Stonehenge

[Peat]

Hello all,

I'm planning a summer solstice ride. I've been to Avebury for sunrise several times, but was thinking of taking a longer loop and doing Stonehenge aswell.

I had a quick scout around for info and was disheartened to see that this looks like a fairly well organised event... To anyone who has ridden there - Are they going to stop me wheeling my bike in with me? There's a passage on the English Heritage website that says bikes must be locked at the visitors centre. I'm not too keen on that idea.

Any info/experiences gratefully received.

Cheers

[LEE]

Hello all,

I'm planning a summer solstice ride. I've been to Avebury for sunrise several times, but was thinking of taking a longer loop and doing Stonehenge aswell.

I had a quick scout around for info and was disheartened to see that this looks like a fairly well organised event... To anyone who has ridden there - Are they going to stop me wheeling my bike in with me? There's a passage on the English Heritage website that says bikes must be locked at the visitors centre. I'm not too keen on that idea.

Any info/experiences gratefully received.

Cheers

I did the Stonehenge Summer Solstice ride with YACFers a few years back and we turned up to find 30,000 people there at 4am.  It was like a big rock concert.

Someone volunteered to stay with the bikes if I remember correctly.  It was mayhem inside the fence and I'd be very nervous about leaving my bike unattended if the event is anything like the same.

[Manotea]

Tell them the bike is part of the ceremony... the bike is ridden by the celestrial beings who turn the seasons, the pump to bring the sun to full size, etc.


It took me several readings to understand (quoting from memory)...

"What will happen if the Hogfather is killed?"

"Then there will never be another dawn"

"What will happen instead?"

"The sun will just come up"

[mattc]

Someone volunteered to stay with the bikes if I remember correctly.  It was mayhem inside the fence and I'd be very nervous about leaving my bike unattended if the event is anything like the same.

Yup, that was pretty much thge only option when I went. Avebury was about a billion times more practical, and exponentially more friendly. Same sunrise.

@Peat: If you dig around the forum of your nearest cycling club you will find ride reports from their trip to The Henge about 6 years ago.

[Peat]

Thanks mattc. An underused and underappreciated font of knowledge.

The forum is helpful too.

[Wowbagger]

We started at Glastonbury. Train to Castle Carey, cycle to Glastonbury for about 6pm, eat a curry, climb the tor, watch the sun set, cycle across the marshes, get knocked off by a badger, have an altercation with the festival bouncers, realise that June nights can be very very cold, arrive at Stonehenge, cross the Larkhill ranges, don't quite get run over by a Challenger tank, have breakfast at the north side of the ranges, cycle back to Pewsey.

[Wowbagger]

https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=32300.25

That's the thread for the second one.

https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=17214.0

And that's the first one. Next year will be its 10th anniversary. Hmm...

You don't realise when you plan, carry out and record these events for posterity how enjoyable it is to re-read them 9 years later. Some quite funny bits in that one about Pippa going to New York and not having an internet connection. Is it still off-grid, I wonder?  Also, lots of changes to people's photo storage has meant that quite a few of the links don't work. Enough did to make it a very good read though.

[Peat]

Can confirm that Stonehenge was a bit of a waste of time. Floodlights, generators rumbling, hoards of over officious high-vis wearing mini hitlers. And the people, oh so many bloody people. When I was told i could lock my bike to a loose bit of Herris fencing 'at my own risk' and walk a km to the stones (after a cursory bag check) I turned around and made haste to Avebury. Bloody luverly.

[mattc]

... I turned around and made haste to Avebury. Bloody luverly.