This was one of those trips where lots of separate things lined up making for a brilliant bank holiday Monday!
For years I have wanted to drive the Evo triangle, a notorious route in North Wales, which regularly features in Evo magazine. So, when I found out I had to put some miles on a test car from work over the bank holiday weekend the Evo triangle was my first thought! Jen’s parents had also bought us an “Afternoon Tea” voucher for Christmas, which we were running out of time to use. One of the places we could redeem it was St Georges Hotel in Llandudno – just north of the Evo triangle. The next thing that lined up for us was the bank holiday weather, it was warm and sunny – perfect!
The drive up the A5 to the Evo triangle wasn’t too bad and we were there by mid morning, on the first (anticlockwise) sighting lap we were following a farmer’s Land Rover, so taking it easy, when the police helicopter flew directly above us at low level, as if to give us a “Don’t even think about it” warning. So, I pulled up at the lay by at the top of the triangle to take some photos and wait for a bit. Finishing the first lap, with no traffic in front of us was brilliant, the road more than lived up to the hype and would have been perfect in my MR2 (which was tucked up at work). At the end of the lap, we turned round and did another lap clockwise this time, there wasn’t traffic on either the A543 or the more open B4501, where I was able to really put the test car through its paces.
After the fun of the Evo triangle, it was on to Llandudno for afternoon tea. Despite the detour, we actually managed to get there early, so spent an hour or so exploring the promenade and the pier. Both Jen and I were pleasantly surprised by Llandudno, the town itself was nice and the pier had all the tacky seaside amusements you expect. After playing on the 2p machines it was time for afternoon tea, our table was at the front of the hotel, so had a good view over the beach, which was only obscured by the mountain of sandwiches and cakes put in front of us!
After struggling to finish all the cake it was time to get back in the car and head back to the shire. I’d heard about some tunnels on the A55, but either we missed them, or they were over hyped, but they were soon forgotten when we hit the Horseshoe Pass on the A542 (the panorama at the top of this post – click to see full-size), a great bit of road, with stunning scenery!
It was only a brief visit, but North Wales is certainly somewhere I’d like to visit again, the roads are almost as good as in Scotland but it is day-tripable from the shire!
