BACK ROADS AND DETOURS: July 2022

The title may be a little misleading - the truth of July's cycling adventures is that I caught the train from Bridgend to Chepstow and then cycled to Hampshire to stay with the Liphook Loafer. Over the course of three days, I stopped in Bristol and Marlborough before being joined en route a couple of kms outside Liphook by the aforementioned Loafer. A couple of days later we met up with the other stalwarts of the team at Gatwick, namely the Pedalling Physio, aka Hywel and the Highgate Viking and flew to Norway for four days where we were joined by The Mallorcan Mayor (To Be) and the Oslo Turkey, aka, Tommo and Justin. During our time in Vik, courtesy of the Highgate Viking, we hired mountain bikes and explored the the tracks around the ski resort of Mrykdalen for a day and spent the other days vainly attempting to catch fish between bouts of eating an drinking. Tommo & Justin headed back to Oslo and the rest of us for Gatwick. My return to Chepstow started from Ringwood after The Loafer volunteered to give me a lift to help me on my way and show off his new electric car and test out his tow bar. So Ringwood to Yeovil was the first leg by bike, followed by Yeovil to Bristol and finally Bristol to Chepstow and then the train back to Llantwit. All in all I was away for 12 days and covered 470km. Points worth mentioning:

Komoot doesn't always get the route right - on one section from Marlborough to Liphook, the route took me down a bridal path that looked as it hadn't been used for about 150 years, was very isolated and very steep and ended up in a farm yard - note to self... always check the OS map against the Komoot route

The scenery in Norway is stunning, the ski tracks are steep and the bike hire is expensive.... but then so is beer, meat and almost everything else!

UK Border force need to get their act together and fix those Passport machines - 10 minutes wait in a queue to get to a machine that then rejected my passport was followed by a 40 minute wait in a queue to see some dreary humourless official who treated me as if I was an illegal immigrant - BREXIT is a POS

The North Dorset Cycleway is delightful and well worth a trip- pretty villages with thatched cottages and quiet country lanes.

Yeovil makes Bridgend look posh, its a one horse town and the horse seems to have f***** off - drongos hanging about street corners with cans of strong cider, shopping precincts that wouldn't look out of place in Zombie films and a plethora of fast food emporiums clustered round a Wetherspoons pub - all went some way to make me feel at home!

Avoid cycling on the A303 at all costs! I didn't as a result of some of the backroads being closed due to the massive civil engineering works going on to improve that cursed road! It was like cycling on the M25 during the rush hour. The A37 wasn't much better either.

Wells to Bristol provides a couple of very steep climbs but spectacular views from Priddy in the Mendips.

Chepstow Railway station needs upgrading for wheel chair users and ebike users! - There is only a footbridge that allows access from one platform to the other so arriving in Chepstow by bike and wanting to go west by train means a struggle up and down the steps - Network Rail take note!

Enjoy the selection of photographs, they can tell the story better than I can!