I was invited to join a couple of Kiwi friends on a trip down the west coast of Wales and then to a music festival in Herefordshire, and jumped at the opportunity to see more of the UK.
After an expensive train trip they picked me up in Wolverhampton in their customised van: complete with heater, cooker, surround sound for movies, and a better shower than I had in my flat.
We headed through the southern tip of Snowdonia National Park, a beautiful reserve of narrow roads winding through hills overflowing with trees and greenery, reminding us so strongly of New Zealand that we felt as if we'd been dropped back in the land of the long white cloud. Our first night we managed to find a sneaky open plot just over the road from the beach (why pay for camping when you can camp for free!) and spent the evening playing frisbee and cooking dinner while watching the clouds roll in over the hills.
The following day we continued exploring the coast down through Aberystwyth and ended up stopping on a beach where we had fun running and jumping over sand-dunes before cooking up an amazing feed. Unfortunately we happened to be parked by a "no overnight camping" sign (which we try to avoid if at all possible). At about 9pm a cop arrived and I thought, "here we go, now we're in trouble" but all he told us was to move to the carpark down the road to avoid getting washed away by the tide! So laid back it was like being back at home!
We continued our wander down the coast, randomly stopping at a go-cart racetrack for some seriously competitive racing (I was useless, but at least didn't get my cart stuck off the track like certain friends), before finding a great little campsite behind a bush and overlooking a lovely little harbour. Just the spot for a sundowner or three!
On our last day we headed down towards Cardigan, before turning inland to the campground in Hereford where the Big Chill Festival was to be held.
