Thank you everyone for your interest.

Nick: yes, it can be competitive.

S & P: your South Wales and Hereford A7 long weekend sounds good. Wish I
were able to join you.

Tony P: we did test the roof --- with rain not sun!

Hedd: great story.

Ruairidh: as you say, exact same spot but you were luckier to enjoy sunshine!

Malcolm: your summary of the LC&ES is spot on! And one of your famed trips/routes to Wales would be well supported I’m sure.

I perhaps should have said why we were so keen to return to this high pass in Wales: In 1957 when I first met my wife to be, she was just 17years and I was 18years, we decided on a trip from near Wolverhampton to Black Rock Sands on the Welsh coast. I was lucky to have the use of a tatty Ford 100E van but decided to hire a privately owned Ford Anglia 100E to impress! I think she chose the route over Bwlch y Groes which seemed very unused and remote even then but we never forgot the drive! When we arrived at Black Rock we spotted the possibility of driving along the damp sandy beach to a quieter spot in the Dunes some way off. I was under the strictest orders from her mother to behave or else! Her mother was a powerful lady! When we reached our spot I naturally turned off the damp sand onto the dry, unloaded our Picnic, and retired to a sheltered spot in the dunes. The tide was going out when we arrived but hours later I suddenly noticed it was almost back in! Franticly, we reloaded the car and tried to reverse back onto what was now a very narrow strip of damp and solid sand. Panic! The car dug into the dry free-running sand as I released the clutch! Even more panic! However, with great presence of mind and the use of a travel rug under the rear wheels we eventually reversed off and sped along the very last bit of wet sand to safety. It was a very close shave with someone else’s car which we have never forgotten, So 58 years on we remembered Bwlch y Groes pass and decided we must revisit after all this time. Hence the pictures.

Bryan

Bryan what a lovely story and great pictures of your pretty car. Long may these adventures continue for all of us.

Location: Farnham

Hi NZ Bryan

Hi Bryan

It is getting a long way from Wales but may serve to remind any Po--, er, Brits who may not realise, that they have a remarkable and unique country.

In the 1950s we often in accord with tradition of the time went for Sunday drives. These took us into the foothills in Hawkes Bay and later Horowhenua. On several occasions the Seven had to be stopped on some precarious edge or reversed to allow an oncoming car to pass. The same roads now are driven without pause unless a heavy truck approaches, and most new roads are made wide from the start.

I have relived my youth recently by exercising the fun oversteer and quick steering of a Javelin on the metal back roads of Northland. The new MP sadly promises to do away with them. The problem with the narrow private roads is that the oncoming Mack trucks drive as if they own them....and they do.

On a quick visit to UK I was surprised at the narrow minor roads in Devon. A coastal settlement where I stayed had a more or less single lane access road, with passing bays, despite a perm pop of 150 and vastly more in summer.

I do tire of the NZ safety organisation forever extolling the virtues of traction control etc. I would like to see a demo comparison race at Western Springs (Auckland’s major dirt track racing course)
However I think even traction control would cope better on corrugations than the back axle of a Seven!

Unlike the Romans, early arrivers here did not leave a legacy of roads. If they had built roads they would have been carried off along them by neighbours...as kebabs.

Bob Culver

Location: Auckland