or how i've spent this week!

So my short missive on Wednesday came from my Iphone, sat in a hotel room in Minehead, oh how exotic that sounds - not! Anyhow, we'll pick up on Thursday morning.....

When you are away on a bike, weather is something you just have to put up with and after the previous evenings damp i was half expecting a wet start to the day. The forecast supported that hypothesis so i was quite happy when i went down for breakfast to see quite a bright day developing across the Bristol Channel. Its a quite conservative hotel, breakfast was fairly traditional 'English' in nature, yes i did have the cooked platter but, and i came to regret the decision later, i didn't follow on with baked/toasted goods.

Fed, i retrurned to the room to get ready for the day and pack everything up, by the time i'd checked out and loaded the bike it was 9:20, ten minutes ahead of the plan. The roads were still damp but it was less windy and i started the journey by heading for Dunster where i'd pick up the road southwards towards Exeter. I hadn't really intended stopping at the castle and in any event i was too early in the day but i did make a postcard stop in the village high street where the first signs of damp spattered my jacket - oh well, it'll be what it is.

The road, although an A, wasn't too busy, the wet not too much so when i reached the start of my planned deviation, up onto the high ground, i had no qualms in taking the turn. I've lugged a fully loaded bike through the Alps and conquered the highest roads in Europe but its been a few years, this climb would have been nothing too special on a stripped out road bike but even the extra 5kg of my overnight gear made the next ten miles or so, 'interesting'. Not only that but as i climbed, the hoped for views of Exmoor were hidden by the cloud which i rode up into which, of course, deposited wet as well.

eventually i dropped into the Exe valley, where it was at least dry, soon i crossed into Devon and my planned second upland 'loop' was cancelled. The drop down the valley to Tiverton reminded me of chasing rivers in Germany, i'm sure in the summer its busier but i enjoyed the ride as far as Tiverton where, once again the castle was closed, this time until Easter! My route now turned eastwards, loosely following the Great Western Canal on the lanes to Wellington and back into Somerset. It was still grey but i'd left the damp behind as i continued on the byways of west Somerset to Taunton.

By now i was regretting not going for the toast, i was on the lookout for a suitable eatery but i was out of the town and starting the northbound leg to Bridgwater when i found a garden centre with a cafe - yay! Well not quite so yay, no hot food available, they were still operating in demi lockdown mode so it was just tea and a wodge of cake, it would get me to the train at least, just a few miles further on. The traffic in Bridgwater was horrendous andby the time i reached the station it was four twenty turned, the next train was announced as mine which left me 2 minutes to buy my ticket before the train arrived!

I got home a bit before six, tired from two days riding, @ 250km's and over 2000m's of climbing. Yes i know it was only a short trip but the new roads etc reminded me of better times pre Covid and it has renewed my enthusiasm for riding some.

Friday then, a rest day and time to set up the new computer. Look, i'm blonde to the roots, it was never gonna be a simple plug and go was it? I'll save you the gory details but it involves replacement ethernet cables, endless restarts, reboots, changes of sockets, phonecalls but eventually it was all sorted earlier today and this comes to you from Deep Thought!

Whilst i waited for the, as it turns out, not needed replacement ethernet cable yesterday, i did fit in a short ride - okay just shy of 60km isn't that short but it was a steady recovery ride, a bit of a twiddle about, with a stop to look at the 'remains' of one of Keynshams Roman Villas.

So there you have it, i'm back to a working and fully connected PC, i'll sort out getting the laptop running better to use as a mobile hub, next up is putting the funding together for the 3D scanner.

I have posted today, the next part of Gaby - Fame, Dated. You will see that its chapter 11, no you haven't missed chapter 10 but i have a confession to make, I inadvertently posted chapter 2 with chapter 1 then just numbered in sequence so 2 is actually 3 and so on. I'll work on rectifying that during the week.

Well i think thats everything for today,
Tschuss,
Madeline Anafrid