Welsh Weekend 2nd – 3rd July 2022

Our Welsh Weekend Drive – by Elizabeth Way

Left home 2 o’clock, 3 hour journey ahead, grey and overcast with our 2 dogs Rex and Harry. Going to groom for Emma and Tinks. We stopped at Stanton st Quintin for fuel and a cheeky Costa hot chocolate. It starts raining and we hit traffic jams almost immediately on the motorway. Prince of Wales bridge at 3.30pm and into another traffic jam. We stopped at Waitrose for some lunch items with another hour to go to Chris and Nikki’s place. After this the countryside opened up to stunning views. Wowser views. Fuel 5p cheaper we noticed. It started getting dimmer as in light and temperature about 15 miles from Chris and Nikki’s, the heavens opened.

Arrived at 6.20pm, Emma here at Penrhiw, Briony and Mike, Carol and Eddy here too. A good chin up was had with coffee and Welsh cakes then our hosts spoilt us with2 choices of dinner, chicken curry with naan breads and pasta bake followed by choc tart, Baileys cream dessert and 2 flavours of home made ice cream with wine. Very nice it was too. We retired to our sleeping arrangements at 9pm ish.

In the morning we had bacon and sausage rolls and coffee. It was nice driving weather as we got the ponies ready. We drove with Carol, Eddy and Meg for 7 miles to our break. The horses were unharnessed. The views were breathtaking, the air crisp and clean. We had coffee, tea, Welsh cakes and choc chip cookies, absolutely welcomed and delicious. We rested for an hour and Gary made a video of the picnic spot with his drone and then made our way back to Chris and Nikki’s meeting our first car and quad of the day, met 1 more car and then we were back when the rain made an appearance for 10 minutes.

We set our van up for the night in one of the paddocks with the ponies. Afternoon tea was barra brith, lemon drizzle cake and chocolate cake. We all had a respite before our evening meal when we were joined by Penny and Ray. Again a superb meal kindly prepared by Nikki and Chris accompanied by good company and much laughter, anyone walking by would have heard us enjoying ourselves.

Then back to our sleeping quarters, for us sharing a paddock with the ponies, a lovely sight on waking looking out at them and the scenery. A bit drizzly but brightening up as I write, Tinks keenly looking for his mum Emma, come on, let’s go, am ready to munch those Welsh hills LOL. We had a second cup of tea before joining the others in the farmhouse for a delicious sausage and bacon bap, the weather looking much more agreeable. Chris gave the briefing on the route and maps were given out to follow, happy days. We had morning and afternoon maps totalling 12 miles or shorter route of 9.5 miles.

We followed Eddy and Carol on the longer route which led us into the forest and tracks which in turn gave us a very exhilarating drive and great fun, you had to hold on. It was lovely for me to be back with my horsey friends. The weather stayed kind all day although it did bring out a few flies. We stopped at a beauty site with a river at Halfway, the horses were unharnessed and taken into the water. We enjoyed our refreshments and more Welsh cakes ( thank you Nikki ). We re harnessed for the afternoon drive back to Penrhiw at Babel. The sun shining I think Tinks was very pleased to get back, a small pony with a BIG heart, bless him, he did so very well.

We have been blessed with good weather, good company, good food and the most stunning views. All finished off with another helping of tea/coffee and more cake. Many thanks to Chris and Nikki for a wonderful weekend.