RedFrame
LIFE MEMBER
So, this weekend heralded the beginning of an era for us, or more accurately, for Chris. You see she's never "Wild Camped" properly... out in Canada we stopped at a few campsites on a Canoe trip down the Restigouch River that were similar to wilding (a few Moose and Bear tracks on the trail up to the Long Drop 
), but they were designated sites rather than truly "Wild" (my interpretation = unauthorized).
After much discussion and investigations during the last week or so, we decided that we'd stay local(ish) and head for somewhere we've never visited, Llyn Brenig. We'd Google Map'd what looked like a few prime locations around the Llyn, one even had a MoHo sitting on it! But with the predicted strong winds and their direction we figured we'd start our search on the West banks, North of the visitor centre and see how it went.
Following a short journey down the A55 and a left hook at Denbigh we were soon indicating left to turn into the road that leads to the visitor centre, sweet, 17:20, we'd have plenty of time to scout out our nefarious lair for the evening...
A further 50 yards on and we were presented with a padlocked Forestry Commission style gate, and a right fork that was open. We had a good gander from the cab and it looked like the road "might" go that way to join the Llynside road, so off we trundled... slowly down the "fire road" ... Very soon we were presented with another "life choice", a Fire road crossroads, Left was open and went (very steeply) uphill, ahead was a closed gate with a very bright banner spread across it, the banner was very pretty, and Right was again open...
I think the conversation went something like:-
"No Red, that isn't the right direction"
"Well let's have a look-see, I reckon it might turn left"
"No, it doesn't"
"Well, let's see"
I was soooo glad of those crossroads when Chris' female premonition was, again, proved right, in my defence I have to say that I do need practice reversing, and up a good hill too
That was it then, Plan B... head for Lake Vernwy, somewhere I "knew" rather than it being a joint venture but Hey Ho, it'd still be a bit of fun...
As we drove down the B4501 towards Cerigydrudion a sign caught our eye, "Alwen Reservoir", with Parking, after a short discussion we found a spot to turn tail (more reversing practice ) and headed back to the "Fire Road" to the Alwen, it was bumpy, it was pot holed and we took it slow...
We passed a house on the way and tried our best to "sneak" by, quite how you "sneak" a 7.2mtr MoHo past a house on a Fire Road I'm not quite sure, but we tried anyway...
As the road came to an end, in another Forestry Commission Gate, I took the opportunity to practice some more reversing, to make sure we were pointed in the direction of exit should we feel the need to exit quickly... (We'd been told hilarious stories in the past, of acquaintances pitching up in Dogging areas, but not realising until quite late on )
So, Van secured we took Bannock for a good stroll along the banks of the Alwen in the somewhat breezy conditions (it's 7 miles around the reservoir if you fancy doing the lot or you can link it with Llyn Brenig and make it 14 miles, also suitable for easy mountain biking).
On return to the Van, the light was fading but the wind was blowing, so we shuttered up, locked up, passed the cable between the two front door handles, secured it and "settled" down for the evening...
We put our "choons" low, picked up our books and chilled...
Chris got a bit excited when the heater kicked in, she thought it was a vehicle coming down the track, but I assured her she'd easily be able to tell if a vehicle pulled up, and that was unlikely at this time of night...!
Maybe I should have left the word "unlikely" out... shortly afterwards, she did, hear a vehicle . It trundled down, reversed, drove forward a bit, reversed then stopped.
Chris went from a chilled out, book reading, natural wild camper to a stalactite of Ice. I tried to be casual when I let her know, if we get a knock within the next minute it'll be a ranger or police, they'll ask us to move, which we will, if not chill... No Knock... 5 mins go by and I'm back engrossed in my book.
There were some clunking noises for 15 min or more, when I looked up Chris was still sat bolt upright looking like a rabbit in headlights, so I informed her that I needed to pop outside to check the Gas levels and headed out with a torch. "hey presto" it seemed another member of the MoHo Community has chosen the same place to spend the night...
Again, I could see Chris' demeanour change in front of me, the new neighbour went from an Axe Wielding Psyco to a Furry Bear, well, in her mind anyway... the rest of the evening was only interspersed by the winds, the rain, and the rockin' of the van...
On Sunday we popped over to Vernwy and had a drive around the Lake, stopped at a couple of options for Wilding just to get an idea of the surroundings, then headed for home.
We had a brilliant time, really enjoyed ourselves and I'm pretty sure Chris will be asking when we'll be wilding next pretty soon...
Taken from the Dam, the official car park is down the road to the right but we recon the entrance to the fire road is a better location (it's wide, so you're not blocking access)...
