Cycle-2024-03
Cycling Report for 14th March 2024
Five keen cyclists met at Bradford on Avon canal car park at 10.15. We set off along the canal path to Avoncliffe and on to Angel Fish cafe at Limpley Stoke for a much needed coffee.
Cyclists with thin tyres found the going tough along the canal rain soaked path. While we were being refreshed a fellow cyclist said the tunnels were closed due to rain damage. So change of plan!
We decided to go along the canal to Bath and join the river Avon to the weir at Pulteney Bridge (see photo). Then under Pulteney Bridge into great Pulteney Street to the Holborn museum and up A36 to rejoin the canal to the Gorge for a good beer and meal. We then continued along the canal path back to Bradford on Avon where we looked into the Tythe barn and then a nostalgic ride around Bradford mainly for me!
I would like to do the tunnel ride in the summer when I think we may start at Limpley Stoke where there is a carpark.
An enjoyable ride by all?
Peter N.
Click on the photos to view full size
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Cycling Report for Good Friday 29th March 2024
This ride should have been held the previous day but the weather forecast was dire. Things looked better for Friday so we took a gamble, which paid off because all we had to contend with was a few spots of rain after lunch. Linda arrived at Langport from Weston, saying that it had rained for the whole of her journey so we were very lucky! There were six of us for the ride, mostly wearing double waterproofs, but the sun shone as we strained into a strong headwind towards Ilminster.
Our coffee stop was at Brown and Forrests café (beside their smokery) and we thought it was so good that we ought to consider it for a future lunch stop, especially as the menu looked appealing.
Then back into the headwind to Barrington before a stiff climb on a national cycle route to Stocklinch. The on-road cycle route suddenly turned back on itself onto a most unlikely looking pathway which led into the grounds of Dillington house. This then continued through a footpath gate very close to the house itself where there was another climb, which brought us to a gatehouse at the main road, which led us to our lunch stop at the Stonemasons’ Inn, Ilminster.
By now we were getting a bit blasé about the possibility of rain and some of us proceeded to remove their over-trousers in the dining area. I didn’t dare look at the faces of those sat at other tables – after all they didn’t know there would be another pair of trousers beneath!!! The return route was much faster now that the wind was behind us and we quickly passed through Shepton Beauchamp, Kingsbury Episcopi and Muchelney back to Langport having completed 26 miles (but I maintain it was 29 miles according to my map measurement!).
We eventually found out that there was rain all around us, with a downpour at Pilton at 10.00 am while Weston suffered heavy rain on and off all day.
John Wh.
