Stories From The Road - Elan Valley
Road trip season has well and truly kicked off, and in true Latitude style, we hit the road with the Latitude Community for our first trip of the year, to the Elan Valley in mid-Wales.
It’s mid-April, there is still a twang in the air and the winter layers haven’t been fully packed away just yet. However, the lighter and longer evenings are most welcome and a nod to things to come. We’ve visited the Elan Valley on a number of occasions over the years, and its charm, off-road trails and relative unbusyness led us to choose it for our first Latitude Road Trip of the year.
With our roof tents fitted we headed to Cocos Wild Camp, the place we’d use as base camp for the weekend.
Everyone arrived throughout Friday evening, some familiar faces, some newer Latitude Community members, all sporting their roof tents and awnings, which before long were fully set up with dinner cooking and a camp fire blazing.
Saturday was a big day for exploring. The weather was on our side and the route pack had a number of options to choose from. The Elan Valley is most well-known for its series of dams and reservoirs built through the Elan and Claerwen Valleys to feed Birmingham with clean water. A number of the group headed off in that direction to visit these, whilst another portion chose to take things off the beaten track.
This part of the country is also well renowned for its off-road 4x4 trails, or green lanes and byways. So we headed off on a loop of off-roading right on the campsites doorstep. Dacia had leant us one of their new Duster 4x4 models, which certainly surprised a few with its capabilities!
That Saturday evening, with everyone returned to base camp, we gathered around the (multiple) campfires to share stories, catch up with friends and make new roof tent camping comrades.
The Sunday morning was a little slower, with those who travelled further getting on the road home, and some others who spent the Saturday off-roading going to see the dams and reservoirs. Once packed up a convoy of us left the campsite for the last time and headed in the direction of Rhayader.
With the dams completed we finished at the very top of the Elan valley, where there was certainly a feeling of being in the middle of no where. Pub lunches were also on the agenda so people slowly fragmented off to find a pub stop in the direction of home.
Whilst jumpers and hot water bottles were still to hand throughout the weekend, Friday’s sunset & wildfires and Saturday’s sunshine certainly hinted towards a summer season to come.
The trips have just begun for us, with our next Latitude Road Trip in a month’s time. This time to Pembrokeshire!
As always, see you on the road ✌️
