A Last Minute Road Trip

[Erni902]

So I woke up this morning and looked out of the window expecting to see rain as this is what was forecast when I checked yesterday. To my surprise I found a fairly bright day and hardly any clouds. I jumped on the web and checked the weather again and it was now saying the rain would hold off until early evening. I then set about figuring out what to do to make the most of the weather. A short while later I decided I would go out for a drive. After looking for a decent route I ended up checking the weather for the Brecon Beacons and found it was supposed to be dry for most of the day.

 

With that I decided a little road trip was in order. Had a quick check on google maps and came up wit a nice little route, which is pictured below. Ive broken the trip down into legs below for any of you that are interested.

 

- Leg 1:

- From: Shell petrol station, Hereford

- To: Senneybridge

- Distance: 46 miles

- Description: Pretty much a single road from here to be honest. Within minutes of leaving the fuel station you are leaving Hereford and in the countryside, some nice scenery but the road is far too busy to enjoy to its potential. It does get quieter about 30 minutes down the road and you can start to enjoy the drive without nailing it just yet. This is the A438 West out of Hereford and you stay on this road until the other side of Bronllys where it turns into the A470. Just outside of Brecon this road then merges onto the A40. Continue along this road until you reach the outskirts of Senneybridge where you will turn left onto the A4067. This concludes Leg 1.

 

- Leg 2:

- From: Senneybridge

- To: Upper Brynamman

- Distance: 24 miles

- Description: As mentioned above, just outside Senneybridge you need to take a left hand turn off the A40 and onto the A4067. This is beautifully picturesque route that cuts through the hills and this road is relatively quiet. You can now really start to open up the taps and enjoy this road. Some nice twisty turns, the hills either side, the odd lake and brilliant visibility make this road a really enjoyable experience. You will soon come to a village called Gurnos, where you will take the third exit off of a roundabout and onto the A4068. This road is fairly boring but does cut through a few nice villages and they are built up and closed in so great for listening to 'Zed FM' my Nismo exhaust sounds glorious when echoed back off buildings at low speeds. After about 30-40 minutes you will turn right onto the A4069 and up the hill to Upper Brynamman. This concludes Leg 2.

 

- Leg 3:

- From: Upper Brynamman

- To: Llandovery

- Distance: 19 miles

- Description: Now this is the main event! Known as the Black Mountain Pass this road is absolutely amazing, it has everything! Beautiful scenery, twisty bends, great visibility, wide enough roads that you dont have to worry so much about oncoming vehicles unless you are taking the racing line through the corners. Several viewpoints and layby's large enough to stop off for some lunch and admire the views and of course a great backdrop for some pictures especially if there is a group of you. Not really much more to say about this road, its the mutt's nuts! I believe Jeremy Clarkson took an SLK AMG along this road years ago on Top Gear. Even when you start to drop down from the hills the final stretch up to Llandovery is a great road, not so picturesque as the first part but still an enjoyable drive and relatively quiet. When you reach Llandovery this concludes Leg 3.

 

- Leg 4:

- From: Llandovery

- To: Brecon Cathedral

- Distance: 22 miles

- Description: Once you reach Llandovery you will need to head back along the A40 toward Brecon. Obviously being a major A road its a bit busier but its still a nice drive albeit not a 'hooning' drive. It seems quite rife with police along the entirety of this leg so just watch your speed along here. A couple of mobile speed vans and I spotted 2 police bikes hidden behind walls and only noticed them as I went past them and looked in my rear view. Luckily I wasn't being anti-social so had nothing to worry about. Not much more to say, fairly 'normal' road until you reach Brecon.

 

- Leg 5:

- From: Brecon Cathedral

- To: Builth Wells

- Distance: 17 miles

- Description: Once you have located the Cathedral you will be on the B4520. This road goes straight up to Builth Wells and starts off quite tame, to start with I wasn't particularly impressed but as it goes on it becomes a brilliant little road. Not quite as picturesque and doesn't have the same wow factor as the Black Mountain Pass but still has some really nice views, great twisty turns and is a fairly fast road as you can see for miles ahead, so you can really hit the apexes of the corners. Overall another fantastic experience along this road especially as this was yet again a really quiet road.

