Author Topic: Have you been out today?  (Read 3813912 times)

Auntie Helen

  • 6 Wheels in Germany
Re: Have you been out today?
« Reply #22000 on: 06 August, 2018, 09:47:45 am »
Not today, a couple of weeks ago, but here is a report on my first 300km ride (which also appears in my Blog http://www.auntiehelen.co.uk/thirteen-wheels-in-germany-july-2018-month-52/)

Klaus my partner is now riding much more than me, including regular commutes to work (a 94km round trip). For example, I'm typing this on 3 August and he cycled to work today (Friday), as well as on Tuesday and Wednesday. Impressive stuff!

Anyway, he had started toying with the idea of attempting a 300km ride. His highest previous distance in one day was 220km, mine was 215, but we both felt that more was possible. He started thinking through how to do it - he knew his risk was to go out too fast and get tired, and he also knew he would have to ride this on his own as trying to accommodate to someone else's speed makes you more tired.

Klaus had arranged a week's holiday with his daughter in Austria and I started to think about what I would do during the week he was away, particularly the first weekend. About three weeks before he went, I got the idea that I could try for a 300km. But the one thing I didn't want to do was tell anyone (except my Mum!) beforehand as I didn't want any pressure at all. If the weather was good, I would try for the distance. If I felt bad partway through I would stop.

A week before, when the weather forecast looked good (although mega hot!) I checked with Gudula that she could look after Poppy for the whole day as I knew I would be out for a very long time. I estimated my average speed would be about 25 km/h over such a long distance, which meant twelve hours' cycling time. I would also need time for breaks, food, loo etc. Gudula was happy to look after Poppy, so my plans were moving on.

The day before, on the Saturday, I ended up driving for nearly six hours (more below) in Ralf's Sprinter. As I delivered it back to him, I  decided to tell him what I was planning for the next day as he, Klaus and I often rode together on Sundays and I thought he might like to ride with me. He said he would quite like to meet me for a short part of my ride so I told him I would send him my planned GPS tracks and we would communicate the next morning and arrange a meeting spot. I did warn him that I would have to go my own pace and couldn't wait around a lot.

The whole time that Klaus and Ralf had been talking about doing a 300km ride I, too, had considered how I might do it. It was clear to me that I would need to ride in Kreis Kleve, north of where we live, as it has open roads, few traffic lights, not many cars and - also important - several nice Bauerncafé. Of course, Kreis Kleve isn't 300km in a straight line so I decided to plan several loops that I could ride - of different distances so I could choose how far to go. Each loop went past a nice Bauerncafé (of course!). One was 90km, one 70 and one 45km.

I also knew I would have to leave early in the morning to give myself enough time. This is partly because in the evening my cycling speed slows a lot, but I am OK with early mornings. So at 06:13 I was in the garage getting into Millie after freshly pumping up her tyres. I had two 500ml bottles of water with me but that was my only extra preparation.

Here is the map of my ride today - three major loops and some smaller ones:



It's pretty hard to see where I actually rode so I have included images of the individual loops.

So I set off on loop one, which was the 90km one past Weeze airport and then up to Siebengewald (NL) before returning along Ceresweg to Arcen. This is a route we have done loads of times and I know it's fast and easy roads - well, the German section anyway. NL is not so good but I fancied a bit of NL and Ralf would meet me in Straelen at the end of that loop.



I started off a bit slower than I expected but this is often the case in the early morning. I had eaten a breakfast of scrambled eggs with bacon to give me energy for the first 100km which I wanted to do without a proper stop, if at all possible.

I followed the traditional route up to Kerken, then along Eyll towards Winternam, then going past the prison in Pont and heading towards Twisteden. From there I hugged the NL border going north west past Weeze and then enjoyed the fast road to Siebengewald.

At Siebengewald (48km) I stopped to put my feet down and have a drink. I also sent Ralf a message - he said he was on his way and would meet me in Straelen. I pedalled on.

I had unfortunately forgotten how bad the road surfaces can be in NL. Well, I had sort-of remembered but decided they couldn't be as bad as I remembered. My memory had been correct! I lost about 3km/h speed because of the rough surface. I was making sure I was just cruising along the whole time, not using much power at all, so that I could last the full 300km. So I just accepted the slower speed and resolved not to do this loop again.

The hill up from Arcen is one of the easier ways of getting up into Germany (Germany is uphill from NL where we live), and as I was approaching it I exchanged messages with Ralf (who was already in Straelen eating his breakfast) and Klaus (who had just woken up in Austria and had no idea I was doing a long ride).

