If I'd had any hopes of the tent being dry by the time I had to pack it away they were unfortunately dashed that morning - for once it had been fine overnight but not long after I woke up it started raining again, so it looked like the thing was going to be packed away if not wet, certainly very damp. Fortunately I'd got some wheelie bin-sized liners the previous day and with everything else already packed in the van I only had the tent and the groundsheet to deal with, so once I'd got the breakfast things out of the way I relaxed with my book for a while until Paul arrived, then between us we got the tent off the fence, folded up and into a bag, with the wet groundsheet going into another bag.
Of course it was Sod's Law that once everything was packed away the rain stopped and the sky started clearing, and by the time I was ready for leaving the site the sun was blazing through. I couldn't leave the area without getting at least a couple of sunny photos though so I stopped along the road going from the site into Corwen and snapped a couple of shots overlooking the countryside and the nearby river Dee.
Instead of taking my usual route back along the A5 through Llangollen to the A483 I decided to go a different way this time and took the A494 from just outside Corwen, which would eventually take me straight onto the M56. It was a bit twisty in places but the countryside and views were lovely and the driving time was only the same as my normal route. It was a very pleasant drive and the sunshine stayed with me all the way home - it's just a pity that the previous few days hadn't been as nice. This has been the third year in a row that my Easter break at Felin Uchaf has been blighted by bad weather so I'll have to have a radical rethink for next year - maybe a change of site and area will bring me better luck with the sunshine.
I half woke up during the night to hear the sound of light rain on the van roof - that was nothing new as it had rained for most of the weekend and it was raining when I got in bed, but I didn't realise then the disaster which was about to happen. I'd pitched my tent on the nearside of the van and on the far side of the tent was a 4-berth touring caravan on the next pitch; lying in bed in the van and looking across through a gap in the curtains I could only see my tent but when I looked across that morning I could see the side of the caravan. Now that was strange - if I could see the caravan where was my tent??
My first thought was that someone had been along during the night and silently stolen it but when I got up and looked out of the window properly I saw exactly where it was - almost on the ground. What I'd thought was light rain during the night must have been the beginning of a sudden snow shower which had landed on the tent and frozen, with the weight making the tent collapse. Two of the three poles had snapped completely and the end where I would have been sleeping, if I'd been in there, was totally flattened - thank goodness the dogs and I had been in the van otherwise the whole lot would have come down on top of the three of us.
The worst of it was, most of my belongings were in there under that lot - the larder unit, kitchen unit, chair, loo, the holdall with my clothes in and a couple of other items, and it was only the height of the tall larder unit which was stopping the other end from falling down completely. I had to get everything out somehow so I dressed quickly and with a combination of my bare hands and a sweeping brush borrowed from the toilet block I set to clearing all the snow and ice away and pulling the poles out. Once they were out of the way I managed to unzip the back door and crawl inside, then item by item I dragged everything out and packed it away in the van. And while I was doing all that it was raining steadily so by the time I'd finished there was water inside the tent as well as on it and I was literally soaked through to the skin.
There was nothing I could do with the tent just then and it was still securely pegged down so I left it where it was while I got changed, had a brew and some breakfast and got warmed up in the van. A while later, while I was standing there wondering how best to deal with a soaking wet tent and two broken poles, a guy from a caravan further down the site struck up a conversation with me on his way to the water tap, and when I told him what had happened to the tent he offered to come back later and help me with it. He was as good as his word and between us we managed to lift it up, get all the water out of it, and carry it over to the back fence where it was draped along to hopefully dry out if it eventually stopped raining.
In spite of the bad start and the constant rain I was determined not to waste the rest of the day sitting in the van on my pitch; the tent would be okay where it was so I decided to drive into Bala but that's when the second disaster struck - the van wouldn't start. When I'd put the blind up at the front window the night before I'd unthinkingly left the ignition on and the battery was flatter than flat - and once again it was Paul from the caravan further down who came to my rescue, jump-starting the van with his own trusty Toyota Rav 4. Eventually I got to Bala but the weather was no better there, it was still raining so leaving the dogs in the van I went to get some provisions from the Spar shop then had a quick walk along the top end of the lake before heading back to the camp site.
The 'B' road back to the site took me through some lovely countryside with some great views which would have been well worth a few shots in nice weather but the only place I stopped for photos was in a lay-by close to where the road went over a narrow bridge. The normally narrow stream running under the bridge had swollen with all the rain and there was quite a sizeable torrent running down the gulley and out at the other side of the road.
Back at the site it was later that evening when Paul came and asked me if I fancied a brew and a chat back at his caravan. It was a nice suggestion so I went down and spent several hours in good company, just the thing I needed to round off what had been a very difficult and trying day in more ways than one - it was good to chat to someone with a common interest and I enjoyed myself so much that it was 3am before I finally went back to my own van for the rest of the night.
Unfortunately my visit to Horseshoe Pass turned out to be a bit of a waste of time, as when I got up there I found that in spite of its height there was only one hillside with a very light sprinkling of snow on it - whatever may have fallen previous to that weekend had obviously melted away. I parked at the Ponderosa Cafe which was very busy with cyclists, bikers and other visitors, and as it was only early afternoon there was no danger of me getting locked in the car park like last year. By then the grey clouds had really started to roll in but the views were still clear so I took the dogs for a wander and managed to get a few reasonable shots.
