On Friday 6th October, to take advantage of the good weather that week, we visited the Isle of Wight again. David, SueC, Rod, Mick, Gary and I travelled down to Southampton by car with our bikes on the back, arriving in plenty of time for the 10:00 ferry. We took the Round the Island route out of East Cowes to Wooton and branched off at Havenstreet heading due south on the back roads to Newchurch before picking up the Round the Island route again. We passed through Wroxall on the way to Ventnor where we zoomed downhill on the Zig Zag Road to the seafront.

Strangely, there were only three takers for this ride. On 6th September, David drove to the start of the ride in Abergavenny with Vanessa and Alistair for a loop of the Brecon Beacons. After a coffee in the cafe in the park adjacent to the car park, we headed to Llanfoist to pick up the NCN46. This was a rail trail that climbed steadily at about 3% up the side of the valley to Brynmawr, though there was a steeper bit at 15% linking two sections of the former railway.  The early part of trail was picturesque, particularly where it was cut into the cliffs giving views across the valley to the Black Mountains. At the end of the rail trail, the cycle path wandered through the suburbs of Brynmawr and Rassau, crisscrossing the Heads of the Valleys Road on bridges.

Mick organised and led this late summer tour that started in Tunbridge Wells and looped clockwise, to the coast at Pevensey Bay, following the coastal NCN2 to Folkestone then returning inland via Ashford and Tenterden. Originally there were 12 riders but last minute problems with knees, pelvis and covid meant four regretfully had to pull out leaving Carol, Graham, Mark, Mick, Peter, Ray, Rod, Sue P for the tour.

The Alpe Adria Radweg was originally intended to be the main summer tour but the difficulties with bike hire and logistics for a large group ruled it out and we chose the Tour of the Ardennes instead. For the late summer tour, there was not enough interest in the hilly Walney to Whitby tour, so the consensus was for the alternative Kent/Sussex tour that at least on paper, looked easier and simpler to organise.

During the Ardennes tour in June, I mentioned about riding the Alpe Adria on my own in preference to the UK tour.  David and Vanessa asked to join me and we thought that this tour, in hopefully warmer climes, was feasible in a small group.  So we set about researching and then booking the flights and hotels - done in a few days. Salzburg is expensive, but David got a very good hotel deal for us there with his BA Avios points.  It was difficult to find a hotel for the leg in the sparsely populated area between Villach and Carnia – we got the last three rooms available within about 20 miles of our planned overnight stop area. David and Vanessa were wary of flying with their bikes and organised hire bikes from Avelo in Salzburg. Despite the photos of modern disk braked touring bikes offered in the subsequent emails back and forth, the actuality when they collected the bikes was old but functional Vee braked touring bikes [I guess that David’s bike was about 20 years old!]

There were only four of us for the ride along the Purbeck cycleway, an extended version of the one we did early last year that now included a loop from Corfe Castle to Swanage and back. So after an early start, David, Mick, Vanessa and Alistair met up in Wareham at the Community café near the quay before setting off towards Corfe. At the junction of the road and the NCN2 at Stoborough, there was a bike traffic jam with four separate groups of cyclists trying to turn off the main road.  The cycle route through Ridge passed through the pretty Dorset heath on the southern edge of Pole Harbour before joining the main road beside the Purbeck Mineral and Mining Museum where there was nose to tail traffic queuing all the way to Corfe Castle where we turned off onto Sandy Hill Lane towards Swanage. Fortunately the traffic was sticking to the main road or trying to find somewhere to park to visit Corfe Castle, so the narrow lane was largely traffic free.

This tour was planned back in January with 13 participants travelling in four cars with bikes to Belgium for the start of the tour. Unfortunately, Len, Brian and Ray had to pull out close to the tour start. So now with SueP, SueC, Carol, Lin, Vanessa, Peter, Rod, David, Mick and Alistair we were able to fit into three cars for the trip. At the last minute, the hotel we were due to stay in at La Roche en Ardenne cancelled our booking due to the hotel refurbishment being incomplete, but fortunately we were able to secure other hotel rooms for that night at short notice.

So, with the problems behind us, we left Basingstoke early on Tuesday 13th June on a hot and sunny day and after a good run arrived at Dover just in the nick of time to get on an earlier ferry. The other two cars had left about 30 minutes later and had to wait for the next ferry. It was an easy run through France and Belgium to our hotel, Les Jardins De La Molignée, in Anhee where we were able to relax in the pool and hot tub before the others were able to join us. The cars were parked up for the duration and the bikes securely stored overnight. After a beer or two on the terrace in the shade, we had dinner at the restaurant next door.

With covid behind us, we once again had a day trip to France courtesy of the reinstated Brittany Ferries day trip offers. Twelve of us drove in four cars to Portsmouth on Monday 24th April to board the overnight ferry to St Malo. Whilst waiting in the queue to board the ferry, Peter got chatting to a touring cyclist – she had started in Inverness and was cycling to Gibraltar – this put our day trip into perspective!  After settling into our cabins, we had a convivial meal with the odd glass or two of wine in the restaurant before heading to the bar for the evening’s live entertainment – this year a duo singing and a unicycle riding juggling act. Some retired to bed to conserve their energies whilst the hardcore hedonists in the group danced the night away.

This tour was different, in that it was centre based and we were riding without carrying our luggage on the bikes, so more of a cycling holiday. After the long hot dry summer, the weather broke here just before we were due to leave on the trip, although it turned out to be warm in Belgium and France and we largely avoided rain during the rides.

This was a longer day ride starting from the West Meon and cycling down to the coast and back with Clive, Carol. David, Keith, Mark, Vanessa, GrahamB, Mick and me. We met up at the MVT car park and immediately headed up the climb to the top of Old Winchester Hill where we took in the extensive views over to the Solent and Isle of Wight – the last time we came this way we were riding into a howling gale so we were concentrating on not being blown over so some missed the views. From the top it was downhill for the next 11 miles to Hoe Gate with the odd climb in between.

Day 1 Keynsham to Frome

We were all very aware of what was about to hit us in respect of record temperatures so on arrival at “Claridge’s” ,  Keith and Jan’s  B&B – our parking location at  approx. 10.00 am in baking,  28 deg sun, we made  for the shade to load the bikes and apply our final layer of sun cream.

Ten of us set off for the trip, our group shot taken by one of the staff at the B&B shows nine of us, Graham, Brian, SueP, Peter, Vanessa, Rod, Keith, Janice and Mick ready for the off.  ‘Where’s Ray’ we all asked… in the bathroom to apply cream where the sun doesn’t shine.