I rolled into Straelen just as Ralf was finishing his breakfast. Rather than stopping for a cake at Hoenen's bakery in Straelen I said to Ralf I would prefer to go to Café Winthuis near Weeze which has fantastic cakes and was just another 25km. He thought this was fine, so after a sit down on a chair for five minutes I headed off again with Ralf behind me. He rode the whole time together with me tucked in behind so I didn't have to concentrate on keeping up with him, I could just ride my own pace. No doubt a very leisurely pace for Ralf!

Here is loop 2:



We arrived at Winthuis at 95km ridden (you can see the little stick on the left hand side halfway up the track in the image above), got out of the bikes and I realised I had left one of my two water bottles on the table in Straelen. Annoying! Oh well!

The next annoyance was that Winthuis was "Geschlossene Gesellschaft" (private function) that day so we couldn't have cake. I said to the woman "I've cycled 95km without a break!" but this didn't sway her so off we went again. I suggested to Ralf that we continue to follow my Loop 2 (which I was now on) as it went past Büllhorsthof in Winnekendonk. As the crow flies this was only about 7km away but my loop went much further north first so in the end it would be 29km. He said that was fine, although he had a bit of a deadline to get home for lunch with some neighbours. But off we went.

The day was warming up a lot now, already in the low thirties. My speed had increased to an average of 26 km/h now, as I always find I am faster in warm weather. But my lack of water (only a 500ml bottle) was troubling me a little. I would need to ensure that whenever I stopped I drank plenty.

As we were passing Weeze we saw lots of signs for "Parookaville" which is apparently a festival (Ralf's daughter has attended). Fortunately it wasn't this weekend but I made a note not to ride that way the following weekend. As it was, we were a bit later heading through Twisteden towards Weeze and there were a lot more cars. We had a couple of bad overtaking experiences from stupid motorists on the stretch from Straelen towards Goch.

Eventually we arrived at Büllhorsthof and Ralf and I chose cake and drinks.



It was nice to have a break after 125km, and I drank several bottles of water in the loos of the café to replenish some fluids. It was a hot day and I was sweating a lot (which is usual with velomobile riding).

Ralf and I discussed his route home as he had the appointment, and I said that I would amend my Loop 2 to return to Straelen with him so he could easily ride home from there. I thought it'd be a bit tight on time but he seemed relaxed about it, as always.

After a break of about 45 minutes we set off again, me looking forward to reaching the halfway point of my ride. It's always nicer to know you have a shorter distance to ride than you have already completed.

The ride back to Straelen with Ralf seemed pretty speedy. I had no aches and pains except for my feet felt a little uncomfortable in my cycling sandals. I had worried about my right knee which often gives me issues on longer rides but this time I was riding at exactly my pace, not trying to keep up with Klaus and Ralf who are stronger riders, so everything was fine.

At Straelen I waved goodbye to Ralf and hoped he got home in time (he did, two minutes before his curfew!)

Now it was time for Loop 3, and for this one I decided to go a bit more to the east on the Kengen route that Klaus and Ralf had ridden the previous Sunday (when I was in bed with a lurgy). They said the road had been resurfaced in places and was really fast.



So I went back almost to my start point in Kreis Kleve at Kerken and then rode along the busy B9 (on a decent cycle path) for a short distance until I could take the road up towards Rheurdt. We would normally ride through Stenden here but they seem to be permanently digging up the road so you never know when you will meet a blockage.

I enjoyed the ride north again towards Issum as these roads are fast although there was a whopper of a pothole (well, more of a pot-trench across the road) which Millie crashed across. This is the kind of situation which might give me a puncture but I got away with it.

It was hot hot hot and I had soon drunk all my water that I had filled at Büllhorsthof. But my route would take me back to Büllhorsthof before too long so I kept going.

The road from Issum to Winnekendonk is one of the roads that I love - great surface, fast, no cycle path so you don't get annoyed motorists hooting at you, and of course low numbers of motorists, although there were more than normal (as I was now riding on a Sunday afternoon). It turns out Sunday afternoon motorists will hoot at you even if there is no cycle path - but hey, they also regularly say they can't see me (a giant white thing the size of a fridge freezer on the road... they need to get their eyes tested!) so I don't pay much attention to motorists.

