The Magical Mystery Tour

The Magical Mystery Tour

by Sid

left; is a picture I took of the mob at the campsite

With nothing in the Fed calendar the first weekend in June and as the week before is a school holiday, I arranged a small camp in Wales. Also some of our club members headed over to France for the week..

I found a very nice site not too far from Usk http://www.usktown.co.uk . We had a meeting point for the Thursday at the Route 46 café http://www.transportcafe.co.uk/a46_route_46_vale_evesham_m5_junction_9.html which is found, funny enough, on the A46 south of Evesham. After refreshments we headed off to complete the remainder of the journey together and to find the campsite.

The weather was good, possibly too good being a little on the hot side with the bike gear on. Arrived at the site early afternoon and once we set up the camp surrounded by trees, most made use of the showers then we relaxed under the shade of the trees with a cold beer or two, or three.

On the Friday we took a look at Usk and popped into Usk Museum www.uskmuseum.org.uk also made a note of where the chippy and Chinese takeaway were. In the church hall they had stalls set up selling local homemade produce, jams, pickles, pies, cakes etc very nice too.

We left Usk and headed to the Fourteen Locks Canal Centre http://www.newport.gov.uk/_dc/index.cfm?fuseaction=thingstosee.fourteenlocks and their own website www.fourteenlocks.co.uk . The route was via Rhadyr, Cwmoody, Pontrhydyrun, Cumbran, Pentre Lane, Castel-y-Bwch, Mescoed Road a nice little run. The centre is well worth a visit and we plan to go again in the future once all the renovation has been completed and the locks and canal are open again. If you haven’t been I would say do so in before the work is completed; you will amazed how deep some of these locks are. The route back was via Llandegfedd Reservoir and Coed-y- Paen.

Friday was the day we planned to go to Pendine Sands and visit the speed museum, http://www.visit.carmarthenshire.gov.uk/culture/speed-museum.html a bit of a run but it was a cracking ride down to Pendine http://www.pendineonline.org again a must visit place, just to see where it all happened all those years ago.

On the Saturday with Ann as co-pilot in the flying banana we headed off to Symonds Yat http://www.wyenot.com/yatrock.htm and did the West side and then the East side, word of warning, the west side is the wrong side, but it is a cracking clutch tester route. From there we went into the Forest of Dean for a tour and ended up at Coleford

http://www.visitforestofdean.co.uk/attractions/thedms.aspx?dms=13&feature=1&venue=1301180 . We then headed back to the campsite knowing that tomorrow we would be packing up for home and the mystery tour would come to an end.

What started out as a mystery tour is not a mystery anymore, but it remains a mystery how the flying banana was seen on his own, yet Dickie with his juggernaut, believed to be in the area, was missed, the only explanation is the WingCo must have been in stealth mode. But the biggest mystery of all is; where do the Hairys live?

Sid your webmaster

USK

Usk Church

I have been drinking to much, I thought I saw someone sweeping the streets in Usk.

I wonder what the river is called.

Above, is a few picture of Usk Museum, the last one is of a bomb, one of three and the

only bombs to have fallen on Usk during World War II.

Fourteen Locks

The 14 locks is a series of locks, also known as the Cefn Flight, on the Crumlin arm of the Monmouthshire Canal at Rogerstone The flight of locks was completed in 1799 and raises the water level 160 ft (50 m) in just 800 yd (740 m). This is one of the steepest rises for a major run in the UK which, combined with the sheer number of locks, makes it one of the most significant in the country The run of locks includes a series of embanked ponds,pounds, sluices and weirs to control the water supply, with no set of gates shared between individual locks. It therefore comprises a flight of locks rather than a staircase lock.