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RAT Pack Ride to Bethlehem ~ 5th December 2009
Despite all the rain and cold weather we had been having throughout November and the start of December, there was an enthusiastic turn out for the last pack ride of the year to Bethlehem, to get our Christmas cards hand-franked at the sub-post office there. Six bikes and seven people left from Cardiff West Services at the uncommonly decent time of 10.00 a.m. and headed up the A470 in dry (-ish) weather, hoping to meet more Pack members at the Sennybridge cafe and garage, where we stopped for a coffee-break. Sure enough, we met up with another 5 people on four bikes and four people in two cars! So, the number of Pack members who actually went to Bethlehem to post their cards was 16 people, 10 bikes and two cars!
The Christmas Fair, which had been absent for the previous 2 years, had made a welcome return to Bethlehem, so parking in the narrow lanes outside the Post Office and school was at a premium.
However, with that problem solved, some queued to post the cards, whilst others busied themselves poking around the stalls of the small Christmas Fair. It might have been small, but there was something there for everyone who wanted to take home a keep-sake or some produce for Christmas. A band in the playground played traditional Christmas carols, there was a fiddler playing jigs and reels and the smell of hot roast meats and crepes cooking in a couple of the stands was almost too much to bear! Some people bought locally made Christmas cards depicting Bethlehem and then posted them to get the Bethlehem postmark on the envelope. Others made a bee-line for the locally made preserves and chutneys and also the local cheeses and fudge.
Ah well, you cant get strawberry and balsamic preserve or apricot, orange and walnut chutney at your average village school! If that wasnt enough to please those who went, then the flying display given by several Red Kites must surely have done so.
We headed back across the minor roads of the Brecon Beacons National Park, past Usk Reservoir, to Trecastle, where we expected to meet up with three more Pack members for lunch at the Castle Coaching Inn. On arrival, one was waiting, but the other two had left, because the hotel was locked up as tight as a drum. So, we headed across to the Mountain Centre near Libanus, where we eventually met up with the other two Pack members (so 19 people had actually turned out to support this last ride of the year).
After a relaxing lunch and plenty of banter, we headed back to Cardiff in a light but steady rain, arriving home at around 4 p.m. This had been a fitting final ride of the year and was clearly enjoyed by all there now just remains the Pack Christmas Dinner to enjoy in a fortnights time and then its on with 2010! |
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