We are back in our friend’s Welsh cottage for a week, four miles from Bala. The journey here was not straightforward. We set off later than expected, since Chantal had a doctor’s appointment following the results of a hospital x-ray. Nothing life threatening – she has a painful foot which she describes as “like walking with a stone in my shoe”. The doctor still doesn’t know the reason, although old age has been implicated… A scan has been arranged.
Anyway, at least I had time to give the dogs a long walk, which is just as well, since 30 miles into our journey I began to lose power and an engine warning light flashed on my dashboard. We were on the A5 in a fast duelled stretch, almost a motorway, and so I was relieved when, after a few minutes, we passed a sign indicating that we would reach a lay-by after a further mile. It seemed a very long mile before the lay-by appeared, and we pulled in, browsed Google maps to get an indication of where exactly we were located, and called the recovery company. We were promised assistance within an hour. An hour later the “mechanic” from the garage who had been tasked with assisting us, called to say that he was his the way, and where exactly were we?
Ninety minutes after our first call the recovery vehicle arrived, the mechanic plugged in his diagnostic gismo, and failed to find a fault. I wasn’t surprised – an hour earlier I had moved the car forward to allow an HGV room to pull in behind me, and noticed that the engine warning light was no longer illuminated. He came up with various explanations, none of them particularly convincing, and sent us on our way, promising to follow behind us for the first few miles “just in case”.
It must have been about 4 miles after the recovery vehicle parted from us that the warning light returned. Since the mechanic had assured us that it was unlikely that any fault would be catastrophic, we decided to continue on our journey, and over the next few miles I discovered that the car could be comfortably coaxed along, as long as I didn’t make excessive demands, which excluded overtaking, and limited my speed on any but the most gentle of ascents.
I knew that our route included a long and steady but steep, climb over hills shortly before we got to the cottage, and I was concerned about whether the car would cope with the ascent. With an unfenced steep drop into the valley on the nearside, this would not be a good place to break down. The climb was unavoidable, and at the bottom I couldn’t even start at a reasonable speed, thanks to a sharp bend in a village.
It was a long slow and stressful ascent, with my foot to the floor, and I was relieved when we got to the summit, and began the descent into Bala. Satnav recommended a back road to Llandderfel, the village where the cottage is located, a single track lane that climbed steeply before dropping down into the village. We ignored Satnav, despite its repeated nagging, and stayed on the more level, if longer, detour via Bala, which at least allowed us to stop at the local Co-op to purchase bread.
The lane from the village up to the cottage is steep, and I was concerned about the cars ability to achieve the final half mile, and so I was relieved when, once again, after a brief stop at the Bala Co-op, the warning light stayed off, and the car performance was back to normal, and even more relieved when we arrived safely at the cottage 15 minutes later.
And so here we are, looking forward to a relaxed week. We plan to spend a lot of time just relaxing and enjoying the area around the cottage, and so should have time to update The Oakstump with our recent news, as well as how our holiday is going. And the car? We’ll play it by ear.
Technically we live in Oaktree House, but sadly the tree had to go.
We now have a thriving Oakstump at the front of the house.