I was enjoying myself, my average speed was around 25 km/h now and I felt just as strong at 190km when I arrived at Büllhorsthof for the second time than I had at 20km. I also knew I was almost two thirds of the way round. Klaus had worked out what I was doing and was sending me supportive messages.

I was very parched when I got to Büllhorsthof so immediately drank about a litre of water (refilling my bottle from the tap in the ladies loos) and then had a cup of tea and a Grillagetorte which is a mixture of ice cream and cake.



I sat inside where it was a bit cooler and found a room that was empty and sat there. I desperately needed to take my sandals off to give my feet a bit of a break from Shimano Sandal Shape, but I was pretty smelly from my sweat and also a bit from my feet. A brave couple came and sat in the same room as me whilst I was there.

I had decided to give myself a reasonable break and was there for another 45 minutes, recharging the battery on my Garmin and exchanging messages with Klaus and Ralf. The Grillage went down very well. I am not entirely sure that fuelling my entire ride on 4 eggs, 1 Mandarinen-Schmand Kuchen and 1 Grillagetorte was ideal but I didn't feel like anything else. On long rides your digestion tends to shut down a bit anyway and my guts were slightly complaining. I was a bit annoyed with myself for failing to bring any nuts with me to snack on - we have packets of them in our cupboard (low-carb lifestyle that we have at home) but I failed to bring any. Numpty.

Despite drinking loads of water I was still thirsty, but I couldn't do much about that as there is only so much you can drink at one sitting. The lack of water was the only real issue on this ride, and I suppose I could have stopped at a petrol station to buy another bottle, but I hadn't actually passed any petrol stations so far, and as this was Sunday all the other shops in Germany were shut.

I was originally planning to do Loop 2 in reverse but decided instead to go off-plan and head towards Uedem and from there to Goch as it looked like there was a nice straight road. So off I went, on what turned out eventually to be a road I had never cycled before. All was well until I noticed the road went over a huge flyover which looked very steep. I don't like hills and was avoiding them as much as possible so took the opportunity to detour through an industrial estate instead, hoping to work my way round to the road I needed back towards Siebengewald. This worked, mostly, although I did have to go up a bit of a hill coming into Goch, and I also had to use a rather badly repaired cycle path which was a bit bumpy and slowed me down quite a lot.

From Goch to Siebengewald was easy, and then it was back on roads I knew well but was this time riding in reverse (this had been Loop 1).

It was baking hot and I stopped from time to time in the shade of some trees to rest my feet and to drink my rapidly-dwindling water supply. I decided I would stop for proper food in Straelen, I thought a take away pizza would be good. I needed to fuel with something other than cake really.

I zoomed down through Twisteden, keeping my regular speed and with my knee still not really complaining. I was feeling very proud of myself now, with 250km completed. I had known from about the 140km mark that I would manage the 300km, I just had that feeling that all was going well. Millie was faultless as usual - no issues at all with her, although I didn't use the new shifter for my front chainrings (more on this below) in case it didn't work properly and I unshipped the chain. I took no chances with anything!

From Twisteden I dropped down to Straelen and stopped for a pizza at a tiny pizzeria take-away in a side street. They had a couple of plastic chairs and a table outside so I could sit and eat. I only ordered a small pizza as my digestion wouldn't want any more. What this place didn't have was a customer loo or bottled still water or even pure orange juice. As they couldn't supply either of the two drinks I actually drink, I asked for a glass of tap water. They gave me a really small glass, which I drank instantly, and then asked them to fill my bottle. I drank that immediately and asked for another refill, which they did, but I got the impression this was my last chance.

From Straelen I knew I had to do some extra loop in order to get enough kilometres.



I headed off on familiar roads and rode past Landcafe Steudle (which was closed as it was now 18:30). From here I rode through Hartefeld and then along to the Witchy Roundabout as I call it in Sevelen. From Sevelen I took the fast road south - in the distance I could see a fire burning. My colleague Alex told me the next day that it was a hay store.

Because of the lack of water I decided to go home and drink plenty (and use the loo) before my final mini loop. I got home with 25km still to ride, and resolved to spend just 10 minutes at home (in case laziness overtook me). I drank plenty of water, ate some nuts and used the loo, then it was off again for my final loop.



This was my first real bit of riding in Kreis Viersen - it's less suitable for long-distance velomobiling because of the traffic lights and more general traffic. I rode around Kempen, then headed towards Grefrath and then north past Zur Fluchtburg and to Abtei Mariendonk, which seems to be a place where most cycle rides somehow go past!



