At the beginning of the year, as he had unfortunately sat on our drive for most of the pandemic, and feeling our ageing bones preferred the comfort of a proper bed, we took the decision to say farewell to our lovely camper, Kenneth and let him make happy memories with another family.

With him heading off on new travels, we set about planning our own new adventures. Living in a house filled with noisy boys, we like to take our breaks outside of school holidays and with a belated trip to Italy already booked for May, we turned our attention to September and what we could do to recover after the loooong school summer holidays.

So what did we come up with? ………. Yep, you guessed it, a road trip touring Wales🤣. Having also changed our car at the end of February, not only did we have to find places to lay our heads at night, we also had to get all our essentials and cycling gear into the back of a smaller car 😳😳.

With just the two of us to please, how hard could it be? On a day when everyone was either at work or school, we spread our huge map of Wales out on the dining table and got ready to plot our trip. We wanted to make the most of the trip but also wanted to take time to chill and not have to drive for too long between stops.

Amazingly a couple of hours later we had not only plotted a route, to ensure we could see all the sights on our list, but also booked rooms at Premier Inns (other hotel chains are available) at various points around Wales, together with a B&B for three nights to chillax at the end of the first week…………

EXCITING 👏👏👏

With the foundation of our trip in place, we had just under three months to plan some of the finer details of our journey and think about how we were going to survive two weeks just the two of us 🤣🤣🤣

♦ Having been gifted a National Trust Membership at Christmas, we would be able to visit some more magnificent houses during our visit.

♦ Wales has some spectacular cycle trails, mostly off road, covering miles across the country. We were looking forward to travelling, traffic free along the canals and through the beautiful countryside.

♦ We had toured Wales four years ago and booked the train up Snowdon. Unfortunately the wet weather came in (as it often does in Wales) and the trip was cancelled. Hopefully we would make it up this time 🤞

♦ St David’s in Pembrokeshire, is Britains smallest City and has been the subject of a tv series. Having enjoyed watching the series and learning about the famous Welsh Oggie (similar to a Cornish Pasty of which my hubby has a taste for ) we just had to include a visit and an Oggie tasting session into our trip.

♦ Then there is the village of Portmeirion, which I’ve always known for its famous pottery. However my hubby recalls it, from his youth, as the setting for a tv series The Prisoner. 🤷‍♀️ Either way it was added to the growing list of places to see.

♦ The towns of Aberystwyth – famous for its fish and chips and Tenby – famous for its beautiful beaches and colourful houses had both been recommended to us. We also wanted to visit the City of Swansea and return to the beautiful City of Cardiff.

With a growing list of wonderful places to visit and exciting things to do we set our planning wheels in motion.

Could we survive a road trip, living out of the suitcases stowed in the back of our car, rather than the lovely Kenneth?

🗓Only time would tell 🗓