stevetheangler

Friday July 23rd, Liz and myself set off for a long weekend’s camping break in Wales … at the Trapp Fishery, Camping And Caravaning site in Camarthenshire (https://www.pitchup.com/campsites/Wales/West-Wales/Carmarthenshire/llandeilo/trapp-fishery-caravan-and-camping/). This is a site we visited in August 2019 immediately prior to my operation and we had enjoyed it and had it marked for a re-visit. However, due to the covid pandemic the return had been delayed somewhat…

The campsite itself is ‘minimal’, out in the wilds and consists of a couple of grass fields, a hardcore area and a fishing pool. Also the ‘facilities’ currently solely consist of a wooden shed with one plumbed in toilet and a small sink (uni-sex). Currently there are no showers, etc although plans were to have had a proper shower and toilet building with both a gents loo and shower and a ladies loo/shower but this was delayed I believe due to the pandemic and the owner of the site said whilst chatting it will now be put up in October at the end of the season to avoid disrupting this year’s visitors with noise and building going on. There is a pub a few hundred yards just down the road (Cennan Arms) but it was closed due to the pandemic – there is no local trade due to being in ‘the wilds’ and Wales is still under social distancing, facemask, etc restrictions until August 7th so that also limits potential visitors – but it will re-open in Spring 2022 we were told. As, when we do weekend camping, we only take kettle and a single burner stove in order to make coffee/tea and ‘Just Eat’ for our meals we had to venture out 3-4 or miles out for those.

Also on site is one cottage right on the side of the pool that is bookable – and the residents of that have their own private fishing area directly in front of them – plus they get the luxury of showers, kitchen, etc.

Anyway, we set off on the Friday at 1100, having delivered our moggies (Ollie and Mollie) into the care of the local cattery and arranged a friend to pop in over the weekend to check on our ferrets (Heather, Hedwig, Howie and Missie) aiming to arrive at the site at 1500 – its a 3 hour journey but we added an hour to allow for delays and also a mid-trip coffee break – and was almost bang on target arriving at 1505!

After chatting to the site owner and choosing our pitch, up went the tent which took all of 10 minutes from taking from the car boot to starting to place the air beds! A perfect tent for 2 people on a short stay it’s a QUECHUA ARPENAZ BASE M from Decathlon. A good buy at £100 IMHO. It is rated as a 6-person tent and I suppose you could get 6 people without luggage snugly packed in like sardines if you tried! HOWEVER it is fantastic for 2 people allowing plenty of room for 2 (single) airbeds with enough space at the sides for un/dressing … and being over 2 metres high its easy to get dressed standing up… and the sewn-in waterproof floor keeps all water at bay. Easy to put up too, just 2 crossing poles, 5 pegs around the base, and 4 guy ropes at the corners… End of advert!! LOL!

So, the hols…

Saturday had been forecast to be wet but wasn’t a bad day when it came to it … but we had decided that we would do the traditional holiday Wetherspoon’s breakfast that day and so at 0930 headed off to Carmarthen – only to find the Wetherspoon’s there closed until NOVEMBER for refurbishment. It also seemed that Carmarthen itself was shut –gone 1030 and all the shops seemed still to be closed there! So, a quick look on the mobile and we ascertained the nearest Wetherspoon’s was Llanelli and we headed out that way arriving just about in time for breakfast service J. A wander around the town followed and then we headed back to the campsite to prep the fishing tackle for the weekend – I was to fish early on Sunday whilst Liz stayed at the tent and read and later go out for some food, Monday we were to both fish…. And this is when the discovery that I was a blitherin’ idiot was made…

Up to this point all the tackle had been left in the back of the motor… so I start to unload to sort out bags, etc ready for my Sunday morning expedition … among which are my and Liz’s rod quivers … and as I lay mine on the grass Liz says ‘Where’s your rod?’ … and in the pocket where my rod should have been was …NOTHING! Old dumbo here, when originally packing, had intended to take my larger quiver with both our rods, banksticks, etc in but then decided to take our smaller individual quivers instead … and when transferring the rods from one to the other, I’d done Liz’s but not mine!!! I’d done my banksticks, etc but not my rod! DOH!!!!!!!!

Anyway, Sunday, I fished with Liz’s rod – caught a fair few small rudd/roach, a couple of tench of around 2oz and an eel of about 6-8oz. And then when packing down I caught the rod tip in the edge of a tree and the top tip flicked – and created an almighty untangleable tangle which was left to be resolved later….

Monday, Liz wasn’t too concerned about fishing and I wasn’t motivated enough to try to sort out the rod tip tangle and we decided to go for another Wetherspoon’s breakfast in Swansea… and to have general lazy day…. and then pre-sort the gear out ready for packing up in the morning to return home… a journey which wasn’t uneventful either!

The night before we are to pack up the tent – the heaviest rain of the week falls. We’d had a couple of very small showers mainly overnight (Liz tells me, I heard nothing LOL) over the weekend but nothing of consequence. By getting up time it had virtually ceased but obviously the tent was wet…. tent was down and car packed by 0930 and we started homewards … and all was going well … until I got caught in by a police radar gun doing 37 in a 30 … hands up to that but the nice young policeman decided to just issue me a warning for which I should get a letter in the post. I dunno, I do check my speed on entering speed restrictions but, especially in 30 zones, even rolling on tickover, modern cars won’t do 30 without the intermittent dabbing of the brake. Plus at that speed there is no feel of any acceleration happening between 30 and 35… so the only way is to keep monitoring the speedometer which means you’re taking your eyes off the road … and to me doing 35 with eyes on the road is far safer than doing 25 while watching the speedo… oh well J … so on we go until about 25 miles from home … then we come to a road sign ‘Road Closed Ahead’ … no diversion signs nor indeed any turnings other than dirt tracks off the road … so we carry on and do so for another 7-8 miles passing more ‘Road Closed Ahead’ signs and no turn offs … and eventually come across the road blocked with roadworks … and other cars doing U turns … so all the way back … and then we get back to a turning signposted to somewhere near where we want to get … a narrow country lane … so we proceed onwards …. and then reach a point where the, what I would rate as a  single-plus lane, road is blocked by an artic lorry and trailer travelling in the opposite direction up a slope … and he cannot get traction on the wet road … tyres slipping and smoking … so he’s rolling back and retrying several times whilst our line of traffic is pulled over as far left as we can in the hedgerow to allow him past if he can get up … eventually, he gives up and rolls back down the slope and pulls over on a wider bit of lane so that we can – barely – squeeze past …

And that was the end of the ‘terrors’ – we managed to get a drink and a bite to eat in Bridgnorth before setting off for the last 15 miles or so back home … arriving at about 1530 … 6 hours after we set off home on what should have been a 4 hour (inc 1 hour for lunch) journey…

Still washing/packing/sorting clothing and gear, etc so no more fishing this week – hopefully get out on Monday again :)