This is starting to look good.

[toekneep]

We have two weeks in September to do a tour and we have decided to make the YACF camping weekend near Andover the middle weekend. What started as riding from home in Lancashire to Andover and back via a few campsites and maybe a friend and family visit has taken an interesting new turn this weekend.

I have a niece that lives on the Isle of White and we really do owe her and her family a visit, so the new plan is:

Train from Preston to Wolverhampton to make the whole think feasible at a leisurely pace. Then follow the Severn valley down to Gloucester and stay with the in laws for a night. Down to Lymington and ferry to IOW and two nights with my niece. Then up to Andover for the YACF weekend and then a route still to be determined back to Preston.

Ooh, I love this stage of a tour, when the basic idea gells but all the detail is still to be worked out.

[MSeries]

I have planned some fantastic tours, executed only a few of them !!! Still remember planning my first one back in '87.

[LEE]

We have two weeks in September to do a tour and we have decided to make the YACF camping weekend near Andover the middle weekend. What started as riding from home in Lancashire to Andover and back via a few campsites and maybe a friend and family visit has taken an interesting new turn this weekend.

I have a niece that lives on the Isle of White and we really do owe her and her family a visit, so the new plan is:

Train from Preston to Wolverhampton to make the whole think feasible at a leisurely pace. Then follow the Severn valley down to Gloucester and stay with the in laws for a night. Down to Lymington and ferry to IOW and two nights with my niece. Then up to Andover for the YACF weekend and then a route still to be determined back to Preston.

Ooh, I love this stage of a tour, when the basic idea gells but all the detail is still to be worked out.

Potentially there are a few people coming to the YACF campiing weekend from Portsmouth area.  May be worth 'advertising' your ride in the camping thread nearer the time.

PS.  I can sort you out a nice route from Andover to the North West (I've cycled from Andover to Stockport a few times and used quiet roads most of the way).

First 10 miles are amongst the hardest as you exit Hampshire via Newbury/Andover Downs (Then a brief respite before the Cotswolds).