the blonde one gets her post up!

Well that's May over, can we really be nearly half way through the year? Here in the UK we've had almost non stop good weather since mid March, the first calls to be careful with water are out and the first week of June looks to be continuing the theme!

So what's been going down in Maddy's world since Wednesday?

Well some of you may have picked up on Thursdays ride, a 100 mile effort to visit Stonehenge. I got myself out of my pit a bit earlier than usual, made two lots of snap, fitted the bigger bag onto the bike and set off a little after nine for roads unknown! It was already quite warm as I headed out through Bath to start the first climb of the day towards Bradford on Avon. Then a generally downward tilt took me to Melksham where a spanner was thrown into my planning, the Devizes road was closed.

Not the end of the world, I quickly formulated an alternative route and pressed on for the Wessex Downs. I soon picked up my original route having bypassed Devizes altogether and within a couple of miles entered into the Salisbury Plain military zone. I was climbing, if not steeply, constantly, the sun bathing the rolling green downs, out of bounds to all but tanks and the odd sheep.

Quicker than I expected I arrived at the visitor centre, of course under Covid restrictions that and the immediate compound that houses the stones is shut but the countryside surrounding it isn't so I set off down the road to have my lunch just a few metres from the famous trilithons. In normal times there are hundreds of visitors here pretty much from dawn to dusk, today there were a couple of walkers, a couple of bikes and a gamily picnic to keep the security guards company! Having fed and photo'd I retraced to the main road and started the return journey on the notoriously busy A303.

Well okay, there was a bit of traffic but not a lot although I was happy to find a tea waggon to top up my fluid intake before heading further along the 'busy' road. up over another Down then a gift descent to the A36 which I'd follow back to Bath. The serious climbing was over by the time I reached Warminster and I happily sped back to the Avon, completing the ride in a smidge over 7 hours from departure.

And so to Friday, run day. Well I've no idea what the problem was but the GPS krpt dropping the satellite connection so whilst I ran my full 7km circuit it only recorded about 2/3rds. Shopping and the photo blog took up the rest of the day.

After the big ride on Thursday, Saturday's amble was always going to be an easier affair and with English Heritage reopening a lot of free to enter sites I came up with a plan. First stop then was Horton Camp, a basic 'hillfort' which boasts mothing more than a 4m high bank cutting of a promentary on the Cotswold edge. Then it was a ride north east through Tetbury to reach my lunch stop, the Rodmarton Long Barrow.

Its not the best example having been robbed in the 1800's but it was a nice enough spot for lunch! Back on the road I looped through Kemble before heading back via Malmesbury as the temperature headed up towards 30c. 120km added to the pot.

Which brings us to today when I headed out for a shorter hike - well the forecast was hot and I wanted stuff in Sainsbury's on the way! The hike was only 18km but I saw some good wildlife, even got some pictures - tomorrow you can see the highlights. There was a bit of breeze, just enough to make things bearable as once again the temperature hovered in the high 20's c.

When I got back it was time to make Bev's crumble, an exotic affair with mango, pineapple, peaches and guava hiding beneath the crumbs - fine indeed!

What else? well you get 2 Gaby chapters, The Summertime is the second chapter of book 2 and Comeuppance is the conclusion of the German championship race in Bavaria.

Well its my bedtime now so i'll ramble no more

tschussie
Madeline Anafrid