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Snowdonia Tour By Triumph Tiger 900 GT Pro
Sept 17-20th
2024
I had already put this off once or twice when the weather forecast changed for the worse but now the omens predicted fine weather for a week in North Wales. Originally I'd planned to go via Joyce and Jeff again but eventually it looked too tricky to manage, so decided to do the long trip there and back in one day each - a test for the new Tiger 900. At first I'd planned to go after the Shingles vaccine late Monday morning but that was looking challenging and when we lost the Villa keys I cancelled the original booking at the Queens Hotel Bleanau Festiniog and instead opted to the Bryn Elltyd Eco House just down the road from Tuesday to Friday.
Day 1 - Tuesday - Sept 17th
Left home around 9.30am as it was going to be along day, some 220 miles. Travelling along the M4 and then A417/9 with the first stop planned for the Goldern Heart Inn just before the M5. Only to find it was closed on Tuesdays. I forgot to check after changing my dates. No worries I was feeling fine after an easy 70 miles on the trusty Tiger so continued on around Gloucester to start the country roads to Wales. I continued to the midway point at Wooferton and stopped to fill the bike and me. All good until setting off I noticed my phone wasn't working! A real isse as it was my only source of navigation! I struggled up the road to the charming town of Ludlow where miraculously it had started working again. Maybe signal issues only. After that all went fine and I eventually got to the Eco House around 4.30pm. A long ride but perfectly doable. Interesting owner. A retired Aeronautical Engineer and Tecnology Teacher who turned his profession into his passion by adapting the house to make it Carbon negative! Evening dinner was a sandwich and glass of red wine from the Co-Op. Feeling exhasted by bedtime and soon fell asleep despite feeling chilly and later waking with the 'hot sweats' both probably from the Shingles jabs. Felt fine though. |
 Day 2 - Wednesday - Sept 18th
Started off the day with a Full English" Breakfastet at the cafe next door to the Eco House. The breakfast was perfect except for the soggy fried bread! Then set off for the day's tour. First to Beddgelert and then past the wonderful view of Snowden on the way to Capel Curig. Joined the A5 for a while before taking a left through heathland up to Denbigh before dropping down to Llangollen after lunch at the Pondorosa Cafe on the Horseshoe pass. Then back to the Eco House via Bala. Went to the Oakley House Hotel for a  Shandy and Prawn Salad which looked lovely but didn't quite live up to its looks with mushy prawns! After that I wondered down towards the nearby Festiniog Power Station. A pumped power sation where water is pumped to the higher resovoir during times of high supply and low demand and allowed to return to meet high demand. Interesting Tri-Lingual signs - contractors working on a project are German! |
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 Day 3 - Thursday -Sept 19th
Breakfast again at the next door cafe - this time with toast instead of fried bread - so that was great. Then off past Porthmaddog through Pwllheli (a nice seadside town) towards the unpronouncable Uwchmynydd at the extreme north western tip of the peninsula. After back tracking a couple of miles, as planned, I then went round in circles as I though I was going back towards Pwllheli but in fact had been heading in the right direction. Eventually things got sorted and after travelling along some larger roads I arrived at Caernarfon Castle - a very large, very impressive old structure. After that back through Beddalert and then North again towards Bangor, accidentally crossing over the Menai Bridge into Anglessey (wrong exit from a roundabout) before heading back south along the start of the A5 through glorious sceneray. Stopping off for a coffee at the Caffi Siabod on the A5 just after Capel Curig. Really friendly and funny asian owners! Then back along the A470 to the eco house. Dinner was Fish and Mushy Peas with the remains of the very pleasnt bottle of red wine I bought two days previously.
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Day 4 - Friday - Sept 20th
The weather forecast for the journey home was looking dubious so I skipped breakfast at the cafe, packed up and headed off around 8.30. Opted for a relatively fast route to avoid the downpours in the Midlands just after noon but still wanted to keep away from the M5 and M6 around Birmingham. So headed north on the A470 to join the A5 and then South East through Llangollen towards Shrewsbury. This was a good route. Non motorway but fast. At Shrewsbury I turned off the A5 towards Bridgenorth and Kidderminster. Just south of Bridgenorth I stopped for breakfast, a bacon sandwich, at the Food Stop Cafe  (WV15 6QL). A great Bikers venue with a lovely lady taking the orders - but sadly with notices saying it was to close. After that down through Kidderminster to Worcester onto the M5 then the A417 link towards Swindon. Around Worcester I was getting raindrops on my visor but they stopped and I thought I had outwitted the weather. How wrong was I.?! Stopped at services on the A417 and the sun came out! But the skies to the south looked dreadfull and before long there was torrential rain. I donned my waterproof leggings but is wasn't enough to stop my underpants gradually filling with ice-cold water. Luckily the heated seat on the Tiger gradually warmed this to tolerable levels and by the time I got on the M4 the rain eased and the sun came out. I made it home damp but happy. A wonderful trip! |
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Postscript
I had toured Wales last year on my Honda 650 and loved that trip. But it made me start looking around for better tourers with the BMW 1250 GS and then the Triumph Tiger 900 at the top of the list. I went for the Tiger and this trip confirmed I had not made a mistake. It was brilliant. True it is a fairly big and tall bike but I can just about flat-foot it and on the move it is superb. So no regrets whatsoever. It really is a "Mile-Muncher", 200+ miles from home to Snowdonia was no problem, and great fun when you get there too. So where to next?
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