12 hours and 445 miles for cauliflower is a perfectly normal excuse for a ride on the Africa Twin AS

It’s the thin end of the wedge, but late October can still throw up a good riding day. This one happened to coincide with an unexpectedly skivable day in an otherwise punishing work schedule. So, gathering up a month’s worth of missed lunch breaks I cashed them all in for what could end up being the last big fling of the year on the Honda Africa Twin Adventure Sports.

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• Update one: A camping trip on the ATAS
• Update two: Aftermarket luggage for the ATAS
• Update three: Honda Adventure Centre off-road course

One of my favourite things to do is pick a point fairly far from home, Google vegan places to eat (yes, I’m one of ‘those’) and devise a full-day route to whatever the top-rated independent eatery. It’s as good an excuse as any.

Snowdonia is my favourite place to ride and I’ve not been back there for a while. The Eating Gorilla in Penrhyndeudraeth fits the bill nicely, so I plotted a route mixing familiar favourites with some roads I’ve not explored before. 

The Africa Twin’s touring chops despatch the dull slog to Shrewsbury with such ease, I wonder if I was asleep. Crossing the border, the promise of unbroken sunshine reveals itself to be a lie and the new Dunlop Trailmax Raids I fitted a couple of weeks earlier prove their worth as I pick my way through unclassified roads so strewn with fast-flowing micro streams, deep floods and debris that I don’t see tarmac for half an hour.

The weather improves as I join the B4391 – my favourite road in Wales, if not the UK – and continue through Bala, Ffestiniog and on towards Minnfford. This is riding at its best, the big Honda walloping through a dream combination of flowing roads and epic scenery. 

After the best BBQ cauliflower wings I’ve had, I head south. The region’s A-roads can be busy but enjoyable and the run down to Dolgellau is no exception. At Dinas Mawddy I divert on to the Bwlch Y Groes. The second-highest public road mountain pass in Wales was once the venue for BSA, Triumph and Austin to test bikes and cars. It’s narrow, bumpy and demands focus, and it’s utterly spectacular.

• Riding this winter? Get the best kit for the job

From Bala an equally beautiful mountain pass follows the river Hirnant over to Lake Vyrnwy. It’s as wet as it was this morning and at Llandrinio, and the Severn has burst its banks. I’ve done water crossings before, surely this one will be OK?

But as I sit weighing up the fast-flowing flood, a Chelsea tractor coming the other way goes up to its bonnet in water, conks out twice and when it emerges I realise the water would be up to my hips. My detour adds 40 minutes to the journey, but at least my feet are dry.

Long days like this are great, and the Africa Twin is fast becoming the best bike I’ve ever lived with.