There was a time many years ago when it was possible to travel the length and breadth of Wales for a whole week and spend most of the time OFF ROAD.

I count myself very lucky to have been able to wander along amazing little used tracks that crossed enormous landscapes, tracks that were a real challenge that you often had to fight your way through. The really good tracks, the ones with steep slippery climbs, impossible looking side slopes and deep water crossings were often RUPP’s (Roads Used as Public Paths) and OS maps were full of them. On the map they are easy to see as a line of dots and dashes snaking interestingly across the paper landscape but on the real land, the real side of a mountain or wooded valley the track appears to have been written down at the whim of the cartographer!!

This picture of the Impala 110, (which has long since been sold and I believe can occasionally be seen in the vicinity of Shipston on Stour) was taken on one such route near Builth Wells with the Black Mountains standing proudly in the background. It looks as though I am not on a track but in fact faint marks in the bracken suggested that the dots and dashes from the map were definitely in the right place and of course the GPS confirmed this.

Today this lovely picturesque route has been downgraded to a bridleway and you will only find farmers in their Land Rover’s using it to get onto the common to feed their cattle and sheep.