Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[tikay]

According to RAC routeplanner with medium traffic, it will take you around 1 1/4 hour more. But obviosuly you will want to give more time than this not just for traffic but also because you will wanna go slower through the beacons i guess to appreciate it.
There is obviously hundreds of square miles more to the national park than you will see from the road but im sure it will be a lot more nicer than going to through newport, well i hope so now i have suggested it.!
Plus monmouth to brecon is in itself a lovely drive aswell as its a very historical part of wales/england.

What are "The Brecon Beacons", hills, forest, or what?

[KingPoker]

According to RAC routeplanner with medium traffic, it will take you around 1 1/4 hour more. But obviosuly you will want to give more time than this not just for traffic but also because you will wanna go slower through the beacons i guess to appreciate it.
There is obviously hundreds of square miles more to the national park than you will see from the road but im sure it will be a lot more nicer than going to through newport, well i hope so now i have suggested it.!
Plus monmouth to brecon is in itself a lovely drive aswell as its a very historical part of wales/england.

What are "The Brecon Beacons", hills, forest, or what?

http://www.breconbeacons.org/

The Breacon Beacons itself is the name of the national park.

"Brecon Beacons National Park spans 519 square miles (1,344 square kilometres) of beautiful mid-Wales countryside in the west of the UK which contains some of the most spectacular and diverse landscapes in Europe. 

The area is home to Pen y Fan, with its distinctive red table top summit - the highest Old Red Sandstone summit in Britain - as well as some of the UK’s most spectacular waterfalls, caves and wooded gorges. The landscape is scattered with prehistoric monuments, Roman remains, and medieval castles.

Visitors come from all over the world to enjoy this breathtaking landscape, and to reconnect with the natural world.  Here, you can find relaxation and adventure, with some of Wales’ finest walking, riding, cycling, climbing and caving.

In 2005, Fforest Fawr Geopark covering the western half of the National Park, was officially recognised for its superb geological heritage and diversity, when the National Park Authority was awarded membership of the highly prestigious European Geoparks Network. This was followed in 2006 by designation as a UNESCO Global Geopark."

Im fascinated with the place, i could spend weeks up there and still not see everything!

[sofa----king]

According to RAC routeplanner with medium traffic, it will take you around 1 1/4 hour more. But obviosuly you will want to give more time than this not just for traffic but also because you will wanna go slower through the beacons i guess to appreciate it.
There is obviously hundreds of square miles more to the national park than you will see from the road but im sure it will be a lot more nicer than going to through newport, well i hope so now i have suggested it.!
Plus monmouth to brecon is in itself a lovely drive aswell as its a very historical part of wales/england.

What are "The Brecon Beacons", hills, forest, or what?

lights in the sky.,.,.,.,.,.,.


next time you dont answer my text ill have them cards back,.,.,.git,.,.,.i do you an intresting thread tomorow mate,.,.,.

[tikay]

According to RAC routeplanner with medium traffic, it will take you around 1 1/4 hour more. But obviosuly you will want to give more time than this not just for traffic but also because you will wanna go slower through the beacons i guess to appreciate it.
There is obviously hundreds of square miles more to the national park than you will see from the road but im sure it will be a lot more nicer than going to through newport, well i hope so now i have suggested it.!
Plus monmouth to brecon is in itself a lovely drive aswell as its a very historical part of wales/england.

What are "The Brecon Beacons", hills, forest, or what?

lights in the sky.,.,.,.,.,.,.


next time you dont answer my text ill have them cards back,.,.,.git,.,.,.i do you an intresting thread tomorow mate,.,.,.

Blimey, now I'm in trouble for not answering a text!

OK, the answer is....err, "yes". Or "no".

Sofa sent me a text about "the biggest free outdoor event in Europe, Sunday, at Cardiff City Hall". That should be exciting.......

But you can buy some Sharky Shades there. Roll up, roll up.

Hope you sell plenty mate. If it rains, get your fat arse down to Grosvenor, & Poker Week will interview you. I'm hoping 'Ling will be there too, & we can take the pee out of your shoes.

xx

[Woodsey]

Lol i know that boarding school well, i drove past once and saw, as you do, one of the pupils being picked up on the friday evening in daddy's HELICOPTER- wow!

