Wales Day 1

Myself and Helen loaded up are bikes this morning and set out for Chepstow. It is the first time I have had all my hard luggage on the VFR. I could feel the extra weight on the bike so added some preload on the rear shock. At first the front felt a bit unsure of its self, but I soon got used to it and by the time we reached Chepstow I had almost forgotten I was carrying so much extra weigh.


We set out at about 8:00am and hit heavy traffic almost immediately, but on a bike it doesn't matter so much and we filtered through the traffic on the M60 and M6. We then got onto the M56 and got off at junction 10 and headed down the A49 to Whitchurch. We then jumped onto A495 and cut across through Elsemere and Whittingham to the A483 and stopped at Oswestry services.

After a brief stop we continued down the A483 to Newtown briefly stopping at Montgomery Castle on the way. Then after Newtown down the A483 to Crossgates and 22 glorious miles of bends. Then the A483 again to Builth Wells, then A470 to Bronylls where we visited our second castle of the day.


After visiting Bronylls Castle we headed down the A479 to Tretower court and Castle, then proceeded down the A40 to the A449 to Usk via Raglan Castle. At Usk we took the scenic B4235 which we enjoyed until we got off at Shirenewton and took some goat tracks (much to Helens displeasure) to cut across to the A48 where our weekend hotel the Marriott St. Pierre Hotel & Country Club was located on. A total of approximately 209 miles.