We woke up to a beautiful morning, cold with frost on the ground and the windows of the cars parked out front but it was clear and the sun warmed things up very quickly. It was so nice that for the first time in the UK we rode in shorts and at times during the day just shorts and t-shirts......nice.
You should notice two things: bare legs and no shower cap!!!!
The owner of the B&B (Brenda) cooked us a wonderful breakfast, today I opted for the full English even fried toast. All very good and just as well we're cycle touring so that we work it off. We packed up, fixed Sandy's pinch flat she got last night.....who used to work in a bike shop eh and then set off down the road into a brillant morning. The air was super clear and the temperature was perfect for riding (we must be climatizing).
The view from our bedroom
White horse at Honeystreet
We stopped at a shop to buy snacks (trust me you need snacks while cycle touring) and in the shop and Sandy said "Hey come here, they have 'Lardy Buns'". The other day I had a 'Large Lardy Bun' in Stow-on-the-Wold and it was bloody beautiful and I thought that it was called 'Lardy' because only lardy bums eat them. Sandy was laughing and showed me the ingredients of the one in the shop today and we discovered that they're called Lardy because they are 15% lard, yep lard you know pork fat....that explains why it was so yummy.
Today we were heading to Buckhorn Weston to see another part of the Watts clan. We mapped out our route so that we went via Stonehenge. We passed through the usual beautiful English villages on the way to Stonehenge and riding toward Stonehenge I saw the crowds, the buses, the cars, the queues and felt that somehow it might lose the special mysticism that I find in the historical places. We parked out bikes and made our way to the
Stonehenge
It was after we finished at Stonehenge and while we ate a sandwhich that we looked at the map and had a mild panic attack at the distance left to cover in the day. Somehow we thought it was about 50km to Vicks' place but it turned out a bit longer and we had dallied at Stone henge for a couple of hours. Luckily for us Sandy, sporting her new narrow slick tyres was feeling good and she played the role of Popovych on the front of the peleton (is two riders a peleton???) and drove us for the next 20km, I couldnt match her pace on the front so I sat at the back.....my pride is OK, Sandy has skinny tyres....no really they make a big difference...really, honest.
Passed a pig farm, they looked bigger in real life
After Stonehenge we rode on a 'B' road through the Salibury Plain. Now I was imagining a plain as a 'flat' expanse but no, in England a plain is rolling hills. Sure there were no trees but lots of hills. I dont know about the rest of it but the part we road through was a military training ground,
didnt see any tanks though. This was the first time in our UK trip that we didnt come across a village every few kms. We actually started thinking about water and where the next stop was. We've being getting lazy with the water as it's been so cold that we havent drunk much so we have been carrying only one bottle full. Well today we needed two. It was OK at the next town we went into a pub, bought a Coke and the lady filled out bottle for us.
The not flat Salibury Plain
Just after Kingston Deverill (one of many Deverills) we had to climb a hill that was about 1km long but we gained 120m in elevation......bit tough on the legs that. Funny thing near the top of the hill was a burst water main with water gushing into the air for about 30ft. As we rode through it the water fix-it people offered us a hankie to dry ourselves....very droll but in great spirit.
By now it was head down bum up to get to Vicks' place so we had a quick lolly stop on the side of the road and then in Mere we had a couple of Hobnobs (the choc coated ones.....yummy) to keep us going.
Yah got to Vicks' and am now having a beer.
1 comment:
we are both happy to hear the shower cap has gone,,,,,hehe.
live 2 ride.
j&a x
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