Wake Up Wiltshire 41

Pot holes and pee stops

It’s been a while since I wrote anything in this series but as Wiltshire had just had a day out it seemed like good idea to pick it up where I last left it.

We’d not been up in the Cotswolds this year and as one of the landmarks is there……….off we went.

 It was the usual thing, meet at Chippenham services, coffee in the Summer Café in Malmesbury, fuel stop at Cirencester services, Bourton on the water for lunch (only because there isn’t a chip shop in Lower Slaughter) and that is where the familiarity ended. Oh and did I mention the two pee stops on the way? I can remember when this bladder problem first hit the club and it’s fair to say that the medication doesn’t work.

 We left Bourton and the discarded chip wrappers behind in search of a new adventure and landmark 34 was not far away just off the beaten track. This is a village that does not encourage you to stop, more a case of keep going and don’t turn in here next time you’re passing! Anyhow, once off the beaten track that’s where we stayed for the day. This obviously made Neil very happy and put a smile on his face all day long.

In case you find that hard to believe….. the photos speak for themselves

Upper Slaughter, Lower Swell, Upper Swell all got a ride by from us and good views in between until we reached Broadway. Oh I nearly forgot the pre arranged pee stop on the way which I thought no one would need after the multipule visits made by some back in Bourton.

 Broadway is such a pretty place with all the houses built from honey coloured Cotswold stone. It was so nice we had to ride both up and down the high street before moving on to Winchcombe where we turned off and were green laning again. Don’t you just love taking a cruiser up a windy uphill single track lane? High ground always gives the best views…and why did the wealthy build their best manor houses in such out of the way settings?

 After miles of single tracking we reached Withington, or to be precise, The Mill Inn. This is another untouched Gloucester village that you would never pass through. It’s on another single track that doesn’t come from anywhere nor go anywhere and just as you enter it down a steep incline there’s a deep rut, three feet wide that nearly has you off and once in it you can’t get out til you’re at the bottom. I swear it’s a booby trap to keep strangers out!

 Once in the pub it was toilet first bar second, are you getting the gist of how our centre is evolving?

 Another ten miles to Cirencester along a straight lane across high ground. When I told Mark I’d spotted this on the map, (it wasn’t coloured and it had no road number) he suggested that it might be a canal! Well it wasn’t as bad as some of the dried up river beds we’d ridden down that day that make Gloucestershire seem like a third world country. It may not have been the best but it was straight.

”The congregation were enthralled with this weeks sermon”

“My jackets not as Kool as my new bike”

Once back at Cirencester it was same old same old.

 As ever the sun was shining (but from behind a cloud)

 Sorry if you couldn’t be with us

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