Brecon Beacons Road Trip
With summer drawing to a close and evenings creeping in on us, we fancied getting out for one more roof tent road trip before the clocks did their thing and the weather deteriorates. This time around we wanted to find some quality driving roads for a good blast, so where better to look than just over the welsh border, the Brecon Beacons.
We love a good ‘spirited drive’ whether that’s a twisty forest road or wide open mountain pass, and having visited south Wales for various camping trips in the past we know the Brecons didn’t disappoint. So we curated a route and partnered up with our friends at Garage Bavarian for a driveout!
We gathered at Latitude HQ on a Saturday morning, with Latitude family members coming from around the southwest and south of England.
Now we’re fairly partial to a classic/retro BMW, as are our friends at Garage Bavarian, so naturally, that attracted like-minded friends and customers. Sam’s BMW e36 318is pictured to the left, and ollie’s BMW e90 330d below.
We began our trip heading over the Severn bridge towards Chepstow, with our first planned road, the A466. This winds through the Forest of Dean and has some places worth visiting along the way, including Tintern abbey & Symonds Yat rock.
With autumn in full swing and leaves covering the roads, the surfaces became pretty greasy beneath the trees, but with over half of our group having track day experience and a rather particular choice of tyres, it didn’t slow us much…
With some sights seen, it was time for a coffee. Somewhere on our ‘to visit’ list has been Bafflehaus, a hub of motorcycle culture (but also partial to a car or 2) their unit has been kitted out in a lovely way. With bikes on display, plenty of seating in/outdoors, amazing coffee plus a shop on site with plenty of nice bits in!
Refuelled, we headed to our next driving road. An un-named road out of Llangattock following the hillside to meet the B4560 and then back down into the head of the valleys road.
To round out the day we took the A4059 north from Hirwaun. This was a real easter egg as we had no expectations, but by the end, it’d become a favourite driving road for us all. The light was dropping and the heavens opened so we didn’t do a return pass, but we’ll be back to do so in the dry for sure. Well worth checking out!
From here our campsite was a couple of miles down the road. We stayed at Grawen camping park which was easy to get to and had plenty of space and decent facilities. However, we weren’t aware of the active truck yard down the road which had traffic in and out all night. Worth taking into consideration.
The next day we woke to clear blue skies as the fog in the valley lifted. Breakfast was cooked and we got back on the road aiming for an area known as the black mountains further north east.
We took the A4067 south which was a good blast as we made our way east.
We then reached the A4069, also known as the black mountain pass. Used for all sorts of magazine & movie shoots, and road tests. We pretty quickly found out why, with the southern side being wide open and fast, with good views ahead up the mountain. Once over the top the northern side snakes downwards, with the well-known hairpin bend. Twistier and tighter means you certainly have to stay on your toes.
We spent the afternoon here doing a couple of runs, the road wasn’t very busy but there were certainly a few others there for the same reason.
All in all, a great trip! Friends, cars & roof tents. We’ll definitely be planning a few more of these driving-oriented trips so keep an eye out. Our route is below if you fancy recreating it. If you do let us know what you think and tag us in any pictures.
