Day 11 - Home Run

Overview

Our original plan had seen us take the motorway route from Holyhead to Berkshire (A55-M6-M1-M25-M4); however, with a shortage of 'rapid chargers' on the first 125 miles and a total distance of 300+ miles to complete - we needed a Plan B, including a hotel for the night stop!

On yesterday's post, we discussed the transit of Snowdonia, which presented no significant problem - our best offer for an overnight stop turned out to be the MacDonald Spa and Golf Resort, in Whitchurch, Shropshire.  That left 200+/- miles left to do and we elected to take a more touristic route - joining the motorways, after Wolverhampton.  Here is the plot of the route taken on the 'home run'!

     
MacDonald Spa and Golf Resort

What can I say that is not overladen with superlatives.  Its a place where the great and worthy of golf come to play on their championship course.  Everything was to the highest standard!

Resort Photos on the Hotel's Website!

Adding glamour to the front entrance!

No problem getting a charge here!

Long Stop in Shrewsbury

Shrewsbury is very much etched in our memory.  In my first career, I had a stint teaching Air Traffic Control, at RAF Shawbury, 7 miles out of town.   Halcyon days when we had a squadron of Vampire jets cruising around specifically for the training programme.  In an quiet period you could even cadge a seat in one and understand the pilot's viewpoint.  We also had an airfield wall to wall with redundant transport and fighter aircraft - waiting to be scrapped!   All very different when you look across the airfield boundary today - only a handful of training helicopters!

  

Shrewsbury Town Centre is, of course the county town of Shropshire, built on a bend of the River Severn.  Its one of England's best historic market towns, with over 660 listed buildings, including several examples of timber framing from the 15th and 16th centuries.   Especially worthy of a view are Shrewsbury Castle and Shrewsbury Abbey.

Shrewsbury's Wyle Cop

Shrewsbury - The Square - we saw a 'Leaf' (v.rare here!)

Our interest - on a wet September day was more prosaic!  We headed to ASDA - one of only 2 Fast Chargers in the town - and plugged in!  It was only drizzle as we headed up Wyle Cop (picture below.  It was amazing how much was unchanged - OK, some of the modern brands had appeared Starbucks and Greggs didn't really fit with my view of how an ancient town should look!

After a truly average lunch at M&S, we continues our tour based on hazy memories and found ourselves in the Town Square, where there was a limp attempt to sell Nissan Leaks!  'Limp' being the only way to politely describe the damp car salesmen hiding under the arches of the Old Town Hall.

We had a distinct impression right across Shropshire - that the EV revolution has yet to start!  No local authority chargers - not even a Rapid at Greenhouse Nissan!

View from the English Bridge -its raining!

By the time we got to the English Bridge, early p.m. it was 'hosing down' and thoughts of a lovely walk by the Severn, quickly faded!

Shrewsbury's Most Famous Son - Darwin

We did take one further nostalgic tour to the W side of town to take a lingering look at our former home!  Not a good idea generally - and this time a very disappointing experience - I'll spare you the photos!  Lets just say that we were the first owners of a Scandinavian style house, with wooden floors and an open plan wooden staircase!  There was even a first floor balcony, which was 'in vogue' though not much use!

Sadly our young family's 'dream home' had become freakish!
There was a Beech hedge 7 ft high and the huge picture windows were all covered in greying lace curtains!

We couldn't see the stone fireplace, that was such a feature of the lounge!  It had all become so Kitsch!

Time isn't always kind to our former cherished properties!

At least Darwin was still in place where our son went to school - a minor reassurance!

Onwards to Bridgenorth and Kidderminster

Its many years since we travelled the roads S of Shrewsbury - we would have like to follow the Severn southwards, but the lack of charging made that unrealistic.  We paused briefly in the charming village of Much Wenlock and on to the NT property at Dudmaston Estate - a manor house dating back 875 years - or so they say!  Check it out here!

NT Dudmaston Estate!

Blagging for a Charge at Halford's

Unfortunately we were to be denied our 'tea and scones' at this beautiful residence, as Friday is their day off!  We pushed on to Kidderminster!

On a wet afternoon, Kiddeminster was not to reveal the story of its once booming carpet industry.  Apparently more people are now involved in yacht building (Sealine) - that in the remnants of the carpet trade - see Kiddermister - Wiki

On a drizzly afternoon we settled for afternoon tea at Sainbury's and an 'opportunity' charge at Halfords!  From the MacDonald's Resort to the Sainsbury's cafe - how big a contrast is that.

Last Leg

Further off-motorway meandering became impractical as the evening rush hour was approaching.  So we nipped under the M5 and joined the M42 for a short leg to connect with the M40!  A 'rapid charge' at Hopwood Park and again at Cherwell Valley, gave us the range for home.  

