THE SNOWDONIA TOUR
Fine Fords take to the hills.
The ninth Snowdonia Tour was held a week earlier this year in order to guarantee better weather as 2015 was slightly damp. What a great plan that turned out to be, as the tour must have had a year’s worth of rain over the course of the weekend! It was horrendous weather, but everyone put the weather to one side and enjoyed every minute once again!
The tour kicked off with lots of people arriving at base camp in their classic Fords with Crossflows, Pintos, BDAs and Zetecs being heard in the forest where the log cabins were located. The other residents and campers were in awe as the cars turned up from all over the UK including the Isle Of Man and Scotland and even Ireland. Certainly some miles had been chewed up even before the tour even began!
Soon, the Friday evening meet, greet and meal was in full swing with a few beverages, and laughs being consumed upon seeing old friends from 12 months ago. Following a few beers, people hit the lodges and tents ready for the usual signing-on scenario the following morning, and the first welcome briefing.
From the off
At 9.45 am 110 classic Fords began Stage 1 of their route to the lunch stop at Devil’s Bridge where all the funny hats and fancy dress costumes could be seen in all their glory! People were very keen this year to get their hands on the Best Hat award with some magnificent creations being invented! The overall winner was a superb full costume by Lewis Dempsey in his Bananaman outfit which brought smiles and laughter wherever he went which is what the tour is all about: to have a happy time with likeminded people doing what we enjoy doing most — driving our cars.
Following our stop, we departed and drove through Aberystwyth to Bwlch Nant Yr Arian, the
Red Kite sanctuary and parked up on a private road overlooking the sanctuary for a well deserved cup of tea.
The convoy then made its way onto the third and final stage around the Nant Y Moch reservoirs near Aberystwyth. The weather was extremely wet but visibility was good and the photos are amazing with old Fords going through water splashes with disbelief on some of the participants’ faces!
Finally the convoy reached Base Camp for the brilliant social evening and meal followed by a charity auction and raffle. People are so generous when it comes to donating raffle prizes and some brilliant auction prizes saw this evening boost the group’s total amount raised. One member also had a sponsored beard shave which saw his massive beard being destroyed live on Facebook and he kindly donated a further £900 bringing the total for the weekend to an amazing £13,151 with a running total of over £46,000 being raised for the children’s hospice, Hope House Hospice/ Ty Gobaith.
Final stages
Day 2 saw some sore heads as the convoy departed for Stage 4 through the beautiful mountains of Snowdonia which were topped with low cloud and damp roads making for even more amazing photographs. There were some of the usual terminal breakdowns before the convoy lined up for the biggest and longest ever snaking convoy of classic Fords meandering besides Mount Snowdon. The tourists in the area who were driving past really could not believe what they were seeing as they clocked the magnificent display of colours and crazy hats!
Due to a couple of breakdowns and some very tired drivers, the third stage was held until after the awards ceremony in which the Car Of The Tour was voted to be the magnificent Mustang. Other awards were also presented including Furthest Travelled to our Irish friends. Fantastic achievements by all the people who won something, but it’s the whole group that really makes the tour so special.
“WITH CARS TURNING UP FROM ALL OVER THE UK, MANY MILES HAD BEEN CHEWED UP BEFORE THE TOUR EVEN BEGAN”