Tour de Wiltshire 2011
At
the start of the week the forecast said it was going to be hot…very hot, infact
hotter than it’s been all summer….and it’s October. Now we’ve had a rather
dreary and disappointing summer so I wasn’t going to miss this chance. The
problem was that Sunday would be the AGM. but why not get out on Saturday
afternoon for a few hours? Ok for me and Neil but tricky for most.
First leg of the
ride was up the A4 with a stop off in Marlborough High Street. The sun had
brought the whole world out, making it difficult to find a spare table let alone
get a drink but eventually we did before heading east to Froxfield where we
turned into Savernake forest. Once off the A4 its all country roads that run
parallel to the canal.
Which gave us a
great backdrop for me to take some photos of Neil’s Warrior. He won a trophy for
Best Warrior back in 2009 at Centre 8’s rally in Bromsgrove and I needed some
better photos for the trophy gallery and this is where I was going to get them.
After they were done
we rode on to a Crofton, this is a place that centres 12 & 16 had both done as a
rideout in the past and I wanted to see what was there. It was an important part
of the canal in its day. It’s actually a steam driven pumping station and quite
a beauty spot.
With the sun shining
and the promise of more to come, we knew we had to get out again the following
day and make the most of it, and Monday looked like the last good day so why not
get out then as well? A quick look at the map and I had another two rides
planned, all we had to do was get away from the AGM by 3pm and we’d do three on
the trot.
On we went through
Burbage, Pewsey and Upavon heading south to Salisbury where we cut across the
plain through Shrewton and Chitterne where our final destination lay at
Shearwater.
The great thing
about Saturdays is that there’e even less traffic than on a Sunday! And we’ve
ridden some brilliant new biking roads.
Sunday was another
swelter and “Team Leader” kept us in the classroom until 3.45pm, god it was
agony. Finally we made a break for it and this time we were joined by Padre,
Mark, Sandra, Steve Bartlett, Alan Prescott, Cheryl Temlett and “The new Girl”
Karen. Unfortunately I had to cut one part of the route out in favour of a
quicker one but once we’d reached Wilton it was back to the plan as we headed
for Shaftsbury, turning off through Ansty, Tisbury and Hinton where once again
our final destination lay at Shearwater.
On Monday Mark
decided to play truant and join us for an afternoon that took us North.
Malmesbury was the
first destination, then Tetbury and on to Minchinghampton where we found
everything now closed for the winter! Oh well the sun was shining so we rode on
to Stroud before heading south down the A46 where we came to rest at pub I knew
that some of us whiled away an hour in one Sunday a couple of years ago. If we’d
left earlier we could easily have gone as far North as Cheltenham and Broadway
before turning back but that’s life. The last bit took us through Acton Turville,
Castle Coombe and finally Biddestone before splitting up and heading to our
homes.
In all we’d spent
three days touring Wiltshire whilst creeping in to Hampshire, Dorset and
Gloucestershire. All this on the three hottest days of the year. Jeans, tee
shirt, jacket unzipped, no gloves, no neck buff, open faced helmet and its
October…………now it’s gone.
Live the life you’ve
got left
Blackjack.bob
