Once upon a time we were able to travel the length and breadth of Wales off road, only very occasionally having to move onto tarmac roads. Most of the tracks were designated RUPP’s, this translates into Roads Used as Public Paths and have been changed into bridleways or footpaths so out of our reach now.

The campsite that you can see in this ”icy” picture is on one of these former RUPP’s deep in the forest at Nant-y-Moch near Aberystwyth. The campsite was set up at the beginning of a special night stage on one of our three day Welsh Challenges that we used to run. It was cold, very cold- the ground was solid, even in the shelter of the dark pine forests. The following night’s stage was tough with a lot of winching along a tortuous track with seemingly vertical hills and very deep gullies. It was long after midnight before the last exhausted crews crept into their cold sleeping bags and then the Impala team also turned in-first to rise, last to sleep.

At dawn we set up a fire to warm us all to the bones with its welcome heat and I remember that our brakes were frozen on so it took a while to get all of the cars moving and onto the next stage. I would not want to camp out in such weather now, much preferring a warm hotel – must be because I am in my fifties !!!!