Of course, even after dark we couldn't resist taking a short cut - M40 - A404(M) - M40 is the more time efficient route - but there is a nice set of B/A - roads that wind S through Nettlebed - Henley and Twyford saving about 15 miles off the route!

One Last Celebratory Beer?

On that last leg we must have passed 20-25 'olde worlde' pubs, with a fine choice of real ales!    Frankly after 11 days on the road - I could have settled down to a 'gastronomic beer tour' - until closing time!  However, my co-pilot being of a more sober and sensible disposition - played the 'Ace of Trumps' and we headed home to 'tea and sandwiches'!  Sigh! Sigh!

Journeys End - Trip Complete

We arrived home at around 9 p.m. - it has to be said that after 11 days of travelling and 1462 EV miles - we were shattered!  Smug that we had made the trip without a hitch - no bumps, breakdowns, speeding tickets etc!  OK, we did miss out one segment (in N Co Down) - but only because we felt that Newcastle and the Slieve Donard Hotel offered something unmissable!  We also had one Nav Error (Mia Culpa!), which curtailed the last day - unfortunate, of course!  There may also a few Fast Chargers outages that were irritating - but never critical!

It was an epic last day - on an 11-day odyssey across England, Wales and Ireland - the whole trip had been truly excellent - and sleep came easy!

Day 10 - Farewell to Ireland

Overview

We stopped in the Travelodge on the Dublin western section of the ring road!  Not our first choice of hotel - but on this night other prices were unacceptable (£100+).   No big problem though, as we had to be at the port for 07:30!

When we considered the homeward route - we quickly came to the conclusion that the EU Ten-T funded Rapid Charging Network was more of a 'trucking route', rather than what we prefer - leisure/ pleasure motoring!  So we opted for the Snowdonia Route - via Shrewsbury and to remain west of the Midlands conurbations!  i.e. Bridgenorth and Kidderminster.  Picking up the M40 at Warwick!

Farewell to Dublin 

We had chosen the Travelodge - Phoenix Park for our last stop.   It was super-convenient as we approached from the W on the M4/N4 - we knew that crossing the city would have been a nightmare - with traffic and circum-navigating the city, which would involve paying Tolls - on line!  I had looked at the website and found the implementation challenging, for a non-resident.  Dropping a few Euros in a tub is fine - but having to do full registration was not interesting - for a visitor without working 3G!

With a ferry departing at 0805, we were up early and sneaking around in the dark, trying to cause no noise.  The hotel had allowed us to charge from our room and allocated us a suitable room, on the ground floor.  It was still 50 ft to the car park - so the long extension cable proved essential.   However, scrambling in the gardens, pre-7 a.m., must have looked ridiculous!

Whilst the hotel had an eerie silence - not so the N4 into Dublin!  It was only 7 miles - but there was lots of traffic lights and bus lanes - so, at times, it was a crawl!

However, we did make it comfortably and found ourselves given priority boarding - for being all-electric!   The boarding service was truly excellent as the check-in staff called on the mobile radio to indicate we were 'priority' and the message was relayed from port staff to ship's crew and we free-flowed to our parking bay!

We were met by a ship's engineer who handled the whole connection service and we were quickly 'on charge'!

This was the Pod Point 16/32 amp service:

There also appear to be an option for a domestic socket and a further one with 16 amp Blue Commando!   So I would guess they could charge up to 3 EVs!

EV Motorists should note that Irish Ferries are the only shipping company servicng Ireland that offers 'onboard charging' - one ship on the Dublin-Holyhead route and one on the Roeslare-Roscoff route.  Its certainly worth flxing your schedule to make use of these services!

Back to UK

The crossing to UK by the Irish Ferries Ulysses was ultra smooth and took a modest 3.5 hours - it has every mod con!

See the Ulysses Video!

3.5 hours is such a nice duration - time to to have a full breakfast, connect to the Free Wifi - even to catch '40 winks' on the comfy reclining chairs!  As you 'recharge your personal batteries - its nice to know that the car is also being filled to the maximum!

However, come arrival time we were impatient to get moving - on what was (yet another) 'sky blue' day!  

Stop a Betws-y-Coed

Having elected to take the scenic route down the A5, we had to forego the Rapid Charging Network, which is on the Ecotricity Website and make use of the 'open church' offered by Zap Map.

As you can see from the Zap Map site there are precious few chargers in Anglesey and N.Wales - indeed many of them are chargers donated by Zero Carbon World (ZCW).  

