Into Zummerzet

Rained a lot over night.

Wet ride to a cafe for breakfast. Wet ride back to our digs to load up. Wet for most of the first 15 miles to South Molton for early lunch in case there was nothing else on our rural route. Met a lady from Thirsk who was support driver for her husband and two friends. We thought they were very lucky to be able to do it luggage free, but then she said they’d done 100 miles yesterday and were planning to finish in 10 days (we’re aiming for 15). Nice to be retired and not have to get back to work.

Although today was supposedly easier than yesterday, Pete and Andrew found it hard going. Various sensitive parts beginning to act up! Pete will be doubling his drug intake tomorrow and Andrew has been advised to stuff a raw steak down his shorts (No Andrew - not a T-bone you fool!!)

Joined for a very pleasant dinner by Pete’s very old friends Dave and Pip, plus lovely Evey (dog). They’re big time yachty sailors so it made a change from conversation about bikes, legs, arms and backsides! Note for any Mobbies reading this - they’re Pete’s god daughter Emily’s parents - you all know Emily of course.

Staying at the Corner House hotel in Taunton. Very accommodating place with fabulous food.

62 miles, 5520 feet

Big day tomorrow - 83 miles and over the Mendips. JR and Liz joining us for a few days.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Yorkists perform a cunning pincer movement!

The debate about which direction the Yorkist army should attack the House of Lancaster was resolved at last nights planning meeting. Steve’s cavalry regiment were to head out over the Forest of Bowland to swoop down from the East. The cannon fodder decided to take the short route for a surprise engagement on the southern flank. Part of the short route involved riding along an alley full of bins between two rows of terraced houses in Leigh. Leigh isn’t nice to start with! Then a section of what can only be called BMX track! So when the southern army arrived at a crossing point over the A6 they declared ‘fuckit’ and rode 35 miles up the A6. Some bits were just fine. Some bits near Preston were squeaky bum fast dual carriageway, and the hill in Preston (which is also a bit of a dump) had what the council decreed to be a cycle path! It was of the quality one would expect of a cycle path in eastern Ukraine. But all in all it made the journey a good deal shorter and faster and the southern f...
Read more

Cripes! How did we get here?

Some background The MOB is a drinking club with a cycling problem. A group of old friends who have been cycling together for over three decades. We’re not affiliated to anything, other than our local pub and our long suffering families. Pretty much all of us are retired. Our informal motto is ‘Nothing can go wrong’. This should probably be followed by ‘…and so can everything else!’ But it’s aspirational, which is useful at our time of life. Some time last autumn (2024) a couple of us had returned from a 70 mile ride and were de-briefing (having a few beers in the pub - come to think of it, we ‘de-brief’ quite a lot). Andrew declared that he fancied cycling Lands End to John O’Groats. It could have all ended with that full stop, except that Pete said it had been on his bucket list for 20 years. ‘Right! We’re doing it’ replied Andrew. Now all we had to do was see if any of the others were interested. To be fair, many were interested but only to the extent that giving ‘useful’ advice to t...
Read more

Out of the south west for the shortest trip to Wales

Today was over the Somerset levels to start. Actually a nice place, made better by the farm milk shake vending machine we found for the best strawberry shake ever. Then up to the Mendips via Cheddar Gorge. It’s a fabulous climb, made better today due to not quite so many tourist cars as there sometimes are. Andrew had a Beth moment when he ran out of energy. How that happens is weird as he eats more than the other two put together. He’s the slowest eater with the fastest metabolism in the country. He’s learned a valuable life lesson. Eventually onto the Bath to Bristol cycle track. This was the very first Sustrans route - the one that sparked the whole network. Very familiar to Pete as he’s ridden it many times. Clare grew up next to it in Bath. Then round the east of Bristol to drop Steve off for a cup of tea at his Mums. Andrew and Pete pressed on but were pretty shot by then. It was a slog to the Severn Bridge and over to Chepstow - the only bit of Wales we’ll see on this trip thank...
Read more