18th March: Daffodil Run
The Daffodil Run is our regular first event of the year and this year the weather was kind to us again. The forecast was changeable so the FHC was the car to take. The run takes place in the Forest of Dean area and started from the Belfrey Hotel in Littledean with a total length of about 80 miles. This year the hotel was really busy because it was full of guests who had been attanding the Cheltenham Festival horse races but we still got an excellent sausage bap and coffee!
First away was a car type I have never seen before, a beautiful little Peugeot 203 from the 1950s and it looked immaculate.
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| First car away Peugeot 203 |
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| The FHC at the start |
The Forest of Dean always looks nice at this time of year because all the trees are only just in bud so you can see much more than usual. There were lots of daffodils to see on our drive up to the coffee stop at Westons Cider in Much Marcle. There were lots of roadworks still in place because it seems the whole world is being dug up to provide fibre optic telecomms cables at the moment but luckily it didn't affect us too much.
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| Three TR7s taking part |
There were three TR7s taking part this year, the other two were Jos Way in his red TR7V8 and Henry Brown in his blue TR7V8. The organisers usually mange to find at least one ford and this year was no exception but it wasn't very deep so I didn't manage to get the photographer wet even though I tried.
We started to meet some old cars who were taking part in a Vintage Sport Cars Trial. Some super old open wheel cars being driven in anger and not in a museum - brilliant to see.
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| Great use for an old car. |
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| Lovely spot for marshalling. |
We had a couple of heavy showers later in the afternoon but it didn't spoil a super day out and we returned to The Belfrey for an excellent Sunday roast at the finish.
Washing the car on Monday afterwards I found a large nail sticking out of the sidewall of a rear tyre. It was right on the shoulder so effectively scraps an almost new tyre.
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| Not Happy! |
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26th March: Taith Cymru
The Taith Cymru is usually a much more "hard core" event and this year no exception. They promised us a 130 mile route which would visit every major valley in South Wales and it turns out there are 22 of them and we did! Because of the length of the route and start/finish locations we decided to stay overnight before and after and make a weekend of it.
Weather was again changeable so the FHC was the first choice. The route turned out to very different to the usual classic runs. To get access to all the valleys and use some of the old road rally lanes meant much more urban mileage than usual with quite a lot of narrow streets in the valley towns to negotiate. This also meant some quite detailed navigation and was not popular with quite a few of the entrants.
The route traversed 8 valleys to morning coffee at Abercynon Rugby Club, which would have been an excellent choice, but it was also the base for a schools rugby tournament that day so was super busy with parked cars abandoned everywhere. The marshalls managed to get us into the car park eventually but it was all a bit manic.
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| Arriving at morning coffee Abercynon |
The route proceeded via 7 more valleys to the lunch halt at Maesteg Rugby Club where the staff were kept very busy supplying some excellent sandwiches to the hungry crews.
In the afternoon the route headed further west via Baglan and Neath before turning back towards the finish near Hirwaun. One very narrow uphill section needed marshalls stationed at the bottom end to allow only one car at a time to tackle the hill. This was just in case a car stalled on the hill and had the reverse back down! Some of the smaller roads were in very bad condition and really quite rough and we thought they should not have been included.
The main thing to report is that the TR7 behaved itself perfectly despite the rough going!
In
conclusion it was an interesting idea to try and visit all the valleys
but parts of the route were not really suitable for a classic tour.
