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But it is still Wednesday!
I'm having a busy week, its of my own doing, let me explain. Tomorrow, that's Thursday, I'm heading up to GOC for a week, I have stuff to sort out, find and so on, stuff which won't get done without a concerted effort on my part. I had hoped to see the Junge but they will actually be on holiday in Devon and my archaeology buddies have cried off a walk so i'll have minimal distractions in getting stuff done!
So, as i'm not expecting to have a bike at my disposal I thought i'd get a good dose in before i go so instead of my usual Tuesday ride i've been out on Monday and today instead.
So where have i been? Well another good forecast tempted me south, to visit Bruton in Somerset which, apparently, is the smallest town in England - no idea how they measure that but it truly is quite small, a tiny backwater in the middle of nowhere that no one has heard of or knows where it is. The choppy ride over the Mendip and deep into this bucolic landscape became increasingly warm and whilst still earlyish when i arrived, i decided to have lunch by the medieval dovecote which sits high above the town.
Fed, it was time to return to the Mares for the afternoon session, at least equally as hilly in nature as the outward leg. I dropped further south, briefly passing through a corner of Dorset before passing into Wiltshire and an assault on the northernmost reaches of Cranborne Chase (a bit like Salisbury Plain but without the tanks!). The long climb out of Mere rewarded with views across a huge area, indeed almost as far as Avebury, then down and up another long climb before tackling some unmade byway actoss the Wylye valley from the Imber ranges.
But the climbing was far from over, a loop past Warminster, another around Frome before a final push to the bike trail that would take me into Bath and effectively return me to Chez Bev. I was feeling a bit weary by the time i got in, a look at the GPS explained why, a hundred miles but all those ups added up to over 1800m of climbing, i've done less in a day in the Alps! So quite pleased but certainly a bit weary.
Tuesday was sort of a day of rest - okay, not really. The walk, under a nice clear sky, was only the start of it, @ 7.5km with a bit of shopping on the way. The rest of the afternoon i spent riddling the potato bed - bits of glass, potsherds, ironmongery, plastic and a quantity of quite large stones - about a bucket load in total. It wasn't 100% needed but it looks better and the next lot of spuds will have no excuses!
And so to today. Another good forecast tempted me southwards once more for a shorter sojourne with lunch at Weston. Yep, where Mondays ride had over 70km of 'virgin' roads, today, whilst enjoyable barely scraped 8km! I escaped Cabotville then headed towards Weston before veering off east wards to reach the Mendip at Burrington for the main climb of the day, Burrington Coombe, a sort of mini Cheddar Gorge, its shorter and less steep but still presents a fair challenge when self propelled. Over the top and across the upland 'plain' to the top of Cheddar which I sort of planned on descending, however there was a bit of byway i wanted to ride first.
Plans change, you adapt as you go along, in this instance, once i reached the southern scarp of the Mendip i decided, rather than retrace to descend Cheddar Gorge to instead follow the bridleway down instead. It was mostly rideable, a few bits needed walking due to cattle damage but i eventually completed the 200m descent before passing through Cheddar village en route to the coast. I decided to have a look at the beach at Uphill which turned into several minutes watching the fire service playing with their hovercraft on the sands followed by a ride along the beach itself before finding a tea stall for lunch.
The wind was quite reasonable for a change, i enjoyed a sit in the sun then realised that it was getting on a bit - time to set off back! The return route was planned to be pretty flat, no big climbs at all and fairly direct, avoiding using main roads for the most part. The ride was marred by an accident that could've had dire consequences for one bike rider, he got off scot free but his bike was pretty well destroyed under the rear wheels of a bus. It was 100% the riders fault, passing a right turning vehicle on the right when you want to go left (for those on the wrong side of the road, think left, left, right), anyhow, that delayed me about 10 minutes or so then, with the wind in my sails, it was full steam ahead back to Brunelville (and yes steam ships did have sails, some like the Great Britain, a lot of sails!)
So there we are, i've still got the packing to do for tomorrow but otherwise i'm almost sorted. I will be posting from Yorkshire for the next week or so, you don't escape that easily!
In the meantime, today i've posted part 5 of Time for a Change - i hope you enjoy it as much as the previous parts.
Thats it for now,
Wiedersehn
Madeline Anafrid
