Dates: 16 to 18 October 2024
Silliness comes in all shapes and sizes but I guess that trying out a new tent in wet Wales in darkest October is probably up there in the top five.
I got the idea of having a smaller tent for the odd long weekend camping in places like Wales or England even…….. So it was quite useful that one of the SheltaPod tents came up for sale at what I would like to call a bargain price. The tent can be used as a standalone or with the front canopy fixed in a variety of ways to a vehicle, thus making it drive away if required.
For some insane reason I decided to go away for three nights in October to a campsite in Wales that I’ve used before at Brithdir (near Dollegau) called Llwyn y Helm Caravanning and Camping Park. A beautiful site on a working farm. One main attraction for me was that they have a very nice loo block (heated !!!!) with great showers. See my previous post SNOWDONIA – AGAIN !
Also on the menu were a couple of rail trips (you wouldn’t have expected anything else would you ?), namely the Fairbourne Railway and the beautiful Cambrian Coast mainline railway from Fairbourne station down to Pwllheli.
En route to Brithdir, stopped at the Welshpool and Llanfair Light Railway site for a “cuppa and a wad”, as they say – essentially tea and delicious carrot cake. No trains running today though – not unexpected as the season was over.
So arrived at the campsite, to find that the grass areas that I would normally use were completely soaked through and really unavailable for tent camping. The alternative was a hard standing caravan/campervan pitch, but at least it had electric hook up for the coolbox…..
Now people often laugh at the amount of kit I take, even just for a long weekend, but this time my extra “emergency” groundsheets came in real handy to protect the built-in groundsheet of the actual tent itself.
Although I’d practiced putting up the tent a bit in the play area field behind my house, this was the first time “under fire”. I say that, as the weather had turned pretty miserable and mega windy, together it being after 5 PM.
To be honest, I made a right hash of it, but managed to get things roughly in place, enough to at least have somewhere to sleep ! The wind also was a worry, so strategic windbreak was deployed – sort it in the morning……..
Next morning (after a pretty windy and wet night) my inspection of the tent pitch-up showed me it was indeed pretty appalling/rubbish! So a quick re-work was necessary, together with experimenting how the car/driveaway part of the “contraption” worked – one of the main aims of the weekend away.
Luckily the wind had abated a bit, so not too much struggling. I chose to just use the long straps across the car, not very pretty but effective. I’ll have to look at alternative things like magnet fixings on the car, etc for the future. Despite all that, I didn’t get wet over night !!!!
That was the morning gone.
So I decided to give myself a treat by going on the Fairbourne Railway, following a slap-up all-day breakfast at the Fairbourne Chippy.
Fairbourne itself is only a small place, but there was a film crew in town, so the shops were quite busy, providing a boost to local businesses outside the usual tourist season. The visitor carpark was FULL of trucks….They were filming for the Sky original thriller UNDER SALT MARSH. The cast apparently included such luminaries as Rafe Spall and Sir Jonathan Pryce.
Before the train, I even managed to top up with some Welsh delicacies (Welsh cakes, bara brith fruit loaf) at the Bwyty Bach delicatessen. I think the owner was happy to have a customer in this quiet part of the year, as she was very chatty and amiable – bet it’s the place for gossip in the season……
The Fairbourne Railway is a 12 inch gauge miniature railway that runs for 2 miles from the village, alongside the beach to the end of a peninsula at Barmouth Ferry railway station, where there is a connection with the Barmouth Ferry across the Mawddach estuary to the seaside resort of Barmouth.
Fairbourne station is the main HQ of the line, the location of the locomotive and carriage sheds and workshops. There is a small museum containing many photographs of the line, a nature centre, tea room, booking office and gift shop – some of which were closed as it’s out of season now.
From here trains head along Beach Road crossing over three level crossings before arriving at Beach Halt.
I was the only passenger for the diesel powered 2pm service – not often I get a train to myself !
Despite the less than ideal weather, there were reasonably good views across the Mawddach estuary to Barmouth.
After that I decided to drive back the “long way”, via Tywyn, Aberdovey, Machynlleth, Corris then Brithdir. All a bit misty and murkie, but scenic nonetheless. One highlight was this rather wonderful, unmissable building in the middle of Tywyn. Called the Magic Lantern, it uses the town’s old assembly rooms and they apparently have music, comedy, etc, as well as it being the local cinema.
Next/last day there was blue sky–well sort of….. With sunshine !!!
It was a quick trip back to Fairbourne, firstly to get better pictures of the estuary (just to show it really can look good in the sunshine…..), then to catch a mainline train down to Pwllheli.
I’d had the Cambrian Coast Line on my “to do” list for a while, as it’s pretty spectacular, with rugged coastal scenery, sandy beaches and even crosses the world famous wooden Barmouth Bridge.
It’s a 50 mile railway that runs from Machynlleth to Pwllheli, hugging the Cardigan Bay coastline, all within Snowdonia National Park, going through places like Harlech, Porthmadog and Criccieth along the way. Here’s a couple I took from the train, so not quite 100 %…
During the winter there are not so many scheduled trains, so it was into the town quickly, a visit to the gents in the station and then back on the same train to return to Fairbourne. Sun was definitely out properly, so the coast looked magnificent.
The next morning brought a heavy dew, so a bit of a wet tent scenario to go home with and the resulting sort out chaos.
However, I’d learnt a few things about how the new tent works, which was the object of the exercise.
And it’s always good to visit that beautiful part of Wales.