which is why this is quite late in the day!

The latter part of the week has been, not weird but its felt out of kilter. I think that's mostly because the weather interrupted my usual riding routine again, Thursday ended up just being a walk to the shops. On the plus side i did get more writing done so not a total loss.

So Friday was the rainchecked Thursday ride. It was a variation of my Clevedon/Chew Valley loop, a short leg to the burger cabin for lunch then best part of 80km after lunch taking me right across to Bath before heading into base, not much climbing despite what it felt like, but 111km logged for my troubles.

Saturday just seemed strange but eventually i took myself out for a 6km walk which took in a tuna salad sandwich and cup of tea about midway. Once i got back i kept finding excuses not to sit at the kb, picking fruit, putting the scratch made 'bolognese' together, but eventually i started writing, breaking to eat the spag bol then returning to add another 800 words. These latest sessions have of course been posted to my Patreon page, please if you are a Patron pop over and let me know what you think.

On to today then. After the success of last Sunday and another good weather forecast for this weekend, Bev and I decided to have another go this week, this time all the way down to Exeter. Routes were planned, parking located and so we set off bright and early for the 90 minute or so trip down the M5. The rough plan was for Aunty Bev to follow the bike path down the Exe and around the headland to Dawlish whilst i took a somewhat more strenuous route north to Tiverton before returning to Exeter and doing my own Dawlish loop.

Well my route north was mostly on 'Devon' lanes, if you've been that way you'll know, if not we are talking single track, grass up the middle, no verges, multiple climbs with arrows and did i mention the grass? On the plus side, this bit of Devon gets overlooked by the M25 mob so even the stretch of A road into Tiverton had hardly any traffic. Tiverton was dead. i sat on a bench with what was intended to be a pre lunch meal of two tiny rolls then hit the road to start the southbound journey.

Almost immediately my route went up, 17% for @ a mile then continuing to climb for two more! By the time i returned to the Exe valley i'd repeated the process a second time, but that was essentially the day's climbing done and dusted. The lanes fizzled out leaving me on A road back into Exeter but there was little traffic other than around St David's Station and i soon reached the now dry Medieval bridge.

Then it was through the busy dock area and along the river and ship canal to pick up the excellent trail down to Dawlish Warren, its not all off road but it is all tarmac. A check of the time, close on two, not time to go all the way to Dawlish as we were due to reconvene at the car @ three but maybe i could get to Dawlish Warren? i pushed on, keeping an eye on the time, reaching my new target just on two thirty.

A look at the map, i could save a bit of time using the main road which would take me almost back to the car, could i do it in the thirty minutes though? Well no i couldn't, a couple of short but testing climbs and a headwind had me over run by @ ten minutes, on the plus side Bev was having a nap and the ride had been free of mechanicals of any sort. 92km in total, over 900m of climbing which given pretty much all the real climbing was in the first 40km, was pretty intense. We did pick up some traffic on the return trip but the journey was only a few minutes longer overall. Oh and Aunty Bev did get to Dawlish for fish & chips.

There is a new Gaby chapter up, Part 3 of Balancing Trick but make the most of it as my tent doesn't have internet next week! More detail midweek but there won't be anything new next weekend as i'm away camping with my kidlings at the Cycle Rally.

But thats it for now, I'll be back midweek, but for now,
Ciao,
Madeline Anafrid