 

- Leg 6:

- From: Builth Wells

- To: Shell petrol station, Hereford

- Distance: 40 miles

- Description: The home stretch. Now I took a few different roads on the way back to mix it up. I used the A481 North East out of Builth Wells and until it joins the A44. Nothing special buts its got nice views and was relatively quiet so opened her up a little. I took the A44 to Kington and then jumped on the A4111 and just past the village of Eardisley you can rejoin the A438 and run it back in but I prefer to turn off onto the A4112 as its a bit of a faster and quieter road. Again nothing that special, no great views just the average countryside but some great places to put your foot down. So there we have it, back at the fuel station I started at.

 

I left at around 1100hrs and got back around 1630hrs. Not a bad little day out on the spur of the moment. Stopped off to get a couple of snaps although not many as I was having far too much fun driving! Stopped off to grab some lunch in Brecon and ended up chatting to some locals about the car. Would be good to do this route or very similar with a big group of us one day as it would make it much more enjoyable than being a billy no mates and will make for some great photo's. If I had planned it in advance then I would've posted up but being last minute and worrying about the weather changing I decided to get on the road. As it happens the rain never did come.

 

Gutted I didnt get any GoPro footage as I wasn't prepared and hadn't charged the battery. Anyway, far too much waffling from me so here are a couple of pics I took at the beginning of the Black Mountain Pass (should've stopped further round as the scenery was even better):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 28, 2017 by Erni902

[Mopedmark]

Nice one mate looks like you had a great time

[Olly350z]

Aside from the great road trip, can I just say what an epic colour your Z is!

[Erni902]

Nice one mate looks like you had a great time

 

I haven't done anything spontaneous recently so I id enjoy just grabbing the keys, hitting the road and driving the Zed the way it was designed to be driven

 

Aside from the great road trip, can I just say what an epic colour your Z is!

 

Haha cheers mate, apparently its called BMW Fire Orange, they did a limited number of M3's in this colour I believe. The colour seems to have really come alive since it was detailed.

[Paul K]

Great write up. If everyone documented their drive outs as well as you we would have a great library of runs!!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[davey_83]

Just what these big fuel tank GT's were made for, thanks for sharing

[Erni902]

Great write up. If everyone documented their drive outs as well as you we would have a great library of runs!!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Yeah, kind of hoping I can start a trend really. This would be a great library to start. It would mean that people could do more spur of the moment runs out etc without having to plan a great deal. Maybe the mods could start a relevant forum for documented drives out

 

I have another tunnel run type trip planned out that I want to do sometime soon. Nearly double the distance but hits some great roads and a fair few tunnels. Had to plan this one around a Shell station toward the middle just for reassurance. Once Ive been out and tested the route Ill do another write up.

 

Just what these big fuel tank GT's were made for, thanks for sharing

 

It certainly is mate and to be fair I didn't need to finish at the petrol station but I only put £30 in her in the morning and I was driving past it anyway.

Edited May 29, 2017 by Erni902

[slydog]

that looks gorgeous . i done the same yesterday but went along the essex coastline cant beat it

[Adam B]

Very nice mate, my regular stomping ground.

 

How long did it take you?

How much fuel did she drink?

Edited May 30, 2017 by Adam B

[Erni902]

Very nice mate, my regular stomping ground.

 

How long did it take you?

How much fuel did she drink?

 

I left at about 1100hrs and I got back about 1630hrs so roughly 5 1/2hrs but I did stop for lunch, a quick check nav at the beginning of each leg and got slowed down both leaving town and entering town. If the route in and out of town were clear and if you take off the time spent at lunch then it wouldve taken roughly 4hrs.

 

Fuel wise I had 90 miles range before I filled her up, put £35 V-Power in and when I got back she was sat about 100 miles range so basically cost me £35. Again this was helped by getting stuck behind slow yocals along the way so if it was clear I wouldve knocked a few more miles off the range Im sure.