Report - UK Roadtrip 11 - 19th April 2009 - PART 2

[Shadow]

Part 2 – Wales

Day 4

We awoke early, the light mixing with the noise of passing traffic was not a good combination to sleep to. We had arranged to meet Jesus at the first service station after his junction from Nottingham onto the motorway. The plan was to meet him then set off to Cardiff where we were to meet some of the Welsh crew.

We arrived somewhat late, but never mind there was still a great day of exploring ahead of us. Shortly after our arrival at Cardiff West Service station the Welsh lot turned up in an awesome evo, which I spent pretty much the rest of the day drooling over :P.

Our first stop was the Cardiff Anti aircraft operation rooms (AAOR), which in WW2 were part of the ROTOR air defence system of 1949. 25 + AAOR rooms were built between 1950-54. The Russians played with their first atom bomb and the brits knew something had to be done immediately. The Cherry Report paved the way, and the developement of the 160 + RAF sites was to be reduced and the electronics to be upgraded extensively into nuclear bunkers.
In 1955 the arrival of high speed jet's and the nuclear tipped missiles made the concept of point-defence redundant and the whole scheme, which was an integral part of the aformentioned ROTOR project, was scrapped along with the integral AAOR setup.
BT obtained the site in the 1970's and set about changing the bunker into a wartime operation centre for Wales, however this idea was abandoned in the very late 1970's early 1980. Its really gone downhill from Subbrit's visit in 2000 Wenallt AAOR – Subterranea Britannica
(History from Captain Slow)

After leaving the AAOR we made our way to CWM Coke Works which is soooo much bigger then it looks in photos, words cannot describe how fucking huge this place is!

After rumors of security with dogs we were on our guard but after a couple of hours there and not seeing or hearing anything we started to relax more.

We moved around the outbuildings before heading to the main works, the height of this structure was just immense; I’ve really got a taste for industrial porn at the moment.

Myself an Maniac were disappointed to see that the ladders of both of the main chimneys had been removed as we were both in the mood for a climb, so instead we contented ourselves by making the way to the top of the coal silo, which gave absolutely stunning views over the rest of the site! I think Maniac has a video of us going back down the external steps of the silo, which were in stunning condition considering they had been left to the elements.

After a great days exploring we made our way to a great little beach out in the middle of nowhere to camp for the night with the Welsh lads, the journey to the beach included many momentous occasions including laughing at Maniac and Jesus procrastinating to an insane level in the local tescos over what alcoholic beverages to buy, Jesus not keeping up in the car, and getting lost, before eventually arriving at our destination.

Camping out that night was a great experience, including soo many classic moments: Maniac proclaiming loudly that he wasn’t drunk before falling into a big hole in the beach, blinding each other with LED Torches and Maglites, sand spiders, a campfire that seriously did not want to light, and plenty of others.

The first day of the Welsh Adventure had been a great one, now what did the next day have in store for us?

 

[Shadow]

DAY 5

I don’t think anyone slept overly well that night, a mixture of crashing waves that always seemed too close to comfort, rain and wind threatening to lift our badly assembled tents off the sand made for bad sleeping conditions.
The morning started with Maniacs legendary bacon rolls cooked on his little camping stove, then a long (it seemed long cos of all the kit we were lugging, but in fact wasn’t actually that far at all) walk back to the cars past the tourists arriving at the beach.

The day started with a trip out to St Twynnells ROTOR station, unfortunately the demon farmer had sealed the access so we had to give it a miss and head onwards to RNAD (Royal Navel Ammunition Depot) Milford Haven, which despite its shocking condition was extremely photogenic, this facility was once used in the manufacture and storage of mines, after this is bought and turned into a kind of indoor fitness centre, including running tracks etc.

After moving from building to building we made our way towards the underground sections of the site, where we had great fun destroying my bag so that I could get some string for the glow sticks that Evo_Mad had brought with him.

