To start with, even I required a road atlas to get through some of the towns, which would eventually take me onto the M1.

Traveling from Brentwood to Beddgelert took approximately four to five hours and involved a journey of some 260 miles. Don’t forget, this was back in the 1980s.

Getting from Brentwood to the M1 involved traveling through quiet a few towns, including Ongar, Harlow and Hertford, to name just a few.

I would travel along the M1 to junction 19, which was the turn off for the M6. Eventually the M6 would go through Birmingham. This part of the M6 was elevated to allow it to get over Birmingham. After the elevated section I would continue to junction 12 which was the turn off for the A5. The A5 was the road to North Wales.

Once on the A5 it was just a case of following the road, which back then would pass through Telford and then the ring road of Shrewsbury.

Chirk was just a small village, but it was significant to me, as it was the border between England and Wales.

Once I’d crossed the border I felt as though I was getting somewhere and would get quite motivated and excited about the remainder of the journey.

The only major towns on route along the A5 after the border were Llangollen and Betws-Y-Coed. The next turn off point was Capel Curig; this was a village where I turned onto the A4086.

This road, would automatically lead onto the A498, which was the road to Beddgelert.

As I commented, getting to Beddgelert took a reasonable amount of doing and involved about five hours of driving.

I used to arrive in Beddgelert at around 7 – 8am, which meant very few people were about, and I used to park in the main car park.

The first person to come out of their house to see me was the youngster called Gonks. He was the youngest of all those I got to know. After a while Gwindaf would then appear.

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