The part of cardiff and newport you come by is the "functional" side of wales so yes it is definately not the most beautiful part.

It would take a little bit longer but would be such a nicer drive, if when you get to monmouth, head to abergavenny then brecon, all signposted very well, then simpy head for cardiff from there and you will get to drive through the brecon beacons past the reservoirs and past pen-y-fan, on a nice day, it doesnt get much nicer than this stretch of road.

I went to another public school fairly close to Monmouth boys school and a couple of my mates went there. You'd probably be suprised to hear that its only an 'averageish' public school and not especially upmarket in the whole scheme of things for public schools. We used to play rugby, cricket and row against them and we used to like going there because the food was much better than at our own school!

[tikay]

According to RAC routeplanner with medium traffic, it will take you around 1 1/4 hour more. But obviosuly you will want to give more time than this not just for traffic but also because you will wanna go slower through the beacons i guess to appreciate it.
There is obviously hundreds of square miles more to the national park than you will see from the road but im sure it will be a lot more nicer than going to through newport, well i hope so now i have suggested it.!
Plus monmouth to brecon is in itself a lovely drive aswell as its a very historical part of wales/england.

What are "The Brecon Beacons", hills, forest, or what?

http://www.breconbeacons.org/

The Breacon Beacons itself is the name of the national park.

"Brecon Beacons National Park spans 519 square miles (1,344 square kilometres) of beautiful mid-Wales countryside in the west of the UK which contains some of the most spectacular and diverse landscapes in Europe. 

The area is home to Pen y Fan, with its distinctive red table top summit - the highest Old Red Sandstone summit in Britain - as well as some of the UK’s most spectacular waterfalls, caves and wooded gorges. The landscape is scattered with prehistoric monuments, Roman remains, and medieval castles.

Visitors come from all over the world to enjoy this breathtaking landscape, and to reconnect with the natural world.  Here, you can find relaxation and adventure, with some of Wales’ finest walking, riding, cycling, climbing and caving.

In 2005, Fforest Fawr Geopark covering the western half of the National Park, was officially recognised for its superb geological heritage and diversity, when the National Park Authority was awarded membership of the highly prestigious European Geoparks Network. This was followed in 2006 by designation as a UNESCO Global Geopark."

Im fascinated with the place, i could spend weeks up there and still not see everything!

Jeez, don't you just hate bureaucrat-speak & PR speak get in bed together??

"...highly prestigious European Geoparks Network..."

".....designation as a UNESCO Global Geopark....."

Beautiful hills & trees de-beautiful-ised by the language.

"Hey Daddy, can we visit the Unesco Global Geopark tomorrow?"

[RichEO]

According to RAC routeplanner with medium traffic, it will take you around 1 1/4 hour more. But obviosuly you will want to give more time than this not just for traffic but also because you will wanna go slower through the beacons i guess to appreciate it.
There is obviously hundreds of square miles more to the national park than you will see from the road but im sure it will be a lot more nicer than going to through newport, well i hope so now i have suggested it.!
Plus monmouth to brecon is in itself a lovely drive aswell as its a very historical part of wales/england.

I recommend going through the brecon beacons also. Very nice drive. I used to drive down to pontypridd a lot form Chester and I find the A roads to be quicker (or at least as quick) than the motorway but then I treat the % of speed traps to be lower also and that equates for the time made up.

If you want a trade off between time and scenic route, you could go up the A470 past pontypridd through Merthyr and up to Brecon that way. It's quicker than goin via Abergavenny as you have to go back on yourself a bit that way. But you also don't go through the centre of the Beacons so don't see quite as much, but still some nice rolling counrtside, wild poines, lakes, sheep on the road.

From Brecon, you'd start to cut accross to Leominster and from there you can get to Birmingham and the motorways, it's a pretty direct route so shouldn't take much longer.

EDIT: motorways are obviously more direct for you than they used to be for me, so it will take you a bit longer. I'd say less than an hour for sure, unless you decide to stop at a few places.

[tikay]

According to RAC routeplanner with medium traffic, it will take you around 1 1/4 hour more. But obviosuly you will want to give more time than this not just for traffic but also because you will wanna go slower through the beacons i guess to appreciate it.
There is obviously hundreds of square miles more to the national park than you will see from the road but im sure it will be a lot more nicer than going to through newport, well i hope so now i have suggested it.!
Plus monmouth to brecon is in itself a lovely drive aswell as its a very historical part of wales/england.