You can see the long shadows... it was approaching nine pm now.

At 298km I had to stop for a couple of minutes whilst a very nervous horse and rider made their way past me. It was a lovely feeling knowing I had almost reached my goal, and so I pootled the last three kilometres (I wanted to do at least 1km extra in case Strava or Garmin clipped some of my ride, which sometimes happened). And then finally I was back home with 301 on the clock!

Here are the statistics of the ride from Strava:



I felt great - no knee pain, no backside pain, I didn't even feel massively tired. I just felt a bit dehydrated despite gallons of water and absolutely desperate for a shower. I had been dreaming of a cool shower for the last 100 kilometres!

The next day I rode Alfie to work and all was fine, I had no body issues at all although I also had no great desire to go out on long rides, so just commuted with Alfie for the rest of the week.

My conclusion - an old fat woman can ride 300km in under 15 hours total (12 hours moving time) with the massive help of one of the fastest velomobiles, a Milan GT, and also good weather. I am happy to know I can manage this distance, but I have to say I have no great need to do it again. Not because I don't want to put my body through it, but because it's a bit boring riding for that long in a day. How people do the massive audaxes of 1400km in five days I don't know!
My blog on cycling in Germany and eating German cake – http://www.auntiehelen.co.uk


ElyDave

  • Royal and Ancient Polar Bear Society member 263583
Re: Have you been out today?
« Reply #22001 on: 07 August, 2018, 08:10:41 pm »
If I ever again suggest following ncn 7 from ardrossan to newton Stewart please
a) lock all my bikes away secure!y
2) lock me away secure!y in a different location and
iii) shoot me just to be on the safe side

That was both brutal and stupid

Stupid because I already had 50km in my legs crossing the MOK and Arran with inclines of 14% on a cruzbike loaded for touring. Also stupid because of the Sustrans fu kwits routes between ardrossan an troon. Who in their right mind would direct a bike path on the strand? Fair enough on the road next to the strand, but fuck me how monomaniac do you need to be intryi g to keep a cycle path off road ffs? There's me a tourer trying g to keep some semblance of progress amidst various ice  cream eaters, dog emptiers, sand csatel builders etc. And then in Ayr, routing was turn left along the river, cross the footbridge, over the other side go back on yourself and cross the road you left into a pedestrian area. I went straight on.

Its as if three brutal claims in the Galloway forest aren't enough, they need to break you psychologically first, before physically.

I think I'm done with that route.
“Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him.” –Charles Dickens

Adam

  • It'll soon be summer
    • Charity ride Durness to Dover 18-25th June 2011
Re: Have you been out today?
« Reply #22002 on: 07 August, 2018, 10:03:06 pm »
A nice little 7.5km bimble in and around Alver Valley Country Park in Gosport, assisting with a Sustrans led ride.  It's nice to see children enthusiastic about going for a bike ride!
“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.” -Albert Einstein

rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
Re: Have you been out today?
« Reply #22003 on: 08 August, 2018, 08:08:55 pm »
Weds night ride including the alpine ascent of Uffington White Horse.  Took the LHT, which turned out to be prescient as we got soaked.  Scary slippy roads with melted-smooth tarmac and the usual greasy, foamy film you get when it's been dry for ages.  Also: it's just as hard climbing it in 22 x 28 as it is in 39 x 25. 
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

Re: Have you been out today?
« Reply #22004 on: 08 August, 2018, 08:24:41 pm »
Those cakes Auntie keeps posting shots of should be banned under the Geneva convention or some such.
Get a bicycle. You will never regret it, if you live- Mark Twain

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: Have you been out today?
« Reply #22005 on: 10 August, 2018, 04:43:39 pm »
First 100k since buggering my thigh* & The Return of the Coolth. Unremarkable save for my disgusting condition and surprising lack of cramp on climbs (whereof 900 metres all the same).  One interesting motorized-moron bit when I asserted my priority at a Y junction: a late-braking motorist made me take it wide and put my back wheel into a patch of gravel. As I recovered from a minor tail-skid the driver of the car a dozen metres behind car #1 decided he had time to nip across in front of me and park on the pavement.  As it turned out he had, but he didn't do anything for my blood pressure.  Unfortunately, instinctive insults are uttered in one's mother tongue all one's life, so if he heard anything at all he probably thought I was telling him how nice the weather was.

