It would have appeared that Marianne wanted a bit of peace and quiet, for she instructed me to take the lads away for the long Easter weekend. Naturally, thoughts turned to areas of new unique activations, but there had to be something in it for Liam as well. So where could offer us unactivated summits into double figures, as well as arcades and curry houses?
Answer: Barry, South Wales.
I originally booked very cheap accommodation at the Sky Plaza near Cardiff Airport (much closer to Barry than Cardiff), but Jimmy alerted me to the dreadful reviews and photos on Trip Advisor and other such sites. When all my emails to the hotel bounced sayinf “Mailbox full”, I decided to cancel the booking!
Instead, I booked in at the highly regard Aberthaw House Hotel in Barry itself, and this proved to be a lovely place, family run, with clean comfortable rooms and excellent breakfasts. They didn’t have any twin rooms left, but they offered me three singles for the same price as a twin and a single. When we arrived, they actually gave us two “singles” - where the beds appeared to be more like small doubles, and a double. So a comfortable and spacious en suite room each for the three of us - luxurious!
The tour kicked off on the afternoon of Thursday 17th April 2014, with Liam and I driving up from Macclesfield to pick up Jimmy M0HGY from his office in Wilmslow. We then picked our way through the country lanes to Holmes Chapel as we endeavoured to avoid the start of the Bank Holiday rush hour traffic. Shortly after, we were pulling in at Keele services on the M6 for our evening meal of KFC.
The roads remained fairly clear down the M6, M5 and M4, although we were stung for a £6.50 toll after crossing the River Severn into Wales. We checked in at the B&B shortly before 10pm - and went straight to bed. We agreed to meet at 7am in the breakfast room.
Tom M1EYP