We thought we should do a road trip in the Forester. Wales is somehwere we hadn’t really driven round much before plus it’s where the famous ‘EVO Triangle’ is, so we figured we’d better go stay there for a week and check it out.

After a good clean the day before, we packed our stuff in the back ready to head off. It was nice having plenty of space in the back compared to some of the cars we’ve done road trips in before!

Home for the week. Only 5-10 mins from the EVO Triangle. 🙂

View from the living room wasn’t bad. 🙂

The other good thing about where we were staying was that Anglesey Circuit was only an hour or so away. There was a race meet going on the day after we arrived so that was a great start to the week.

The circuit is right on the coast meaning you get some decent views around unlike most circuits.

It’s only small too so you can park up and watch from anywhere really as you can get round the whole circuit.

As is the norm with smaller race meets like this, everyone was friendly and happy to let you get a proper look at the cars and have a chat. I always like the better access you get at meets like this compared to big race events.

With the Forester we were able to provide our own grandstand seating…

…with a nice clear view of the circuit.

Some of the Fiesta’s racing in the XR Challenge.

And their prizes.

We stuck around after the racing had finished as I ended up chatting with a local who’d owned a Forester STI before. So as the place was empty I took a few pictures.

Jem wanted to visit The Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) one day. I’m usually not too bothered where we go so long as we get to drive some good roads to get there. So Jem did the usual thing of coming up with an interesting route and we headed there. It was actually a pretty interesting place to visit. It’s has a bunch of eco friendly exhibits which were interesting to see. Their website.

A parabolic mirror for cooking your Lancashire Hotpot in the sun. Got a feeling that could take a while in the UK though.

One of these.

I want one, mainly cos it’s called a Skidster.

The insides of a biomass burner.

A different way of stacking logs.

A 1986 wind turbine that was in use until 1996. The blades are pretty big but compared to modern ones they’re quite small.

There’s a walk you can do around the site up in the hills a bit so we did that.

There’s a few things to see along the way.

The Jem.

Another day we had no great plan other than to find some quiet, interesting roads with some good views and somewhere to go for a walk. So Jem checked out the map over breakfast then we set off.

As usual Jem did well finding some good roads to drive and places to stop.

A good spot to stop for lunch…

…then go for a walk.

Better put something proper on our feet first. This is one of the things we’re liking about the Forester, it’s nice and easy for getting at your stuff in the back and putting some boots on.

Part the way up a hill. The Forester is behind those trees down there.

Someone round here likes Mini’s too.

I’m guessing there’s another one under there.

What’s left of a Mini roof. Not what I was expecting to find up a Welsh hill.

This is what I expected. Rocks, hills and sky.

We eventually made it back to the car and went looking for some more good roads and views.

We found some good quiet places to stop and admire the view with the odd picture taken.

Late afternoon we headed back via the EVO Triangle. We’d already driven some of it earlier in the week and I recognised plenty of it from Chris Harris Drives films on Youtube. This time we stopped for a few pictures along the way.

A lay by on one of the corners of the triangle was our start point.

One of the most recognisable sections.

It was pretty windy up there.

No doubt this cats eye has had some pretty exotic and cool cars run over it.

The next day we didn’t do too much driving. We visited Dinorwig Power Station, known as Electric Mountain and spent some time checking out the local town. Dinorwig Power Station is a big hydro electric power station but not really for constant power generation. It’s used to provide bursts of power at times of peak demand. So water can be pumped back up into the reservoir during low demand times then quickly let down through the turbines to produce power when required.

We went for a tour underground where all the action happens which was pretty interesting. Photo’s are not allowed though so I took a couple of photo’s of their photos on display above ground. These are the valves that can open very quickly.

A scale model they have on display and…

…a really really old boat.

We found a good place for a bit of cycling one morning.

We got round the trail a bit quicker than expected so we stopped for a quick drink then headed off on the bikes again to try a different trail.

Quick map check by my navigator.

The sun did come out occasionally. Look, a shadow.

Not wearing those in the car!

So spare jeans on and off to find some more roads in the Forester.

More navigation by my co-driver.

Cycling was obviously a bit tiring.

Jem perked up though, when she found another place to stop for a walk with a waterfall.

Anyway, waterfall done, back to the car…

…for some more open road.

And a short stop in the hills.

Jem’s turn to drive the EVO Triangle.

Last day after breakfast, planning the driving route around a visit to Sygun copper mine then the journey home.

Safety first.

Mine done, now off to find more empty roads.

When we got to closed gates on what, as far as we could tell, were public roads it made us think twice about going on. But the map said it was public road so Jem dealt with the gate and we pressed on.

And again.

Well you get the idea with that. After a while we left the gated empty roads behind to head back home to the potholed, busy roads of the South East.

1514 miles after leaving home we were back with a Forester STI very much in need of another clean.

Not a bad week, some nice roads in Wales especially the EVO Triangle which is nice and open with good clear views ahead and, at least when we were there, very quiet. The Subaru was faultless throughout too which is always good when a holiday relies so much on a the car we’re using. We’ll most likely go again sometime, most probably to the same sort of area too.