We finished pissing around with glow sticks and made our way out, and moved on to fort Scoveston. But not before grabbing a bite to eat at the single greatest fish and chip shop I have ever had the pleasure of eating in, owned by a little old lady who cooked amazing crinkly chips. I would seriously consider going back to Wales just to eat there again, it was that good.

Fort Scoveston was severely overgrown, brambles and gorse cutting into me at ever opportunity they could; the little fuckers! The fort itself is not dissimilar to the Napoleonic forts around Dover that I am used to, the underground parts had amazing little perks; stairs made of carved granite and huge archways.

According to Capt Slow the local farmer who owns the fort came in once to find that a local doctor had hung himself, sadly he didn’t know what part of the fort it was where that happened. The only thing that left me wondering was; how long had the body been there until the farmer found it??? :S

Upon arriving back at the cars we a dirty looking landrover pulled up, in which was the farmer who owned the land, he proceeded to give us a bit of a bollocking then went on his way.

Next stop was a recce of a stunning barracks whose name escapes me at this point in time, we wondered around the outside pondering possible access, in the car we had grappling hooks, ropes and ascension gear so you can imagine the sort of ideas floating around, the main idea was to abseil from the main bridge into the dry moat the using the grappling hook get up into a gun port that looked big enough to fit a person. Whilst we were waiting for the for the coast to be clear we posed for a group shot against the doors, it was at this point that (not mentioning any names) someone leant back a bit too hard, the door creaked, we looked up the crack in the door and saw that it wasn’t actually held together with any sort of lock or bolt, simply wedged together. So all together we pushed and ta-daaaa the doors open! However what we didn’t count on was that in the center of this dilapidated barracks were actually two flats with people living in them, so as we opened the doors the light came on, as you can imagine an extremely quick exit was made! We were only told about the flats by a local dog walker who we nearly ran into on the way out, so please don’t try and explore this site, people live there.

Our final stop in Wales was an old coal washery, it was getting dark at this point, very dark and considering half the site was still active and there was a police station across the road we would have to be VERY sneaky.

We managed to access the top of one of the larger machine sheds via a conveyor walkway, however within minutes of being there we hear shouting, we quietly make our way out of the building to the bottom of the conveyor to decide on our next move, we had two options, hide; the police would inevitably be called and we would have to put in lots and lots of effort to stay hidden and make our way back to the car. Our second choice would be to give ourselves up, show that we meant no harm and hopefully be escorted back to the gates.

Before we could decide a car containing two very angry welsh miners turned up, who thought we were pikeys there to nick stuff before realising we had camera gear etc and giving us the long speech about health and safety and how they were about to call the fuzz, the left us with a parting insult that they knew we couldn’t be robbing stuff cos we were being too loud apparently haha, and with a “don’t you ever go robbing a bank boys; ya shit” they left us to walk back to the car. With ideas of splitting up and heading back in (my ideas funnily enough ) quickly dismissed we got back to the cars after an exhausting day.

The Welsh crew escorted us back to the motorway before leaving for home, we managed to make it back into England before finally giving in and sleeping once again in a service station car park.

Big shout out to Captain Slow, Dukey, Evo_Mad, 23chocoholic, maniac and jesus, cheers for an epic time in Wales!

Part 3 to come….

 

[Alley]

Lol at falling into someone's house

Love the Cwm Coke chimney pic, v grim
:

 

[bobob]

Really enjoying reading these. Boy did you put some serious planning in!

 

[Shadow]

Haha cheers, I wanted the write up to show how much of an amazing time we had. But no words or pictures can really sum it up. Now all I want to do is pack all the kit up and head out again for another week lol.

 

[Welshie2519]

Pembrokedock defensible barracks is the barracks you visited

 

[mookster]

Pembrokedock defensible barracks is the barracks you visited

Holy necro thread bump, nearly 13 years that must be a record.

 

[Welshie2519]

Holy necro thread bump, nearly 13 years that must be a record.

had a read through a lot of the posts in the area last night didn't look at dates