Yesterday, taking advantage of the heat, it being a Saturday, having a spotlessly clean motorbike, and having nothing else to do, I went abroad.
A453, A42, M42, M5, M50.
Yes, I went to Wales.
I left the house at 6am, and arrived in Abergavenny at 9am.
I had a hot chocolate and very healthy bacon sandwich, whilst sitting outside the Get Together in St John’s Square.
Putting picnic benches outside there is a great idea; gives the area a very cosmopolitan feel, and enabled me to sit where I could keep an eye on the ZX10R.
Needless to say the local bureaucrats don’t like that idea and are working hard to stop someone from having a success.
Kind of shoots down the ’embrace café culture’ policy of a former Prime Minister.
Anyway.
Nicely refreshed I went up the Blorenge (rhymes with orange), and just chilled out. Walked about a bit. Lay down in the long grass and read a bit.
May have accidentally dozed a bit.
After that break I went down through Blaenavon and up the mountain opposite, Coedcae, to Forgeside, where I went to junior school.
Then I dropped back into Blaenavon, and took the Garn Road through Garn-yr-ew, Brynmawr, into Merthyr Tydfil, through Nant-ddu, and down off the mountain into Brecon, below.
I walked around Brecon a bit, but didn’t hang around because the town was heavingly full of people and far too hot to be in close proximity of many strangers.
I bailed out of Brecon, turned left at Llangorse and headed, generally, north-north east.
I stopped at a country pub about halfway between Hereford and Worcester for some much-needed refreshment.
And then back home.
When I had started the trip I was considering staying out overnight.
Frankly I should have.
The round-trip came in at 427 miles. And that was a bit too much. The heat of the day didn’t help either.
I would definitely do that run again.
And I would extend the road-miles, maybe aim for the west coast of Wales.
And I would stay out overnight. I wasn’t as sharp, towards the end of the day as I should have been, despite frequent stops.
But it was a great run out, I thoroughly enjoyed myself.
What did you get up to?
Similarly, I went out on the bike this morning. Not quite so far as you did, though.
Had a pleasant ride out through Hitchin and Baldok, on to Royston. Stopped the Silver Ball café just off the A10 for a fry-up and a cup of splosh, then headed back, to make sure I was home in time to see Lewis Hamilton come second.
In between all that, I did some sweating.