but i'm here now!

We've been having some weather hereabouts this week, nothing extreme but it's been cold and windy and wet so Monday and Tuesday i essentially spent indoors. I got some stuff done on the new book on Monday - its as far as i can go for now so thats good? Tuesday, well i didn't really get a lot done other than watching the birds attack the feeders but i did eventually start on some research on the next bit of fiction, the conclusion of 1902 Sunbeam Safety. How can it be best part of five years since i started this one, i apologise for not getting nack to Georgi Stephens much sooner. Can't say for certain yet but i'd like to think that you'll see the words by the end of the month.

And so to today. You may have guessed already, but i have been out on 2 wheels today, the forecast was dry but cold, i decided to use the E! After mulling the options over breakfast i decided on a variant of my sort of regular Chippenham loop, there are plenty of options to mix things up, i may have repeated a route but there is usually some sort of twist and so it was today. Out to and over the Cotswold edge then down towards Castle Combe to pick up the Fosse Way which i loosely followed for a while before heading more easterly. After Faxton i planned on a bit of byway despite the sodden ground, i ended up diverting when i encountered a lake hiding the road! Then it was on towards Chippenham where i eventually reached my 'regular' pit stop.

Today it was sausage and egg in a baguette with my tea, i didn't dally too long, the wind, what there was of it, was bitter, the morning temperature had climbed all the way fropm 0c to 1c! It wasn't to get above 2c all day but without a strong wind it was bearable but even so i started on a fairly direct return route, well, as straight as the lanes go at least. Past Corsham and Box then down to the Avon valley which is where i decided on missing Bath too. Easier said than done, without a huge diversion all routes end up in Bath from here, all bar one.

I turned into Batheaston and started the long ascent on poorly surfaced, single track lanes that take you northwards to the A46. Did i mention that it climbs, a lot, up, down, up, down, in and out of the folds of the hillside, luckily not much traffic uses the road but of course, 3/4 of the way through i met one. Not usually an issue of course but this was a truck making a delivery and completely blocking the road, with Foxy i could've got past but the E didn't stand a chance, the handlebars are huge and the bike too heavy to get clever. So i waited, and waited, according to my camera, it was a full 17 minutes before the blockage was removed.

The truck was too big for the lane and knackered so i ended up waiting behind several times to let it clear bends and inclines before reaching the main road. At this point you can take A roads either down into Bath or towards Brizzle or you can do some more single track lanes across to Bath racecourse. Which is what i did, first down to the Lam Brook then a steadier climb this time up to Lansdown. In a bid to miss the busier roads i decided to drop down to Weston but got caught up with the queue of SUV's on the school run. (I kid you not, every vehicle on the road whether moving(!) or badly parked, was an SUV with mum and mostly one child on board, given the school catchment, none of them would be travelling as much as a mile.)

I fed my way through and round to the old Bristol road, joining the bike path at Bitton station for the last few kilometres back. 112km in total which wasn't bad, the 1263m of up, the most in 2024 so far, fair ate battery juice tho, there was some left but out of a possible 10 bars i ended with less than two. Not a bad ride overall but when will the weather let me get out again?

So thats about it, I'll be working on the writing projects the rest of the week, out on a bike if nature lets me and back with another Gaby chapter here on Sunday.

TTFN,
Madeline Anafrid