The September '21 Grand Tour of mid and north Wales in a motorhome Day 26

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Away by 0830 as there is a cycle race on and they will be crossing the bridge by the canal café from 10.00 onwards. We don’t want to be facing them on that narrow road in Bryony!

Today is the day of petrol queues. We pull in at the first station we find on the A5 and top up the tank with £20 worth. Best to keep a full tank at the moment. Prices have gone from £1.35 a litre to £1.42 per litre for diesel overnight.

Along the A5 to the Shrewsbury bypass and from then on in along the A49 to Ross on Wye.

Our stop off is at Stokesay Castle where we adjourn to the tea room for coffee and a browse of the Sunday papers until our time slot of 11.30 for the castle visit.

This is an English Heritage site and a real little gem. The audio guide is excellent, very informative, well-paced and with a variety of contributors. You leave feeling you have got to know the story of the buildings. As educationalists, we are genuinely impressed.

Stokesay is a typical Welsh borderland marches castle come home. A keep with a moat and a draw bridge (sadly long gone); a great hall and then annex extensions done by different family members as and when finances became available down through the ages.

 We are so impressed we take out full annual English Heritage membership there and then and get a refund on our ticket and car park fees for the day. Fifteen months for the price of twelve and as an added bonus, 20% off all things in the shop. Annual membership also gets us 50% off Scottish and Welsh Cadw sites in the future as well.

The 20% off in the shop works out well. This involves books. Our son is a history teacher and passionate about books. He has an enviable worth library built up through his undergraduate and masters studies. We photograph the book shelves, sending him the images via Whatsapp. He then replies saying whether there are titles he would like us to get. He then transfers reimbursements to us through online banking. It is a system that works well but perhaps not so well for his bank balance!

We lose a very pleasant three hours at Stokesay Castle. Back at Bryony, a quick pursual also shows that one of us can get discounts off outdoor gear from his favourite on line retailer and shop - Rohan. One of us becomes immensely happy!

 As we progress down the A49 it becomes clear that today there is massive panic buying and almost three quarters of the garages we pass have run out of diesel. When we pass a garage with some left, we again top up with another £20 to keep the tank full. With only a few days left of this tour, we now have sufficient to complete the rest of our travels and return back south to Plymouth. According to our Facebook Plymouth groups, most petrol stations in the Plymouth area have closed. There is no fuel to be currently had.

We discuss the impending crisis briefly as we head towards Morrisons in Ross on Wye. We are both old enough to remember the winter of discontent in the 70’s. It has the hall marks of another similar event now. Energy suppliers are dropping away by the wayside like flies. Millions of households and businesses are facing higher energy bills with at least two further prices rises to come. Tens of millions of tax payers pounds paid to one American owned fertilizer company so that they can keep running and producing Co2. A Co2 shortage for the food and healthcare systems. Empty shelves in supermarkets. A shortage of HGV drivers. Fresh produce left rotting in fields because of a shortage of pickers. The list of woes just goes on.

 We pootle along to Monmouth and then down to the new site at St Briavels by Brease Farm, where our despondency is added to. TV reception is non-existent. Getting a 4 g signal on our phones or MIFI unit impossible.

It’s the 21^st century and we find the only site in the world where any form of IT communication is impossible!  On the plus side – the site is large, the hard standings level and the facilities clean. There are only two other units on site. It is the end of the season and after we depart tomorrow this site will close for the winter.

Seriously, I mean seriously?

 

Route down through Wales: A5 to Shrewsbury – A49 via Ludlow, Leominster and Hereford – A4137 to Marstow – A40 to Monmouth – A4136 to Coleford – B4228 towards St Briavels

Distance travelled: 121 miles

Expenditure: £20 diesel top up

Campsite fees: £54

Useful websites: https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/stokesay-castle/   Campsite: Forest and Wye Valley Camping https://www.forestandwyevalleycamping.co.uk/