I recommend going through the brecon beacons also. Very nice drive. I used to drive down to pontypridd a lot form Chester and I find the A roads to be quicker (or at least as quick) than the motorway but then I treat the % of speed traps to be lower also and that equates for the time made up.

If you want a trade off between time and scenic route, you could go up the A470 past pontypridd through Merthyr and up to Brecon that way. It's quicker than goin via Abergavenny as you have to go back on yourself a bit that way. But you also don't go through the centre of the Beacons so don't see quite as much, but still some nice rolling counrtside, wild poines, lakes, sheep on the road.

From Brecon, you'd start to cut accross to Leominster and from there you can get to Birmingham and the motorways, it's a pretty direct route so shouldn't take much longer.

I will probably come home that way, as I plan to leave Cariff early afternoon on Monday.

Thanks guys, quite looking forwward to it. I promise not to write a story about it.

[KingPoker]

It goes in step by step monmouth>abergavenny>brecon>(over beacons)>merthyr>ponty>cardiff.

Its easilty figured out so i will leave u to it and look forward to the diary entry tomorrow night.

I cant comment on any part of the journey after that as its out of my "territory" so rich is probably right about heading back leominster way.

p.s. Take the tourney down aswell while your at it!

[RED-DOG]

Isn't Pen y Fan where the SAS do part of the "Selection" training/testing?

[Rod Paradise]

Isn't Pen y Fan where the SAS do part of the "Selection" training/testing?

Yep, gave me a real fright one night when I was on an outward bound course, 2 guys in the full 'Falklands' gear (bergen, gun etc) suddenly appeared as I'm in the woods getting deadwood for the fire (it was December & snowing), they just said "Evening" and strode past, I'd not like to try and keep up with their pace either.

[booder]

Isn't Pen y Fan where the SAS do part of the "Selection" training/testing?

Yep, gave me a real fright one night when I was on an outward bound course, 2 guys in the full 'Falklands' gear (bergen, gun etc) suddenly appeared as I'm in the woods getting deadwood for the fire (it was December & snowing), they just said "Evening" and strode past, I'd not like to try and keep up with their pace either.

yeah sorry bout that Rod , if i had realised it was you i would have stopped for a chat.

[boldie]

Isn't Pen y Fan where the SAS do part of the "Selection" training/testing?

Yep, gave me a real fright one night when I was on an outward bound course, 2 guys in the full 'Falklands' gear (bergen, gun etc) suddenly appeared as I'm in the woods getting deadwood for the fire (it was December & snowing), they just said "Evening" and strode past, I'd not like to try and keep up with their pace either.

yeah sorry bout that Rod , if i had realised it was you i would have stopped for a chat.

lol.

[KingPoker]

Isn't Pen y Fan where the SAS do part of the "Selection" training/testing?

yes and no, the Brecons Beacons park itself is where they do the selection.

They tab over many different routes over a 2 week period but the most famous one of these routes is known as "the Fan Dance" which is basically where they send the recruits up to the top of the Pen-y-Fan, they highest peak in the beacons the hardest way round and get them to repeat it as may times as the instructor chooses. The wind can be so turbulent up there that its named The Fan Dance because some soldiers have simply been picked up off their feet and chucked about, some have fallen to their death.

They do the selction twice a year up there, January and around June and when i was up there last they were doing selection then, which of course after seeing them run back down past me from the top of pen-y-fan i got inspired to do the same thing which lead to be getting lost but ive told that story before so wont bore you with it again!

If anyone does decide to go up there, i have different routes with Grid References that the SAS use in selection, ranging from a 4 hour fairly easy walk to a full 24 tab that they do at the end of selection.

[ifm]

Thats a lovely drive actually. Once off the M5, the M50 runs down past Ledbury, one of the UK's most scenic areas, but then it gets better. The road down to Monmouth is just dramatic, rolling hillside, heavily wooded, & the dualled road swoops downhill. This is the Wye Valley, where the beautifuly named Symonds Yat can be found, as well as plenty of deer, & if you are lucky, police in vans with speed cameras can be spotted.

FYP