The Scotland Rally 2019 part 2

by Patrick Verheeken on 24/08/2019

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This is part 2 of our report on the Scotland Rally 2019. Here you can find part 1.

The 5th of August, 353 km:
Believe it or not, but Loïc and myself both slept really well in our tent! After a refreshing shower and cleaning up the tent, we were ready to go stand in line for breakfast.

Not a minute too early, because all of the sudden the skies opened up their cloudy curtains and rain started falling down! We were sitting high and dry and it was quite funny to see how everybody started to become really active with trying to break off their tents (hopelessly too late, if you ask me).

Today we leave England and we will enter Wales. Wales counts 3 natural parks, from which we will visit 2 today.

The first stop along the way started out with a dilemma, because our stage sheet proposed three destinations close to each other: Bath, Castle Combe and Bristol. Visiting all three the destinations would have been impossible, so we chose to drive towards Castle Combe and Bristol.
Castle Combe is a village where time stood still. It’s been elected multiple times as ‘Most beautiful village of the United Kingdom’.After Castle Combe, we continued our journey towards Bristol. Bristol appeared to be a very nice city to stroll around in. A covered market with loads of little food courts made sure we would not be feeling hungry throughout the afternoon. Also the numerous street art pieces and murals were a sight for sore eyes. You could find real pieces of art along the way. I would most definitely recommend Bristol for another visit!

The stages went on through Brecon Beacons, one of the nature parks of wales. To drive through here is an absolute pleasure. It’s a piece of work, because 100 meters straight is not really what you find around here. It’s literally driving from one turn to another in a gorgeous atmosphere, simply divine.

The next stop would have been Harlech Castle, a drive of 183 km. But since we strolled around Bristol for a bit too long, we decided to drive directly from there towards the campsite. The destination of today is Snowdonia, a second nature park in Wales. If possible, even more beautiful to drive through.

We camped in Cwellyn Arms, at the foot of the lake ‘Llyn Cwellyn’. A lake that is 40 meters deep in the middle. At this campsite we had some very nice sanitary facilities and received the hint to enjoy it while it lasts, because the following days would be less nice showers, and going more back to basics in terms of facilities. After eating a nice bowl of pasta, all the participants were talking about their adventures of the day. It appeared that a lot of us did not find it very easy to jump over a sheep.

Earlier today somebody had put Diesel in an old Mini Cooper. Miraculously, with some technical support, everything was fine and all the participants arrived to spend the night together on the campsite.

6 Augustus 307 km:

During the first drive of the day, we passed by the village with the longest name in the world: “Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch”. We didn’t put in the effort to try and pronounce it, but if you want to try it at home there are multiple videos on Youtube where they tell you how it’s done. Thereafter we stopped at Conwy Castle, where we strolled around for a bit and went to look for another coffee bar (which was going to become our personal common thread throughout the week).

Once we left Conwy Castle behind us, we had the option to visit either Manchester, Liverpool or Everton. Our choice was Liverpool, because it is a port city and also the hometown of The Beatles.Liverpool is a big city, which you can’t possibly visit completely in one day, let alone in a few hours. Here as well, we can conclude that it was worth visiting again in the future.

From Liverpool the journey continued towards Preston. This little city is the home of the first KFC outside the United States. However, because of the time pressure, we decided to leave Preston for what it was and we continued our drive towards our next destination: Piel Island. Communication had already taken place that we should arrive on time, so we would not miss out on the little ferry towards Piel Island, because of the tides. From day 1 there were two WhatsApp groups, one of the organization and one where participants could share experiences. We already saw some messages about the sea being a little rough, but that we did not have to worry and that he ferry would keep on going.

Once we arrived at the ferry port, we had to take out all our luggage, because we were about to sleep on Piel Island. From the moment we opened our car port, we already felt a strong wind. This was very promising for the crossing of the water!

The ferry men had decided, due to safety precautions, to only take 8 persons at a time instead of the usual 12. I don’t know if there are any sayings about this, but let’s conclude that we are not exaggerating when we say that everybody was wet up until their underwear. In our case, our sleeping bags remained pretty dry, but for some others it was the exact opposite. This was not going to be our best night. The evening dinner was made with love by the owners of the only pub on the island. Thereafter we had the pleasure to also get acquainted with multiple pints or a good whisky. On Piel Island there was also a party on the schedule, and we did not have to check the decibels, because the island was completely ours for the night.