Recently i'd been feeling that driving had become a bit of an expensive chorse.

all money out just to sit in traffic before paying more money for something else.

to remedy this the pasy wagon's were part of the Briskoda track session at Combe and I loved it again.

However with the bug having bitten I started looking at track days and realised that even more outbound money so quickly slid down the unhappy slope again.

To combat this myself and Mrs Pasty booked the magic 3 days between Easter adn "the wedding" off and heading to Wales for a whistle stop driving tour.

A journey that google maps said take 2 hours i navigated away from and after a couple of leisurely stops the first day came in at 10 hours!

We drove the lakes and mountains around Rhayadaer and the Elan Valley, over to the west coast at Aberystwyth and up through Barmough, up and through the vallets around Snowdon (taking the train up to have a look down) and then up as far north as Conwy to have fish and chips at the marina then back down through the valleys and mountains of the Eastern side of Snowdonian and the borders, with a of the "evo triangle" at Betws-y-coed thrown in for good measure.

What a road that was. Wide, smooth, well sighted, very scenic and most importantly 99% empty!

I can see why the magazine make the trip up there to test all manner of cars. On the way out we actually passed a Ferrari 430, Lambo Gallado and 911 GT3 heading (rapidly) in the other direction but i think that was other like minded petrol heads rather than a magazine feature in the making!

The trips vitals stats are

675 miles

20.15 hours driving (over 3 days)

average speed of 33mph

fuel consumption of 55mpg

and yes while there was a fair amount of money still spent (2 nighs B&B, food, and a tank and a half of diesel) it reminded me that you can you can enjoy driving even when your not on the absolute limit.

The scenery and roads were amazing. Forest roads in the Mid-Wales mountains are better than most of my local roads.

Admittedly we were spoilt by the weather (it'd have been a differnet holiday had it been grey, raining and blowing a gale)but the area must have some of the best scenery in the UK.

a few snaps from the trip (well the ones that included the car anyways )

Looks beautiful! Sounds like a good time too.

I know what you mean about boring though - they've recently lowered the limits on my commute to uni, so I now go the back ways, and it's so much more fun!

Doing the 3 peaks challenge later in the year - hope to find some good roads around Ben Nevis, the Snowndonia area and the Lake Distrcit.

I was in Rhayader the week before, also drove through the brecon Beacons National Park and into Pembroke.

Totalled just over 1,000 miles that week

Yes Cliff, It's nice just taking a weekend off of everything and touring somewhere special, used to this in my classic car days but really, any car will do. Note to self, must do this soon.

I live like 5 mins from the EVO triangle lol. I've got a Type R Owners meet up there this Sunday.

Love the pics too fella. Next time your up, give us a shout.

I think i hadn't done anything but commute for so long that i'd forgot that driving could actually be enjoyable!

And it's not necessarily the driving itself (33mph average shows i wasn't exactly going for it) but the motor vehicle can take you some beautiful places and help you see some beautiful things.

Mass bonnet/number plate bug splat-age not included!

I think the warm weather meant bugs had hatched. At one stage it actually sounded like it was hailing but it was bugs bouncing off the windscreen!