Welsh National Rally 2019
On Saturday May 4th Mick Leach, John Genders
and myself set off at 5:30am heading towards Welshpool for the 25th
Anniversary Welsh National Rally.
Our route took us over Cannock Chase to Penkridge the A5-M54-A5 and
at Shrewsbury the A458, where we stopped at Dinkys Dinahs for
breakfast, then the remaining 12 miles to the Welshpool Livestock
Market for the rally start, arriving at 7:50.
After signing on we headed out at 8:15 to refuel and start the route
planned by Mick. It involved visiting eight unmanned
checkpoints and two manned, this would give us a Silver Award. Mick
was on his Honda CB250, John on his Honda Dominator and me on my
Honda CB400F.
After the first checkpoint at Bwlch-Y-Cibau we headed toward
Llangollen and the Horsehoe Pass to Llandegla. There was snow on the
distant mountains and on the verges around the pass too.
The next checkpoint was manned at A & D Motorcyles in Denbigh which
we reached by passing through the Nant-Y-Garth Pass. Onwards then to
Nantglyn, Pentrefoelas and Tan-Y-Bwlch Ffestiniog Station for the
second manned checkpoint. Sadly we were not lucky enough to
see a train. From here we took a detour from our planned route to
get fuel in Penryhndeudraeth before crossing the estuary on the old
toll bridge. We followed the route along the coast road
through Harlech to our next checkpoints at Llanbedr and Barmouth
where after finding the checkpoint we stopped for lunch of fish and
chips.
The run back to Welshpool took us to Brithdir and Dinas Mawddwy,
arriving at 16:35 having covered 190 miles. We signed off and
received our Silver Awards, a coaster made from polished Welsh
slate.
The run back home of another 80 miles meant I covered a total of 350
miles on the day. It was an excellent day in good dry weather on
great riding roads with some fabulous scenery. Well done to
Mick for planning the route and the Clive Motorcycle Club for
organising the event. I will certainly try to do it again next
year going for Gold but would stay overnight to travel back next day
as the return journey proved painful. If anyone thinks they
might like to try it just go for it, you will not be disappointed.
Malcolm Bridges
