The weather was glorious for our trip to the Isle of Wight as Vanessa, Mick, Graham, MarkS, MarkW, Ray, Brian and I met up at the ferry terminal in Southampton for the 10:00 sailing to East Cowes. As usual the bikes boarded first, so we were first in the queue for the best seats and the coffees. This time we were taking a different route to the south coast, heading out on the Round the Island cycle route on the east side of the River Medina as far as Wootton Creek before taking a shortcut cross-country to Ventnor. This is a much hillier route than the usual one using the Red Squirrel Trail.

I had wanted to ride over the Gospel Pass, the highest road in Wales, during the summer, but was not able to fit it in. Mick and David volunteered to accompany me, so we left Basingstoke at 7am on a damp and overcast morning and drove to Abergavenny with our bikes on the back. It was quite cool when we unloaded the bikes in the main car park, and with jackets on, we started off on the ride at 9:15. Within a few hundred yards we started the climb up the Old Hereford Road, 10% for a mile - hard going on cold muscles. The gradients eased off and we headed up the single track road up the Vale of Ewyas to the Gospel Pass. The road climbed steadily and at about 5 miles in we saw a pub, the Queen's Head, beside the road and stopped there and had a coffee and very nice cake overlooking the River Honddu and the mountains on either side of the valley.

Nine of us travelled down in four cars to Avebury on Tuesday - Graham, Mick, SueP, Paul, David, SueC, Carol, Peter and me. A good journey down but with some light rain as we got closer to Avebury.  The main NT car park was closed for repairs but as we were early, we parked OK in the coach park - the main car opened after we left. It felt a bit cooler as we headed off into Avebury Village past the standing stones and onto a bumpy track beside a field following the NCN403, The Wiltshire North Rivers Route, and then onto tarmac roads and wide gravel tracks.

There were 12 of us on this tour. Alistair was still unable to cycle so could not join us cycling despite having done all the planning and route research. So it was Brian, David and Sue, Graham, Keith, Len and Lin, Mark, Mick, Peter, Rod and Sue P who set out for the Cotswolds summer tour.

Although all the other trips for this year have been cancelled due to the Covid pandemic, the Devon C2C trip went ahead. Some of the original group opted to give the trip a miss, reducing the participants to SueP, Lin, SueC, Carol, Mick, David, Peter, Rod, Graham, Brian and Ray. I was not fit enough to do the full ride so provided luggage transfer and backup. Three of us chose to travel down to Barnstaple on Sunday 16th August with Peter taking the train whilst Mick and I drove down. On the Monday, David, Rod and the ladies travelled down to Barnstaple by car, then David and Rod continued to Plymouth to leave the cars there. Graham drove direct to Plymouth whilst Brian and Ray drove to Exeter, all then taking the train to Barnstaple.

 As the time drew closer to the start of the trip, the weather forecasts became more threatening, but although given the option to call it off, everybody was still keen to go.
 
On Monday 23rd September, David, SueP, SueC, Mick, Carol, Len, Lin and me checked into the Premier Inn in Canterbury and we met up later for sightseeing during the afternoon. It had been dry earlier when David and his group took a boat trip on the river but it started to rain a bit, not heavy, after we met up later at the Patisserie Valerie for coffee and cake before heading back to the hotel.

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.