Oh: heard a stork clapping its beak in the middle of the town I stopped in for lunch, and some unseen bird emitting intermittent rasping cries in the forest. Otherwise the only wildlife was behind steering-wheels.

*sounds like a sort of reflexive Hephaestus/Athena thing, but wasn't.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

Snakehips

  • Twixt London and leafy Surrey
Re: Have you been out today?
« Reply #22006 on: 10 August, 2018, 09:03:52 pm »
I went out après le déluge. Felt the need for long sleeves! Is winter just around the corner?
An nescis, mi fili, quantilla prudentia mundus regatur?

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: Have you been out today?
« Reply #22007 on: 11 August, 2018, 08:00:33 am »
Yeah, it was only 14°C when I got up yesterday.

One shop where I stopped to refill my gourd had retained all of Thursday's heat: 22° outside and around 28° inside.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

Re: Have you been out today?
« Reply #22008 on: 11 August, 2018, 08:10:31 pm »
Origami (folding bikes) ride from Didcot today. Twenty six riders, about 23 miles total, pub lunch at Plum Pudding west of the town centre, tea stop in Abingdon with a wide choice of cafes.

Interesting variety of bikes, we were on the Moulton tandem.


LittleWheelsandBig

  • Whimsy Rider
Re: Have you been out today?
« Reply #22009 on: 11 August, 2018, 09:20:24 pm »
Sorry we couldn't join you. We were multimodally otherwise occupied - Moulton to U-bahn to S-bahn to airplane to minicab.
Wheel meet again, don't know where, don't know when...

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: Have you been out today?
« Reply #22010 on: 15 August, 2018, 04:10:11 pm »
Aimed at 140, got fed up and only did 95.  With no Audax to aim at motivation is lacking. Trouble is that thanx to heart limitations I can't train hard enough to build the form I need for Audax. Getting fed up with the whole bloody cycling deal - if it's just to keep fit I don't see the point.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

Re: Have you been out today?
« Reply #22011 on: 15 August, 2018, 08:34:57 pm »
I went to Windsor to the cycle shop to see if they had some parts I am waiting for but they had not turned up so I pottered along the Thames path between boveney lock and the bridge carrying ncn4 over the river sitting under the bridge were 2 mountain bikers drinking coffee. It turned out that they were riding up the Thames path and aiming to newbury this evening.  They rreckoned that it was 40 miles away along the towpath  to newbury but I suspect it is that by road from where they were. I suggested that they went via ncn4 through maidenhead and then took the b roads through Twyford and rejoining ncn4 when they reached the a4. They are planning to ride the k and a canel  through to Bristol and then cross the river severn to reach Wales by the weekend  .I told them about yacf so maybe they will post on the forum and let us know if they make it   :)
the slower you go the more you see

Re: Have you been out today?
« Reply #22012 on: 15 August, 2018, 08:59:15 pm »
Eight miles round Richmond Park. Nearly 40 of us on an institutional annual Moulton Club ride, with a picnic near Pembroke Lodge.
This year the deer were aggressively trying to steal our food, maybe the grazing is poor from the lack of rain.
Moultons of all ages and types, we were on the only tandem though!

Re: Have you been out today?
« Reply #22013 on: 17 August, 2018, 02:22:45 pm »
Yes. Around 12 miles around Bluffton Ohio in a borrowed single speed but thankfully the hub was on the freewheel aide not fixed. A very pleasant ride as rain held off and temperature had dropped lots.

Re: Have you been out today?
« Reply #22014 on: 17 August, 2018, 05:23:08 pm »
Hi there, I was introduced to this forum site by Chris aka “cycleman” who I met on Wednesday. His knowledge of the area around Windsor, Reading and beyond was most helpful to my friend and I who are complete novices to the cycling world.
We were sat under a bridge brewing up our 4th coffee of the day wondering if we’d bitten off more than we could chew.
We’d set off from Paddington station the day before full of enthusiasm to reach Chepstow by the weekend!
As Chris mentioned in his post above we still had at least 40miles to push to get to Newbury, our 2nd stopover. He very kindly suggested we head off the towpath and follow NCN4 to Reading where we could pick up the K&A canal. He rode with us for a few miles, pointing out so many interesting things along the way and also how to spot the sometimes allusive red number 4!
We did make it to Newbury that night thanks to our advised shortcut and from there the next day we covered 63 miles of bumpy towpath to Bath.
There we realised our naivety about reacing Chepstow and decided to quit while we were still smiling. Rob lives in Bath and I live in London so we did complete our main goal of door to door cycling.
I must say it was a lot more fun than my usual way of getting to his house... at 80mph down the M4 motorway.
Chris is an inspiration to all cyclists out there who dispite his disability (brought on by an awful cycling incident by a hit & run coward) is out there pushing the miles. I hope you see this post Cycleman and we can keep in touch. If you do the Facebook thing you can see our trip in pictures by this link...

