ok, noticed the one next to it. this seems to be a toll road, anybody know howmuch the toll goes for ?
The old one goes to Chepstow more easily and so leads to smaller roads up Wye Valley, which is nice. The new one replaced it but is a bit less used now. In other words the old one used to be part of the M4 motorway, now the new one is but the old one still in use (and usually both ends join up whatever it looks like on Google ). Which one you use depends which way you are heading but both essentially go to same part of the world in the bigger scheme of things. Tolls are free for motorcycles.
the less motorway, the better. this is what basecamp spit out based on your suggestions http://cl.ly/3S1O3n3H2e343e1H3D3X (pink one) . Big plus is that it cuts about 50km from next days trip so leaving more room for sightseeing. The reason we took the other route is because i read somewhere that ludlow road/A4117 was worth taking, which we will end up missing when we take the other route.
The A4117 is a decent road but probably not worth planning a route around. However if you do want to ride it avoid Cheltenham and ride up through the Cotswolds to the east, it's very pretty and some nice roads. Try a route through Lechlade-on-Thames, Burford, Moreton-in-Marsh, Chipping Camden, Pershore, Worcester for example. Make sure you take in Fish Hill on the A44 if you go that way but take it steady!
If you've never been to the UK, then everywhere is stunning. I've been there on a few occasions between 1995 and last month and I still need to find my first boring region. I like it everywhere, be it The New Forest, Dartmoor, Wales, the North of Londen, Liverpool, Scotland or Ireland. It's wonderfull and beautifull everywhere. The A roads can be fast en furious, B roads can be real rollercoasters, even smaller roads are a true experience , a bit thanks to the high hedges. Hell, I've ridden the country even using the sun for orientation. You know, it's in the East in the morning, is in the South at noon and goes to the West towards the evening. Why need a GPS if you have the sun? You've got to make up for yourself if you're a riding man (lots of kms per day (250-350km)) or a visiting man (frequent stops at castles, lakes, graveyards, bars etc (150-250km)) . Buy a very detailled card (scale 1cm = 2km at most) and study it. Look for nice green patches and roads with lots of bends and not much houses. Learn to read it and understand what you're looking at. One Saturday in March (a few weeks ago) I rode about 411 km in one day, in the North of Wales. I just planned the route by studying my maps. But hey, that's my way. I know people that don't leave their houses without having planned every trip in detail, from day to day, for two or three weeks long. And they succeed in not changing their plans, and stick to following whereever their GPS brings them. :huh Not my cup of tea, but hey, who am I to judge them ? One important advice though : stick to 250km max if you want a relaxing holiday with enough time for social talks and lots of time for picture taking. The 411 km I did was because I knew I had only one day to ride, so I chose to do as much kms as possible with the least possible of stops. My normal rythm is about 200-250 km per day. Way more relax.
most routes are about 210-250ish, I also checked the timesuggestion (to get an idication) and i tried to aim at a little under 5,5 or 6 hour rides. This way i made sure to cover all the spots we wanted to visit. i figured it is that this will leave us options. If we get to our campingsite early, we can decide to drive on to a next one. Or we can put up our tents and go for an eveningride in the area/sightseeing etc... So basicly, the track will be planned out, but nothing is set in stone as to what happens on the way offcourse but to be honest, for me this is my first big motorcycletrip abroad (tommyvdv and saito already have experience driving through europe. For our 4th rider it's his first one as well). So maybe i'm overplanning everything and we should just ride with the sun as you say
Orientation of the sun is great, back home. But abroad i like a guideline. As tagger already stated: nothing is set in stone. Personally i think driving by gps is way more relaxing. You can make a few mistakes along the way and can pick up on the original route further along the way. Since we don't know what to look for nor where to look for it i think it's a good choice to have this guideline. If we had 4 weeks we probably wouldn't be this anal about it :) oh and did i mention? Thanks for the suggestions!!
I would definitely go up the Wye Valley if I was making the trip and also ride up the Elan Valley on my way into North Wales, http://www.elanvalley.org.uk/ One camp sites I can highly recommend is Masons campsite at Appletreewick in the Yorkshire Dales, The Craven Arms pub just up the hill is worth a visit. http://www.masonscampsite.co.uk/ http://www.craven-cruckbarn.co.uk/
Cool campsites : http://www.coolcamping.co.uk/ And I mean really cool ! I tried several of them in Wales and was astonished with the sheer beauty of the location, the atmosphere, the low price etc etc etc
You can check out my 2 day report in North Wales which will definitely put you in the mood to do some riding around the A5 road Also check out the Llangollen aquaduct, it's spectacular. http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=776973 I also live in York, so give us a shout if you do swing by :) Her Majesty The Queen was outside my house today
See? this is exacly why we started this thread, our route was going about 10km from swallow falls. We would have missed it and never realise how close we were if it wasn't for you Unfortniatly York would be a detour, but we will be passing the peak district and yorkshire dales np so if you happen to be in the neighborhood we'll surely buy you a beer for this great tip ! Elan valey is also mapped in and i'm now checking if there are campsites from the cool camping site along the way :)
Great! Swallow falls is beautiful, also visit Betws y Coed because it's beautiful too, and only about 2km from Swallow falls. I've been meaning to take a weekend into the peak district for a while now, so give me a date so we can meet up at a camp site! Would love to hear your stories of the UK so far, I'll try and bring some home made Yorkshire beer Have fun you guys! Ryan
We'll be driving from snowdonia to peak on the 10th of juli. We're leaving the next day for yorkshire dales. That's the plan. But a little slack on the chain with a nice backdrop wont hurt anyone i guess :)
Looking at your route I note it passes the edge of the town I live in, which is Thornbury situated 3 or so miles from the Severn Bridge, your gateway to South Wales. I live on the outskirts of the town and have a garden large enough to pitch a dozen tents, and hard standing for a fleet of bikes. If you need a place to camp you are welcome to pitch up anytime during your trip.
Great new route, if you get time stop at Devils Bridge as you pass through, it is where the B4574 meets the A4120 near Aberystwyth in Mid Wales, legend has it that the old medieval bridge was built by the Devil to trick a women into giving him her soul. http://www.devilsbridgefalls.co.uk/ There is another old Welsh legend on your route a bit further north near Dolgellau, the first and most southern mountain of the Snowdonian range is Cader Idris which translates as Chair of Idris, Idris was very old Welsh warrior giant and poet who used the curve of the mountain as a chair to gaze at the night sky, they say if you spend the night on the summit then you will either wake up a poet, a mad man or you wont wake up at all. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadair_Idris Great to see your route takes you over Hardknott pass and wrynose pass in the lake district, fantastic breathtaking roads. There are two great campsites just outside Ambelside, Rydal Hall which has eco pods and yurts as well as pitches, the nearby pub The Glen Rothay hotel and Badgers barn is an attraction at night when they feed the local badgers with scraps from the kitchen. Low Wray campsite is a lovley site on the banks of Lake windermere and ideal if you wanted to get away from it all but very isolated as far as pubs and the like go. http://www.theglenrothay.co.uk/ http://www.rydalhall.org/stay-rydal-hall/eco-pods/ http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/holidays/camping/camping-in-the-lake-district/low-wray/
Very generous offer, Ross ! We will definitely keep you posted how the plans evolve the next couple of months.
3 all road bikes and 1 road bike. We wont be offroading much unless someone can point us towards a nice gravel path or any other light offroading :) Something the road bike can handle as well
