June 21st, 2017 – Cardiff, Wales to Holyhead, Wales: ~215 miles
Missed Day 4? June 20th, 2017 – Christchurch, England to Cardiff, Wales: ~120 miles
If I could summarize our time in Wales with one word, it would simply be: “sheep.” I feel like I’m seeing twice as many sheep as humans, but it turns out I’m wrong: the actual ratio is 3 to 1.
Vy’s an animal lover, so she enjoys her newly dubbed “sheep peeps” greatly. We stop constantly to take photos of sheep grazing, running, or…doing nothing.
Like I said…she likes sheep.
We hug the border of Wales and England and discover a town that is famous not for sheep, but for books. Hay-on-Wye has a population of approximately 1,600, yet it features nearly 30 bookstores (many of which focus exclusively on used books). The small town annually hosts one of the world’s largest literary festivals, the Hay Festival – a celebration of art and literature that has expanded in recent years to include several locations worldwide.
Richard Booth claims to be the world’s largest secondhand bookstore. The motorcycling section was underwhelming, but there were plenty of books penned by Jeremy Clarkson.
Vy’s much more interested in books than I am, so at first I wanted to get back on the road. But after a few minutes in Richard Booth, I was content to spend hours there.
My favorite find was “Donald and the Fish that Walked“, a kids book about the walking catfish invasion in Florida in the late 60s.
This was my second favorite book find.
It taught me all kinds of old slang like “dunkie butt” and “dunnigan.”
One of the nice things of being on an adventure bike is that you can tackle whatever road strikes your fancy. That’s not to say you couldn’t tackle the pictured road on a sportbike, but it’s much easier on this Triumph.
I forget what side of the road I’m supposed to be on.
Wales is a small country – it’s smaller than all but three of the United States. Despite that, there’s plenty to admire if you enjoy natural beauty. A tenth of the nation is actually a National Park called Snowdonia, which features Wales’ largest natural lake and highest mountain. It’s undoubtedly gorgeous, yet after 12 straight hours of bright green rolling hills the photos and memories all feel the same to me. As we approach the top of Wales, we have to cross the Menai Strait. The most interesting way to do so (at least on a road) is across the Menai Bridge, considered to be the first modern suspension bridge in the world.
The Menai bridge opened in January of 1826, and it instantly made crossing the strait a much safer journey.
Just after the bridge, Vy and I stumble upon a town with the longest place name in Europe. It requires a deep breath to type, let alone say. It’s 58 characters long and it is the second longest one-world place name in the world: Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. No, you’re not saying it correctly in your head right now, so let this weatherman show you the way:
The translation is even longer!
Looks like they’ve had some issues with people trying to steal the sign.
A pronunciation guide, if you were curious.
A couple of days in and I am finally getting comfortable with the aptly-named Explorer. Last year, Triumph significantly updated the model for 2016 to make it more competitive with offerings from BMW and KTM, and I’d say they’ve succeeded. It’s a quality two-up tourer and the top-of-the-line XRt model that we’re on may have more computers and sensors than Apollo 11. Cornering ABS, traction control, ride-by-wire throttle control, an Inertial Measurement Unit, multiple ride modes, Semi Active Suspension, tire pressure monitors, power windshields, heated seats, even a hill hold function. The list goes on and on, and it’s all good. Triumph deserves special mention here for making all of the electronics intuitive. There’s a lot of (possibly too many) options available from the handlebar controls but they’re designed in a way that’s easy to navigate, even on the move.
Photo from Triumph.
My only real complaint with the Explorer is the same issue I have with the little-brother Tiger 800: it feels a bit top heavy compared to the competition, so at low speeds it feels ponderous. That might seem like an easy criticism with a big ADV bike but I’ve recently covered hundreds of miles on a similarly-sized BMW R1200GS, which weighs 20 pounds less and makes it feel like the weight sits lower.
It might be heavy, but the Explorer has a way of making you forget that when you call on its 137 horsepower.
While I may be getting used to the bike, I don’t think I’ll ever get used to the UK’s speed cameras. Thankfully, the NUVIZ I am testing had audio alerts to warn me about most of them. Street signs took care of the rest of the alerts, like this heads up to ride safely.
Can you identify what bike that is?
Our plan is to take the ferry out of Holyhead the next morning, so our accommodations for the night are nearby at Wavecrest B&B. The owner’s name is Jaye and she’s an absolute sweetheart. When she sees us pull up on a bike she offers up a parking space in her personal garage to make sure the bike will be safe. I’d eventually find this bike-friendly behavior to be typical of our B&B hosts but Jaye deserves special mention for being very helpful and friendly.
Our host doesn’t even have her own car in the garage, but she makes some space to ensure the Explorer will be ready for us tomorrow morning.
Jaye suggests a few local places for dinner and Vy convinces me that we should walk. En route, I notice a vehicle that’s not found in the US: a Mitsubshi Pajero Evolution. Americans will recognize this as the Montero, which as far as I know is an inoffensive SUV that was pulled from the market in 2006 because it sold poorly. But this is the “Evolution”, a rare homologation version built so that Mitsubishi could race it in Dakar! Approximately 2,500 examples were built between 1997-1999, nearly all of which were sold in Japan. The 3.5L V6 motor produced “276 horsepower”, and the 2 door Pajero Evolution also featured Recaro seats, the insane flared bodywork, and skidplates that provided full coverage underneath. It was a monster and Mitsubishi would go on to not just dominate the production-based “T2” class in Dakar, they won the entire thing. Hell, in 1998, these oddballs took 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. In my mind, it’s one of the coolest SUVs ever built. And one was just sitting here near a dock, looking like it hadn’t been driven in a few months. For more on what makes this special, check out this article on Jalopnik.
I put 276 in quotes because that was the horsepower limit of the gentleman’s agreement between Japanese OEMs at the time. I’d bet money that a dyno test would reveal that the actual output is significantly higher – as was the case with many high performance Japanese vehicles from the 90s.
After a pleasant dinner, Vy and I make our way back to the B&B. We’ve got to plan out tomorrow, which will include a ferry ride and a quick stop in Dublin…
“En Suite” was not a term I had seen before out travels here. It simply means that you’ll have a bathroom attached to your room.
Continue on to Day 6!