UNABASHED Posted August 19, 2010 Share Posted August 19, 2010 I was due to take my gf and the zed around Europe last week but as I'm currently in the process of buying a house it became much more prudent to go to sunny Wales instead I got all the gear together and stacked all the bags in the hall before going to bed the night before. We got up early and I got some breakfast and noticed the gf was having trouble carrying all the heavy bags outside, naturally I gave her a hand by suggesting it would be easier for her to carry them one at a time. She was immensely pleased at my suggestion and even seemed to wave at me as she walked outside - bless her! I finished my breakie and went outside to see how far she had got on with the packing of the car, to my dismay she had put all the bags in the back of her Fiesta! The next 10 minutes passed with the arguments for and against taking the zed camping in Snowden, the against arguments were aplenty with issues such as 'it's raining and we will almost definitely get stuck somewhere', 'it's not really big enough to fit all the stuff in', 'the petrol cost will be far higher' etc tec but in the end my rebuttal of 'but she's so pretty and deserves a holiday herself!' more than put all other issues to the side. It was decided that if we could fit all the gear in the zed then we would take it, then began the life size Tetris game to get all the stuff in - and it all fit perfectly! Off we went on out little road trip, the gf was not too happy about my lack of planning and constant reassuring that we don't need maps or places to stay as that is all part of the adventure. I headed west and informed her that in Snowden was as big as people say it is then how hard can it possibly be too find?? A fair few hours later we still couldn't find the bloody mountain. I tried to fool her a fool times by professing that the medium sized hill in front of her was indeed Snowden, but the wily little fox that she is pointed a book at me clearly showing a far larger hill. Off we went again, round and round the valleys with the 'friendly' Welsh village folk more than happy with my zed noisily driving around there little country roads - some of them even gave special waves of appreciation (not too dissimilar to how my gf was waving at me earlier!). When we finally found what I was convinced was the mountain it was pissing down with rain, we found a few campsites but they didn't seem 'rustic' enough for my liking so we continued down the roads. We came upon a very nice place within a forest and drove over to check it out. We went to reception and booked in and was told to drive around the little forest roads to find a pitch and set up where we liked. As we left reception some 45 year old scout leader scoffed at the zed proclaiming it to be highly unsuitable for camping, I pointed smuggly to the amount of gear we had and after looking quite impressed he asked me if it was 4 wheel drive. 'Of course not' I replied 'where's the fun in that?', he gave me a wry smile and told me that the ground is rather wet and he would advise on using a for wheels drive vehicle to go further into the forest. I thanking him for his advise and explained my lovely little zed was more than capable of conquering any terrain that was thrown at it and also explained to him the most important fact 'look how pretty she looks with all these tree's around her though!'. We drove down some little dirt tracks and found a lovely patch of green, thinking this would do perfect I swung the zed around and aimed at a perfect patch. Much to the delight of the fellow outdoorsman across the patch we powerslided accross the whole patch, tearing up the grass and coming to a halt just before a very large tree. Fearing a reprisal from the yocals I decided I didn’t like this patch anymore I tried to drive off, by now though we were firmly stuck in the churned up mud. I stuck the gf in the driving seat and started to try pushing her out of the mud, the only problem was I didn’t really want to get too muddy. Through the mist there was suddenly a figure. Of course, scout leader Bob was walking towards us looking very smug indeed! 'Need a hand?' he shouted to which I told him we were completely fine and this was how we parked. After 10 minutes of pushing and getting nowhere I had to hand my head in shame, and go get help 4 other people came and helped to push the car, after I made them all show me there hands were free of rings and anything else that could scratch the zed of course! They did such a good job I realised that they didn’t actually need me and were happy to get muddy while I supervised the operation. After we were finally freed from the swamp the gf decided the best way to get out of the rest of the mud was to redline the zed in first and proceeded to rip up the other side of the patch. After this we decided that we didn’t like it there anymore and maybe a different spot was in order! All was fine after that and we went up Snowdon and had a very relaxing time, that is until we parked in a small village car park. I was not too happy at all about the sizes of the spaces and was having a little think about how best to proceed. I had left little more space on one side as the car I parked next to had kids opening and closing the doors constantly, I decided I would wait until there were finished and gone before I would straighten up a little and leave the zed. Just then a VW estate pulled up the other side, there seemed to