Alwen Reservoir from the Dam...
Oh and if you're known as "Globetrotting Welshman" or have something similar on the back of your van... Hi...
Cheers
Chris, Bannock and Red.
), but they were designated sites rather than truly "Wild" (my interpretation = unauthorized).After much discussion and investigations during the last week or so, we decided that we'd stay local(ish) and head for somewhere we've never visited, Llyn Brenig. We'd Google Map'd what looked like a few prime locations around the Llyn, one even had a MoHo sitting on it!
But with the predicted strong winds and their direction we figured we'd start our search on the West banks, North of the visitor centre and see how it went.Following a short journey down the A55 and a left hook at Denbigh we were soon indicating left to turn into the road that leads to the visitor centre, sweet, 17:20, we'd have plenty of time to scout out our nefarious lair for the evening...
A further 50 yards on and we were presented with a padlocked Forestry Commission style gate
, and a right fork that was open. We had a good gander from the cab and it looked like the road "might" go that way to join the Llynside road, so off we trundled... slowly down the "fire road" ... Very soon we were presented with another "life choice", a Fire road crossroads, Left was open and went (very steeply) uphill, ahead was a closed gate with a very bright banner spread across it, the banner was very pretty, and Right was again open... I think the conversation went something like:-
"No Red, that isn't the right direction"
"Well let's have a look-see, I reckon it might turn left"
"No, it doesn't"
"Well, let's see"
I was soooo glad of those crossroads when Chris' female premonition was, again, proved right, in my defence I have to say that I do need practice reversing, and up a good hill too
That was it then, Plan B... head for Lake Vernwy, somewhere I "knew" rather than it being a joint venture but Hey Ho, it'd still be a bit of fun...
As we drove down the B4501 towards Cerigydrudion a sign caught our eye, "Alwen Reservoir", with Parking, after a short discussion we found a spot to turn tail (more reversing practice
) and headed back to the "Fire Road" to the Alwen, it was bumpy, it was pot holed and we took it slow... We passed a house on the way and tried our best to "sneak" by, quite how you "sneak" a 7.2mtr MoHo past a house on a Fire Road I'm not quite sure, but we tried anyway...
As the road came to an end, in another Forestry Commission Gate, I took the opportunity to practice some more reversing, to make sure we were pointed in the direction of exit should we feel the need to exit quickly... (We'd been told hilarious stories in the past, of acquaintances pitching up in Dogging areas, but not realising until quite late on
)So, Van secured we took Bannock for a good stroll along the banks of the Alwen in the somewhat breezy conditions (it's 7 miles around the reservoir if you fancy doing the lot or you can link it with Llyn Brenig and make it 14 miles, also suitable for easy mountain biking).
On return to the Van, the light was fading but the wind was blowing, so we shuttered up, locked up, passed the cable between the two front door handles, secured it and "settled" down for the evening...
We put our "choons" low, picked up our books and chilled...
Chris got a bit excited when the heater kicked in, she thought it was a vehicle coming down the track, but I assured her she'd easily be able to tell if a vehicle pulled up, and that was unlikely at this time of night...!
Maybe I should have left the word "unlikely" out... shortly afterwards, she did, hear a vehicle
. It trundled down, reversed, drove forward a bit, reversed then stopped. Chris went from a chilled out, book reading, natural wild camper to a stalactite of Ice. I tried to be casual when I let her know, if we get a knock within the next minute it'll be a ranger or police, they'll ask us to move, which we will, if not chill... No Knock... 5 mins go by and I'm back engrossed in my book.
There were some clunking noises for 15 min or more, when I looked up Chris was still sat bolt upright looking like a rabbit in headlights, so I informed her that I needed to pop outside to check the Gas levels and headed out with a torch. "hey presto" it seemed another member of the MoHo Community has chosen the same place to spend the night...
Again, I could see Chris' demeanour change in front of me, the new neighbour went from an Axe Wielding Psyco to a Furry Bear, well, in her mind anyway... the rest of the evening was only interspersed by the winds, the rain, and the rockin' of the van...
On Sunday we popped over to Vernwy and had a drive around the Lake, stopped at a couple of options for Wilding just to get an idea of the surroundings, then headed for home.
We had a brilliant time, really enjoyed ourselves and I'm pretty sure Chris will be asking when we'll be wilding next pretty soon...
Taken from the Dam, the official car park is down the road to the right but we recon the entrance to the fire road is a better location (it's wide, so you're not blocking access)...
Alwen Reservoir from the Dam...
Oh and if you're known as "Globetrotting Welshman" or have something similar on the back of your van... Hi...
Cheers
Chris, Bannock and Red.
