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but not entirely my fault!
Well okay, I take some of the blame, I didn't get to the keyboard until later last night but when I did BC was off line. I tried several times through the evening but I eventually gave up as I needed some beauty sleep - well actually I need a lot, it doesn't seem to have a great deal of effect though!
So, lets catch up. Well with new Covid restrictions coming in for Wales and a big chunk of northern England on Friday night, I swapped my ride plan about a bit so on Thursday I headed over the Severn for a ten minute transit through Wales (its unclear whether this will be possible under Welsh lockdown rules) and headed north for my 'breakfast' stop a little shy of Lydney. It was exactly a year ago when I first did this A48 ride, the rolling ride after my bacon sarnie surprised me then, today it was just wearing, up, down and repeat, not long or really that steep, a few bits at 10% but I was glad to reach the flatter approach to Gloucester.
The wind wasn't in the best direction for this ride, south westerly, which meant a headwind return, never great but I had a cunning plan! A second stop to eat my sandwiches with a cuppa from a roadside burger van. Well that was only the first part, the second bit was to take a less linear approach than the A38 back to Brizzle and so I started a very laney route which avoided more than a couple of kilometres at a time into the wind and even put it behind me at times. Eventually I made it back to base, just over 1000m climbing in 140km of riding.
Friday was a short walk with a bit of shopping thrown in then Saturday, a wet day to say the least, Bev suggested we go for a bit of an excursion. Well I'd already decided not to ride with the wet and walking didn't really appeal either so we set off south into Somerset. Our primary destination was the East Somerset Railway near Shepton Mallet, a small preserved line with a couple of Dampfloc pulling a couple of carriages up and down @ 2 miles of track. We just missed a departure so instead we looked around the engine shed, shop and café before departing.
Despite the squally weather another short stop was in order so we made the short hop to Nunney to visit the castle. The wet held off long enough for us to view the bijou moated remains, well Cromwell ruined it of course, its been ruinous for over half its 700 year history but has long been a favourite haunt of the romantic, carved graffiti inside suggesting one of my distant relatives was a regular visitor in the mid 19th century!
And so to Sunday, the forecast was breezy but dry with a slightly more southerly direction and so I headed for the local equivalent to Skegvegas, yup you've guessed it, Weston! A twisty route lengthened the journey to the sandwich halt on the esplanade to 70km so rather than a longer loop into the Mendips I decided that a more northerly, shorter route would work best, the sore shoulder and an unexplained foot injury contributing to the choice. That doesn't mean I headed directly back, no it was a more meandering route up to the airport then along the Chew valley back to Keynsham.
Its an easy ride from there but the café at Warmley proved to be too much of a temptation so at 130km I stopped for tea and cake! Well it'd be impolite not to right, despite only being 4pm the light was going by the time I started the last 6km stretch. Yes indeed, in Europe including the UK, the clocks went back on Saturday night, reducing the usable daylight for most citizens, summer really has ended, the trees are turning, leaves are falling and the west wind doth blow!
Today then I offer you Boys Toys, part 12 of Avoidance - is Gaby getting in deeper than she wants with Ernst?
Tschuss
Madeline Anafrid
