2012 Welsh Rally
This year was turning out to be a busy one in terms of rally firsts. At least for my first Welsh Rally I know what to expect, since it has the same format as the South West Peninsular Rally. Again, since I was travelling from Edinburgh, I planned to go for the highest award, which in this case is Platinum, which is the Gold Award plus the Dragon award. That would mean getting 15 unmanned checkpoints, three manned checkpoints plus an extra 5 for the Dragon award, all within 15 hours or so. The Dragon award locations all have a common theme, and this year each was College or Univerity. The Blue marker is the Start/Finish, Yellow are the manned checkpoints, Dark Red are the Dragon Award locations and the others are the unmanned checkpoints.
In addition, the Welsh Rally is the first leg of the Three Nations Award. To achieve this, you have to enter and complete (at any level) each of the Welsh, National and Scottish Rallies.
In addition, the Welsh Rally is the first leg of the Three Nations Award. To achieve this, you have to enter and complete (at any level) each of the Welsh, National and Scottish Rallies.
As usual, my route down to the start point would take in some other locations. However this time round, I’d have some company. The
National Rally has a forum and one of the messages there was from John in Scotland, who was looking for other riders heading in the same direction. I got in touch with John via email and we agreed to meet in Moffat for a bacon roll before heading down together. John wasn’t staying in the same hotel, and we would be running different rally routes, but we said that we might well travel back up together, depending on how much riding we were both planning. John hadn’t entered the Round Britain or Grim Rides at this point, so I felt a little guilty about taking him out of his way on the route down, but he was happy to head off to new places. John has since entered Round Britain rallies in 2012 and 2013 so it was obviously the sort of thing that appealed to him.
National Rally has a forum and one of the messages there was from John in Scotland, who was looking for other riders heading in the same direction. I got in touch with John via email and we agreed to meet in Moffat for a bacon roll before heading down together. John wasn’t staying in the same hotel, and we would be running different rally routes, but we said that we might well travel back up together, depending on how much riding we were both planning. John hadn’t entered the Round Britain or Grim Rides at this point, so I felt a little guilty about taking him out of his way on the route down, but he was happy to head off to new places. John has since entered Round Britain rallies in 2012 and 2013 so it was obviously the sort of thing that appealed to him.
A: Home
B: Source of Tweed Monument (Round Britain)
C: Eastgate Clock (Grim Ride – English Counties)
D: Broken War Memorial (Round Britain). That’s John with the mohican…
E: Robbers Grave (Round Britain)
F: Montgomery Castle (Grim Ride – Welsh Counties) and a nice view of the village too
G: Talbot Hotel
B: Source of Tweed Monument (Round Britain)
C: Eastgate Clock (Grim Ride – English Counties)
D: Broken War Memorial (Round Britain). That’s John with the mohican…
E: Robbers Grave (Round Britain)
F: Montgomery Castle (Grim Ride – Welsh Counties) and a nice view of the village too
G: Talbot Hotel
The rally is open to motorcycles and three wheeled vehicles, so there were some sights to see at the start point.
I had planned a couple of routes when I received my rally pack a couple of weeks ago, as I had been told that there is, basically, a North route and a South route. By planning two, I thought that I might be able to adapt depending on the weather forecast. As it turned out, the weather was excellent, so I simply picked the North because it was about half an hour quicker.
There are some really great roads in Wales, and without this rally, I wouldn't have travelled any of them. Here's a selection of photos from the day.
I also managed to pick up a few other locations such as Cilgerran Castle (Round Britain), Brecon Beacons (Grim Ride – National Parks), Felindre (Grim Ride – Letterboxes), and the Picton Monument (Grim Ride - Welsh Counties)
I never saw John again (at least on this rally), as we had planned different routes, nor did I catch up with him at the finish. I did speak to him on the phone the following morning, and he told me that he had some routing issues with his sat nav, so got back quite late. He planned on heading straight home, so we would catch up again later on in the year, for the Scottish Rally.
I finished up with the Platinum and Dragon awards as planned, so job done. The "trophies" are made from Welsh Slate and make a change from the usual. Mind you, my "placing" was way down the field from the other Platinum riders. Remember that fun task that I mentioned in the previous page? Turns out that I'm rubbish at Shove Ha'penny
I finished up with the Platinum and Dragon awards as planned, so job done. The "trophies" are made from Welsh Slate and make a change from the usual. Mind you, my "placing" was way down the field from the other Platinum riders. Remember that fun task that I mentioned in the previous page? Turns out that I'm rubbish at Shove Ha'penny
My return trip as pretty uneventful, picking up another batch of locations on the way home.
A:Talbot Hotel
B: Quantum Leap (Grim Ride – Sculptures)
C: Wenlock Library (Round Britain) & Grave of William penny Brookes (Round Britain)
D: Whittington Castle (Round Britain)
E: Childe of Hale (Round Britain) - At least this is where the carving used to be.
F: Dream (Grim Ride – Sculptures) - You can just about make out the sculpture on the top of the hill
: Long Meg and Her Daughters (Grim Ride – Standing Stones)
I: Hartside Pass (Grim Ride – Mountain Passes)
J: Northumberland National Park (Grim Ride – National Parks)
K: Jack Anderson Memorial Stone (Round Britain) and Winters Gibbet (Two Wheel Poker)
L: Home
A:Talbot Hotel
B: Quantum Leap (Grim Ride – Sculptures)
C: Wenlock Library (Round Britain) & Grave of William penny Brookes (Round Britain)
D: Whittington Castle (Round Britain)
E: Childe of Hale (Round Britain) - At least this is where the carving used to be.
F: Dream (Grim Ride – Sculptures) - You can just about make out the sculpture on the top of the hill
: Long Meg and Her Daughters (Grim Ride – Standing Stones)
I: Hartside Pass (Grim Ride – Mountain Passes)
J: Northumberland National Park (Grim Ride – National Parks)
K: Jack Anderson Memorial Stone (Round Britain) and Winters Gibbet (Two Wheel Poker)
L: Home