As I'd driven along the road I'd noticed several bunches of flowers and a couple of teddy bears in various places, some tied to marker posts and others left on the grass by the roadside - obviously memorials, presumably to bikers to whom Horseshoe Pass had been their favourite place or maybe had claimed their lives. There was one memorial with a card which simply said 'To Mum' and although the flowers were artificial it was obviously a recent addition and it was beautiful - a photo just couldn't resist taking.
My original intention had been to stop off at Valle Crucis Abbey on the way back down into Llangollen but by then the afternoon had turned so grey that any photos of the abbey would have looked really miserable so I gave that one a miss and carried on back to Corwen instead. Although Corwen is the nearest place to the camp site, being only a couple of miles away, I've only ever been there to go to one of the local shops; classed as a market town it's really no more than a big village and there's not really much to explore but I decided to stop for a short while and have a look round.
Parking round behind the main road I emerged onto the village square and on my immediate right was the 'life sized' statue of Owain Glyndwr, the last truly Welsh Prince of Wales astride his battle horse. Further along was the old black-and-white building which had been a Natwest bank until 2015 and next to it, set right in the corner, was the old narrow-fronted Harp Hotel; a Grade ll listed building parts of it date back to the early 17th century. On my left were several shops, a couple of small cafes and an attractive shelter with back-to-back seating on two sides.
Round the bend in the road and across the other side was the old workhouse, now known as Corwen Manor. The building was completed in 1847 and provided a home for local paupers, with 150 people from seven parishes living there; built in the shape of a cross men and boys lived in one side of the building while women and girls lived in the other side. After its closure as a workhouse the building was used for a variety of businesses including engineering, seed production and shirt making; after falling into dilapidation it was restored in the early 1980s and now houses a cafe and a shop selling candles, crafts, fancy goods and fishing supplies. At the top of the steep street at the side of the old workhouse a waterfall tumbled down the hillside from somewhere up above, and turning round I had a great view over the roof tops to the countryside beyond the town.
Just along the road from the old workhouse was the Wesleyan Chapel. Built in 1879 and set in its own garden there is currently no indication anywhere that the building is still used as a chapel; maybe it's been converted for residential use but whatever it is now it's certainly a very unusual and attractive-looking place and well worth a photo.
Beyond the chapel there wasn't really much else to see so I cut down a side alley from the main road and made my way back to the van. My next stop was at Rhug Chapel on the A494 just at the far side of Corwen but when I got there I found that it's only open on Tuesdays and Wednesdays so I did a quick about-turn and headed back to the camp site for the rest of the day. I'd been lucky that even though the day had turned out so grey the rain had managed to hold off while I was out, but I hadn't been back on my pitch for long when it started again. Needless to say the evening dog walk was a short one just before darkness fell then the three of us settled down in the van for the rest of the night.
It was still raining when I woke that morning so the first dog walk of the day was a quick one - Sophie and Poppie didn't want to go out in it any more than I did. The rain never let up all morning but by early afternoon I'd had enough of being marooned in the van so I decided to drive into Llangollen for a look round the shops. I've looked round Llangollen heaven knows how many times before and the shops never change but at least it was something to do and the rain eventually eased off so it stayed fine for a while.
After looking round the shops and photographing the swollen River Dee from the bridge I went down a side street I'd never been along before and discovered St. Collen's church; the door was open so I went in to have a look and discovered a lovely half-timbered ceiling and some beautifully colourful stained glass windows.
When I'd seen all I wanted to see in the town I made my way back to the van and headed back to the camp site. The scenery along the A5 between Llangollen and Corwen is really nice and looks beautiful when the sun is shining though it didn't look quite as nice on such a grey day; the views were still clear though and with sheep dotted about here and there I thought it worth making a couple of brief stops to get a few shots.
I'd not been back at the camp site for very long when the rain started again, lasting right through the evening and well into the night, so the last dog walk of the day was again a very short one. With nothing else to do but read I retreated to my bed early that night, keeping my fingers crossed that the rain would die out by the morning and I would finally get a decent 'going out' day.
....what was going to happen over the weekend I wouldn't have gone camping for Easter. The day started out well enough when I left home in the sunshine for four days at Felin Uchaf in North Wales, and although it clouded over a bit en route the sun was out again by the time I reached the camp site and things were looking promising. I'd been given pitch no.1, the same pitch as last Easter, though this time instead of it being a grass pitch it was now a hard standing one; it was no problem though as I had plenty of rock pegs so I laid out the footprint groundsheet and set about putting up my nice new tent. With only three poles it proved to be very easy to erect and once it was securely pegged down I found that there was more space in the living area than there had been in my previous tent, though I didn't need to put too much in there as I'd already decided before I left home that I would be sleeping in the van.
With the tent up and my few things set out inside I took the dogs for a walk down to the village and back then spent a pleasant hour or so chatting to Nan and Gwyn, the site owners, and a couple of the other weekend residents. The late afternoon and early evening were spent relaxing in the van with a book then just before it went dark I took the dogs for a final walk down the site track to the lane and back. I'd just got back to the van when the first drops of rain appeared and from then on it was heavy and prolonged showers on and off all night; it was great for testing the waterproof-ness of the new tent but as I got into bed later on I was just hoping that this rain wasn't a sign of things to come for the rest of the weekend.
**Tent photo taken from the internet, I didn't manage to take one of mine in situ.
