The Lon Cambria is a cycle route starting in Shrewsbury and crossing the Cambrian Mountains to Aberystwyth on the Welsh coast designated as National Cycle Network Route 81. Those taking part on the trip were to be Mick, Mark, Peter, Rod, Richard and Alistair with Laurie and Chris, who now live near Shrewsbury, joining us for parts of the ride. Richard's wife Sylvia was driving along the route, providing luggage transfer and emergency backup.
In the week before the trip, the weather forecast for the Mosel valley was rain all day every day, but as it got closer the forecasts generally improved. We were all going by car to Trier and mostly taking our bikes with us. Carol did not fancy the long road trip and flew Heathrow to Luxembourg with a taxi transfer to Trier instead. When we woke up early on the Wednesday, the persistent rain of the last few days had stopped. The bikes were loaded and we were on the road nice and early.
On Thursday we took advantage of the warm weather and drove to Warminster in four cars - Len, Lin, Rod, Peter, David, SueC, Sue P, Mick, Brian and me. The route started from Smallbrook park and followed NCN24 as it climbed out of the town and through the woods beside Longleat CentrParcs to the road into the Longleat Safari Park. The climb was rewarded by a fast downhill on the road to Longleat House before the long climb out again, now on the NCN25. The route leads past the front of the NT Stourhead House and Gardens where we stopped for an early lunch.
On Wednesday afternoon David, SueC, SueP, Carol, Rod, Mark, Ray, Brian, Mick and I set of in three cars for Portsmouth and boarded the overnight ferry to St Malo. Once settled in our cabins we met up in the cafe to eat and celebrate Mark's birthday with a few glasses of wine and birthday cake. Next morning after breakfast on board we disembarked and drove to Evran where the bikes that were carried inside were re-assembled.
There were seven of us, the Magnificent Seven, riding the Way of the Roses – David, Carol, Brian, SueP , Mick and me. Mick’s wife Sarah had kindly agreed to accompany us on the trip by car and making it easier by carrying our luggage each day. On Monday 3rd September, whilst seven of us drove to Lancaster, Peter went up by train and met the rest of us at the Premier Inn there. There was limited bike storage in the hotel so most took their bikes to their rooms. After a late lunch at the hotel we took the bus into the centre of Lancaster for some sightseeing.
After all the planning, the time for our tour from Innsbruck to Verona following the Via Claudia Augusta arrived. I was in the advance guard going a day earlier than the main party, getting up at stupid o'clock to load my bike on the car to drive to Gatwick for a 6:20 flight to Munich on 19th June. I had prepped the bike the day before, so it did not take long to bag the bike up at the airport, check in and take the bike to the oversize conveyor. Once that was done I had time for breakfast before going to the gate.
The forecast for the day of the ride gradually got better as the time approached to cold with early rain. However David, Sue, Brian, Jonathan, Laurie, Ray, Mick and I met up at the Red Funnel ferry terminal at about 9:00 am and it was not raining but overcast. We bought our tickets, Seniors at £11 day return, and then found out the next ferry was at 10:30 and not 10:00 as expected - the winter timetable was in operation with one every 90 minutes rather than 60 minutes as for the summer, so we had plenty time to get a coffee before boarding at about 10:00.
Danube Tour
As the date for the Danube trip approached there were more rides trying to replicate what would be expected for those who had not done a multi-day ride before. Finally on Monday 4th September we flew to Munich in two groups, David and Sue from Heathrow on BA and Linda, Lin, Sue, Mick, Brian, Ray and I on Easyjet from Gatwick later in the day. From the airport we took the local city bus to Freising where we were staying overnight at the Bayerischer Hof, a traditional German hotel - if you are over that way it is thoroughly recommended.
As the date of the Devon C2C ride approached the weather was warm but with frequent heavy showers but the forecast was for high pressure to take over with hot and sunny weather forecast – so it turned out. There were four riders for this trip – Mick, David, Brian and me with Sarah accompanying us by car and conveniently providing a luggage transfer service.
On Tuesday 24th May, David picked Brian and I up with our bikes at 9:00 and drove us down to Plymouth where we parked the car up for the three days in the station multi-storey car park. Mick was driving down directly to Barnstaple with Sarah where we would meet up. The tickets had been pre-booked and the bike spaces reserved for the 12:56 train to Exeter. We had enough time to grab a coffee and something to eat before boarding the train. There was a about a 30 minute wait at Exeter for the Barnstaple train – time enough for another coffee. As we boarded the train with another cyclist the guard told us that in future we should remember that only two bikes were allowed - but no problem as there was plenty space for the bikes and the train was not too busy.
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