Upon arriving from the ferry from Dublin in Holyhead Wales we were immediately greeted by a serious storm warning with big winds and lots of rain. We bunkered down for the night and then decided the next day to change our plans of spending a couple of days hiking and biking near Snowdonia and instead head west in an attempt to get out of the storms way.
Ever the optimists we thought we would be able to fit in a quick mountain bike ride on our journey east. Unfortunately as we were heading towards the tracks the wind was so strong that it was actually difficult to keep the van straight on the road and we thought the best thing to do would be to stop and wait out the wind for a little and as luck would have it we stopped at Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch and enjoyed a cup of tea.
We abandoned the idea of doing anything in the windy conditions and spent the next two nights bunkered down in a campsite staying dry and planning the next stages of our travels. To be fair those two days were probably the first complete washout days we have had on this trip so we counted ourselves pretty lucky!
We then embarked on a criss cross route around England visiting a combination of my family and friends and had a wonderful time catching up with everyone. We enjoyed some great meals and loads of beer and wine too and as we hadn’t seen everyone for such a long time it was great to catch up.
Along the way we did stop off at some places to have a look and enjoyed a trip around Bath and some hiking around Totnes as well as the Jurassic coast.
It was absolutely wonderful to be able to stay with people but we were finding that in between it was difficult to find a campsite that was open. Most were shutting down for the winter which was a shame because while it was getting a little cooler it was still lovely hiking weather and we could have easily camped in the van. Still never mind we decided we would head to Albania and Macedonia instead and don our backpacks for a little exploring! Can’t wait! T