https://m.facebook.com/ciaostevie/albums/10156003617065735/?ref=bookmarks


Re: Have you been out today?
« Reply #22015 on: 17 August, 2018, 06:42:18 pm »
I am afraid I don't do Facebook but I will pm my contact details  to you  ☺.
Me....... an inspiration. ......  :o :D .

the slower you go the more you see

Re: Have you been out today?
« Reply #22016 on: 17 August, 2018, 10:09:47 pm »
About 80 miles round t'Moors, plus getting there and back - I went in search of Caper Hill, and then didn't ride it. There's a whole other story about trains and timings and tailwinds, but the tracks were fabulous.



It was a relaxed ride* after a couple of weekends of long rides.

*Apart from the trains and headwinds bit.

ElyDave

  • Royal and Ancient Polar Bear Society member 263583
Re: Have you been out today?
« Reply #22017 on: 18 August, 2018, 01:55:58 pm »
Shopping today on the green machine.

Out later today to test the newly lubed front mech on the cruzbike
“Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him.” –Charles Dickens

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: Have you been out today?
« Reply #22018 on: 18 August, 2018, 02:19:31 pm »
70-odd km with El Prez on his electric thing. Uninspiring.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

ElyDave

  • Royal and Ancient Polar Bear Society member 263583
Re: Have you been out today?
« Reply #22019 on: 19 August, 2018, 02:17:52 pm »
A nice steady 50km loop with a good cover towards the end. Got in the middle of a triathlon, one in front and one behind, with a spacing of about 400 yards each way, not really changing much for about five kilometers or so. Parted ways as I sent a different route and then saw a few on the run loop as I pulled in through Ely for coffee.  Quick enough considering the wind, thighs still feeling it a bit from last week.
“Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him.” –Charles Dickens

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: Have you been out today?
« Reply #22020 on: 20 August, 2018, 03:50:17 pm »
Quite good fun 80 km w. El Prez & our ex-treasurer, both on ebikes. They yammered away ceaselessly like a couple of petrol-heads about battery capacity, motor power & squit knows what else so I decided that after groaning up the first summit in their wake I would beat them over all the rest, and did.  After coffee I left them at 44k & headed home for lunch. I seemed to have lots of energy to spare, maybe because I was ignoring cardiologist's limits and riding by the way I felt.  In any case I didn't go outside them by more than 5%, which is probably half of his CYA margin.

Once home I reset the max in my stats program to remove most of the red bits from the heart-rate plot. Looks good that way.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Have you been out today?
« Reply #22021 on: 21 August, 2018, 05:59:44 pm »
A Monday Microadventure. Nine intrepid adventurers from ACB made their collective and individual way to a campsite overlooking the Wye, just north of Chepstow and across the river from Tintern, where we enjoyed an evening of bikes, fire, food, music, chat, beer and in some cases very potent cider, ending with tents or in one case a bivvy. Most left early this morning to their places of penal servitude or other employment, Paul and I enjoyed a leisurely return journey incorporating coffee in Chepstow, which was very pleasant but did not make Fern Hill any shorter! Are we going to do it again? Yes! Where? Maybe here or perhaps there...
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Re: Have you been out today?
« Reply #22022 on: 21 August, 2018, 06:22:48 pm »
I have started to potter up to milldenhall and am having drink in near  bricket wood station. I will hopefully  bivvi north of wheathamstead this evening   :)
the slower you go the more you see

Pingu

  • Put away those fiery biscuits!
  • Mrs Pingu's domestique
    • the Igloo
Re: Have you been out today?
« Reply #22023 on: 21 August, 2018, 07:43:31 pm »

Re: Have you been out today?
« Reply #22024 on: 21 August, 2018, 08:17:56 pm »
One of my favourite summer rides along one of my favourite stretches of my favourite river - offroad along the Tees from Low Connie to High Connie. Utterly gorgeous at high summer, with the crops and foliage as high as an elephant's eye.

Maybe even better than the Pingus' ride!