Welsh Open 2012 - Campy time

Every year the biggest model aircraft racing event in the UK is held in South Wales - the Welsh Open. That was rather convenient when I lived in Cardiff but somewhat less so now that I live near Edinburgh. To make the most of it we decided to do our longest ever Campy trip of 10 nights and 1,000+ miles. I found a neat trip mapping program called TravellersPoint for producing a map of your trip.

Oswestry

We did a quick overnight stop near Oswestry to break up the journey. Lovely place but we only go to see the town in the morning which was a bit of a rush as I had to do a bit of work and then rush off to South Wales for a quick practice fly.

  

Oswestry was followed by staying at a campsite near Aberdare for a few days during the competition and one night in Cardiff to meet with some old colleagues for a most excellent drink and catch up.

Llyn Clywendog Reservoir

On the up through Wales from Cardiff we couldn't resist stopping for a bite to eat on the pass up above the reservoir. The photos don't do it justice, it's gorgeous.

Lake Talyllyn / Abergynolwyn / Tywyn

Very pretty and gave Amanda a chance to relive her youth. We stayed overnight at Tywyn, which was OK. 

Barmouth 

From Tywyn we went onto Barmouth, which we really took a shine to. Lovely beach, palm trees, quaint shops and an overzealous sodding traffic warden!

Harlech

After Barmouth we went to Harlech. Nice castle, a couple of nice shops and the best ice cream in the world, ever. 

Porthmadog and Criccieth

We went from Harlech to Porthmadog where I popped into one of our offices for an hour. After that we went off to Criccieth where we stayed the night.

Llanberis snowdon

After breakfast we set off for Llanberris to take a hike up Snowdon. Six hours of walking for a cup of tea. You can't beat the smug self satisfaction of a bit of exercise followed by two days of aching.

Caernarfon 

You'll have noticed that up until now we haven't mentioned campsites, that's because by and large we don't like them. The exception is the Cwm Cadnant Valley campsite. It's superpower is that it's terraced, which means there's no sea of caravans, just a nice wooded view.
In the morning we went off to Caernarfon castle. Hugely impressive and definitely the high point of Caernarfon.

Chester

Chester was lovely. I really wasn't prepared for how pretty it is and with with such good shops. Amanda even got me a rather nice birthday present and we went bonkers and had a most excellent Thai for lunch.

Bowness-on-Windermere

We stayed overnight at Kendal and then went on to Bowness-on-Windemere. Very nice - except Amanda wouldn't let me go and play on the rowing boats. We even had another Thai for lunch... bonkers or what!

Coniston

We stopped off at Coniston which was also rather lovely. And it also has rowing boats that I wasn't allowed to play on.

Ambleside

Ambleside is quaint and is absolutely outdoor shop heaven. I could have spent thousands there.

Bassenthwaite

Quaint overnighter type place. Great view but a blinkin cold night to find your heater doesn't work. 

And then back home (via Carlisle - which we don't talk about!)

10 nights away in Campy - by far our longest trip - and we could have gone on for twice as long, easily. The fun of not knowing what you're doing until you can be bothered to look at the map and the constantly changing surroundings are set to make us Campy bores for many years to come. Holidays in just one place seem rather silly now.