Strata Florida is an abbey, somewhat dilapidated now since the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII. The Abbey owned many acres and there was a network of tracks across the mountains in all directions, reaching out to the Abbey’s many lands. Most of these tracks have now become roads but one in particular (Strata Florida we call it) has stayed an off road track and crosses from the Abbey towards the town of Llandovery.

In 2003 Impala Adventures ran an off road challenge in Wales and on Strata Florida we set up some challenging sections. These sections utilised the rock climbs and river crossings that are a natural part of the track and this picture shows Mark Birch’s Lightweight stopped just before one of the gates with Mark feeding a Fox!! . The Fox just walked up without any concern and demanded to be fed, so Mark fed him.

While we were watching and taking pictures of the fox milling around a couple of trail bikes roared past, one of which flooded its engine in a deep section of water a few yards further up from us. The rider extricated his bike much to the interest of the fox. Once on dry land the rider took his bike’s engine to pieces and placed the drowned air filter on the grass behind him. The Fox took a liking to this filter, (after all it had the look of a slice of thick bread) rushed in, picked it up and ran off across the grass. It was very amusing watching the fox deftly avoiding the rider’s efforts to retrieve their air filter. Eventually the Fox tired of his game so dropped a somewhat tattered filter, which allowed the riders to put their bike back together and continue on their way.

The Fox was part of the Strata Florida scene for a least a year before it went missing, presumed dead.