Our options were limited though and we cherry-picked the Chargemaster at ASDA (Bangor) and the ZCW at Betws-y-Coed.

Bangor was only 22 miles from Holyhead - but we were unsure of road ahead in terms of penalty to climb the hills and the potentially limted uptake, at the ZCW in Betws-y-Coed.

Apologies to the good folk of Bangor, Gwynedd for not staying longer, a spin around the city centre and lunch at ASDA was our cultural peak!  We will try to do better next time!

We head up the hill leading to Snowdonia, expecting the EVs range to drop like a stone - in fact this Thomas Telford engineered highway was bendy, but otherwise fairly gentle.  It seems like a rise of only 200 ft in the 20 miles to Betws-y-Coed and we cruised into the eclectic mountain pursuit's centre at the Siabod Cafe with at least 60% of our range remaining!  We had our bikes in the car and stout walking shoes - we plugged in the car and stuffed ourselves with home made apple pie and Cappuccino!

The setting is stunning - and they have a menu to match!  See Siabod Menu!

Get an insight into the potential of the Siobod local area, by watching their video!

However, we only managed a 30 minute walk by the mountain stream, which passes the cafe and our whole conversation was about what we were missing!  Clearly there were passing places that didn't deserve to be overlooked - historical places, stunningly beautiful places - and as you will have seen in the video - thrilling activities to get involved in!


We've just go to do an EV_adventure to N.Wales - watch for the blog in 2015!

Next Stop Llangollen

It was a blissful drive from Betws-y-Coed to Llangollen mostly - a gentle meander downhill.   Our range help up well and we exploited the energy recovery capability to the full.  Which was just as well, as there were no chargers of any type before Oswestry  - we speculated on making Shrewsbury without a charge, but it was still touch and go!  We did observe that the Llangollen marina had shore power, but we it was going to take time to drive over there and negotiate a connection - we opted instead for the touristic circuit!

Despite its very small size, Llangollen - the town attracts 1000s of visitors daily!  Apart from the natural beauty of the area - the town is very attractive indeed, with hanging baskets and other flower arrangements!

The steam railway is clearly a big attraction and the entire station is has all the artifacts from the 'age of steam'!

If you have time to spare you can see the trains in action earlier this year!

Llangollen Railway - Spring 2014

They also offered short canal cruises by horse-drawn canal boat - charming in its way, but not our choice for recreation!
  

Late September and there were still some canal boats circulating - again it has its charm - but life at 4-5 kts is not for us either!

Rather than make a trade off - we opted to simply take our ease by the weir at the Cornmill Pub!  Check out that link!

I'm sure it will tell the story of the weir and the historic Corn Mill; however, we opted for a light wine and a pint to amber nectar! The sun may have been fading - but it was strong - like the real ale that was recommend!

A superb pub - with commendations that would fill a book!  Whist I cannot say - you can see it all from here - there is a temptation!

Last Stop in Wales - Pontcysylte Aquaduct

We all know that there is a famous aquaduct in N.Wales - some may even know that it was designed and built by Thomas Telford - some may even know its a UNESCO World Heritage Site - but I doubt that many non-Welsh EV drivers will remember that its the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct.  Check the link for the full background!

We were at the end of a long and exciting day - but we couldn't pass it by!

If you have time you might like to watch Julia Bradbury's documentary, on the Aquaduct:

Julia Bradbury - Llangollen and Pontcysyllte Aquaduct

Finally to our Hotel

You might have gathered that we had no hotel booking for this evening - partly because we wren't sure we could make Shrewsbury, but there was another factor - we were baulking at the cheapest hotel in Shrewsbury was either of 2 Travelodge's, at £69!   Llangollen didn't seem to offer anything at all interesting - our experience with B&Bs has not been good, so no point in looking along the A5!  In one final, inspired move - I tried on Hotwire.com and search to find hotel in wider Shropshire - Hotwire offered the Hawkestone Park Golf Hotel (known to have an EV Charger) and the Macdonald Hill Valley Spa H & Golf - it was a gift!  You might to try the link above and see if you can repeat the deal!  I've not stayed in one before, but several hotels in the chain have Tesla Chargers and I have been naive enough to ask for a charge - that was back in the days when any plug would do.  The answer then would in invariably be, to leave my number and we will call back - which didn't happen!

No such disappointments this time!  Check in at the desk and after getting the room key - its "Oh and one special favour...?".  We have now charged at more than a dozen hotels and we have NEVER been refused!

     

The MacDonald Resort are to be praised for the all-electric Golf Buggy policy - apparently they have 27 golf carts - all of which are electric!  Our Mitsu was able to park on the golf buggy line and draw current (13 amp) from the 8, or more, charge-points!