be enough room and so no issues. I pointed out to the gf the woman was opening her door awfully close to my front wing and made sure they knew we were in the car watching them. The father of this particular family then went back to the passenger door and banged it slightly against my door. The red mist fell across my vision and the gf sensed things were not going well calmed me down a little. Then he banged his door FOUR more times against my door. I flipped out and charged out of the car. I shouted at him and asked him what on earth he was playing at. His wife came over and told me to stop being silly and that ‘it’s only a car and everyone gets dings in car parks’ this did not exactly calm me down and I started lecturing them on both on how to respect other people belongings, especially when the belongings were so pretty! At this point the guy banged his door against my yet again, I nearly went at the guy but was very restrained (partly due to the fact that he had young children with him and he wasn’t there fault daddy was a prick!). I checked that there was know damage and politely informed him that if I returned and there was any damage to my car then I would be climbing onto his bonnet and putting my foot through his windscreen. They walked of after a small heated exchange and I got back into the car to calm down. Of course I had to move the car to a more appropriate place otherwise I would not have been able to settle down, we did so and have a very pleasant day trekking about. Just for information, if anyone happens to see the following car please don’t worry if you have a little ‘accident’ when opening your door next to it. All in all it was a nice little break, some good walking and a lot of nice driving roads. So nice were the driving roads in fact, that a kind police officer wrote to me on my return to comment on how nice my car was. So much did he like it that he took a little picture and recorded how fast it could go. Thank you mr police man Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Husky Posted August 19, 2010 Share Posted August 19, 2010 love it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stanski Posted August 19, 2010 Share Posted August 19, 2010 Class mate - welcome to the paranoid world that is owning a nice car! If its any concillation I take the same precautions and have the same defensive stance about my Camper,its survived since 1973 so far and I would prefer it without any dings or scrapes thank you very much! Twas nice of the Police to take a holiday snap for you - the Welsh Police really are so generous Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Husky Posted August 19, 2010 Share Posted August 19, 2010 thinking of the snap. a mate of mine owns a classic car (cant remember what) but its pretty ancient. In the OC they say the top speed ever achieved was something like 65mph. one day he got snapped for speeding doing 71, he appealed it just so he could get the photo of his car breaking the club record. he framed it and put it up on his wall. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maccaman Posted August 19, 2010 Share Posted August 19, 2010 That is a fantastic write-up and has put a massive smile on my face Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
c-macd Posted August 19, 2010 Share Posted August 19, 2010 Brilliant story...Sounds like you had an adventurous trip! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UNABASHED Posted August 19, 2010 Author Share Posted August 19, 2010 :Twas nice of the Police to take a holiday snap for you - the Welsh Police really are so generous Very generous indeed! thinking of the snap. a mate of mine owns a classic car (cant remember what) but its pretty ancient. In the OC they say the top speed ever achieved was something like 65mph. one day he got snapped for speeding doing 71, he appealed it just so he could get the photo of his car breaking the club record. he framed it and put it up on his wall. I think I will be framing my picture as it's the first and only time I have been flashed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
captain Posted August 19, 2010 Share Posted August 19, 2010 Top story. Best I've read on here I think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrLizard Posted August 19, 2010 Share Posted August 19, 2010 well written Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ian.lewkowicz Posted August 19, 2010 Share Posted August 19, 2010 Brilliant story & write up So were you more worried when you were sliding towards the tree or when your gf was redlining it in the grass? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AK350Z Posted August 19, 2010 Share Posted August 19, 2010 Brilliant! Very funny Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UNABASHED Posted August 19, 2010 Author Share Posted August 19, 2010 Brilliant story & write up So were you more worried when you were sliding towards the tree or when your gf was redlining it in the grass? Most definitely seeing the gf roar accross the grass in the wrong direction! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martinmac Posted August 19, 2010 Share Posted August 19, 2010 Thats class mate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
choptop Posted August 19, 2010 Share Posted August 19, 2010 Excellent story! I bet you wish you had taken the Fiesta in the end Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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