowdonia National Park. That day, I do between 8 and 9 hours of motorbike. By small country roads between the Welsh valleys, I crossed stone bridges, borrowed rolling tracks, crossed pine forests and visited the lakes of the region.

The rain accompanied me for an hour but did not discourage me because even like that, the landscape is transformed and always remains impressive. I passed rare cars and a few hikers, but very few.

I decide to stop at a height to contemplate the plain. Sheep seem like dots in a painting, everything belongs to me since I have been alone for hours. No cars, no walkers, only the wind, the mountain and the road, everything for me.

I check the bike: tires, oil, chain, everything is OK. I will take the opportunity to "mark my territory" in peace from the top of the hill. I feel the fresh breath of the wind on me, I close my eyes. Total freedom. This is what I am looking for in motorcycle trips. Finally, not only to be able to pee in the open air, freedom and meetings above all !

There, I will not be long in having some. From a distance, I see fuchsia tights on a bicycle, then a young girl approaching at the foot of the small hill where I am.

–    Hello ! she said, I’m waiting for my father, he follows me.

There you go, I don’t see anyone for hours and just as I’m about to satisfy a natural need in the middle of the meadows, it’s a failure !

I see a man of a certain age arrive, breathless and red, with his tongue outside his mouth. To the misfortune of my kidneys, this nice cyclist was very talkative … But I didn’t stay long and I continued on the A4212 all day until the evening.

The next day, to take a more interesting route to Birmigham, I chose the "shorter" option in the GPS and this way I passed through small villages and sometimes pretty trails. Under a pouring rain and very local color, I arrive at my destination.

The next day on the ferry I meet a very nice biker. No wonder: he’s Welsh !

Wales is therefore a trip to be made. People are used to bikers and the welcome is sincere. There are "the rider is welcome" relays and the roads are really in good condition. The trails and tracks are numerous and easy to access.

 

Slideshow

"A man must travel to places he does not know to break this arrogance which makes us see the world as we imagine it, and not as it really is"

Amyr Klink, Brazilian navigator

Marcos POIDEBARD

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