I originally planned this route –
For Sunday the 1st of August, but watching the weather it looked to be drizzling most of the day, so I figured I’d move it to Sunday the 8th, but this weekend was looking wet too… 😦
So I figured I’d switch my days around and have a “Wednesday Wander”, as Wednesday if my day off in the week (although I work 6am – 9am and 6pm – 8pm, I get the bit in the middle off! 🙂 )
So, this route is at the top left edge of the OS Landranger 116 map, which hopefully you’ve read by now (link on the top menu) is my project to drive as many rights of way on my home map sheet –
There on the map sheet, represented by the big square (this is in Memory Map).
For some reason though, I woke feeling a little apprehensive about greenlaning on my own? Not really felt it before, but today I had a niggle at the back of my mind… I reassured myself that the buggy has all the recovery gear I could ever need, it’s just the thought of breaking down on your own in the middle of nowhere 😦 I put £50 in my mobile phone case, just incase I had to beg a farmer for a tractor tug, and left for the trip…
I’d plotted the route so that Moelfre and Pant Idda, two classic lanes were amongst the first few lanes, but when I started driving I thought I’d alter my route and do them towards the end of the day, rather than first thing…
So the first ‘lane ended up being up the white road at Groesfford Marli –
A few people ask “don’t you get battered by branches?” (as the buggy only has half doors)… I tend to lean into the middle of the cab and drive down the middle of the undergrowth using the bonnet light pod to aim… the windscreen pillars of the protection cage sweep most of the undegrowth away… I have got a mountain bike helmet for the really gnarly ‘lanes, but I’ve never resorted to it yet. LOL
A good warm-up ‘lane! 🙂
Next. a bit of a tarmac drive over to Llysfaen, to find what was a new ‘lane for me 🙂
You only get to see this if you’re a GLASS member, so that you can see what other users though of the ‘lane…
(Luke’s surname obscured for his privacy)
(as Duncan said above)
and went back down the other way.
Not a very exciting ‘lane, but it is another green pin in my map! 😉
Next…
Complicated route, but bear with me… This is “Cow Shit Lane” and is recorded as –
Impassable on the TW2 resource, hence the complicated route… I wanted to drive as much of it as possible, whilst avoiding the reported quagmire that stops it’s use… Read on dear reader 😉
So I’m driving from the top of the map down…
The UCR with ORPA dots (white road with pink dots on the map) is an old road that is returning to nature…
And and through the first gate…
Nice shot from my iPhone too, this went “live” onto Facebook 😉
Ummm, this one did as well, with a comment “WTF?!”… how did this bendy-bus end up here in the middle of nowhere beside a greenlane?!
On we (me and the buggy!) go to the end of this section of abandoned road…
I have to open and shut all the gates!… LOL
Looking back at the map above, I didn’t bother going to do the ‘lane on the right of the map, it starts as a BOAT but you can see it changes to a Bridleway half way up, so I was going to drive up to the extent of the BOAT section and then turn round and come back down, but it wasn’t worth the hassle of explaining that to the landowner, as we did years ago… LOL
So, back to the map again, I took the yellow road west tp the bottom of the (“Cow Shit Lane”) BOAT and was just going to drive up to where the quagmire was, and then come back down again…
Turning into the BOAT…
Through the colourful bushes!
Remember this one well from years ago… up the side of a scenic valley to the horizon… Well worth going up and coming back down again…
Up we go…
Round the corner, and a great shot from my iPhone again, this one went straight to Facebook too 🙂
Round to where the quagmire was, it was 2 or 3 feet deep in mud and cow shit (hence how the ‘lane got it’s name) here…
So I left the buggy in a safe spot and went and walked ahead… the ground was dry and solid, rutted, but I picked my line in my head… Plenty of ground anchoring trees, and I had a ground anchor with me too…
Hang on! Where’s the buggy gone?!
Safely at the top 🙂
I’m not saying it’s now passable in all weather conditions, I was just lucky on the day that the ground was dry and hard, and having walked it and assessed it, I felt it was safe for me to drive it today. Errrr, yes, on my own… 😦
You lot! You gave this ‘lane it’s name and reputation…! LOL
I was then off route, as I didn’t expect for one minute to be able to drive this ‘lane today, so I went back the way I’d originally come (the top of the map), and…
… sat in a field’s entrance, ate my sandwich and had a drink, and caught up with social media, emails and texts…
Next ‘lane then… where are we now…
Ah, Pant Idda after all! Ok, never mind the photos!
Here’s “Pant Idda – The Movie” !!! LOL
Enjoy that? LOL, I enjoyed putting it together… must get the drone out and learn how to use that next too!
The video ends with this photo… notice the dent in the door pillar 😦 LOL, some filler and matching blue Smoothrite paint and it’ll be fine!
The wooden gate is the proper end (/beginning) of the ‘lane but the landowner / farmer has dumped a massive tree stump into the last (/first) section of the ‘lane (to stop people using it?), so I took a lawful diversion round that section down the edge of the field, getting the sheeps to move for me…
Leaving the ‘lane and onto the next…
😦 I lost all power and the accelerator pedal fell to the floor?!
Bah, I thought the accelerator cable had snapped… But…
… it had only come away from this little bracket where the two tensioning nuts are… I can only assume it wasn’t nipped up as tight as it should have been, probably when the throttle body was removed to clean the idle control valve… I must go and slap John the mechanic’s hand for that one! LOL No, best not mentioned, no harm done, I was soon mobile again…
Again, it does make you think, what if it had snapped in the middle of nowhere? 😦
Next, heading home, I went to have a look at the ‘lane at the back of Abergele Eye Hospital (I go there a lot! I have injections into both my eyeballs every three months that keep my eyesight ‘stable’ as I have wet maculars from being a diabetic for thirteen years, ho-hum!)
The right of way runs off to the right side of my bonnet…
I walked down it for a while, but nothing has been down here, and the notes on TW2 say it’s blocked by a tree on the edge of the right of way… One to walk the entire length of one day? I might bring the GeeVee with the labradors in the back and let them have a run down it too… 😉
Next?… the legendary Moelfre? On my own? Downwards?…
I sat for a while and contemplated it, and thought better of it… I’ll drive it another day when I have some backup with me… safety in numbers! 😉
Off to see another one then…
I’ve been researching this ‘lane – ORPA dots along the edge of Plas-uchaf Rservoir, next to another legend (Alan’s favourite!) “Pen-y-Coed” – very tight and scratchy, and very narrow! Anyway, I thought I remembered reading the notes on TW2 and someone had commented on it*… So I drove anti-clockwise around the “brain-shaped” yellow C-road to try and come down it…
But when I got there…
… and walked up it, I could see no evidence of vehicular use, and no signage…
*And when I got home there are no user notes attached to it… so that’s one to research some more, and go and have a look from the other end below the reservoir another day… 😉
So, one more on the way home then?…
And then got me safely back to my hometown (City?) of St. Asaph…
But one last place to visit?…
Mt favourite car wash… £3 gets it clean again…
Oh hang on…
The passenger side sill bar has done it’s job and got a battering… time for a spot of paint on there too 😉
Possibly Sunday, as it gives rain as I said at the beginning of this rather long blog! Hope you enjoyed it, armchair greenlaning, I seem to be back to my old blogging form, so see you on the next one… Soon! 😉
JimnyBuggy 
Well done son
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