The ride to Tewkesbury was good and the road clear until we got to the Air Balloon roundabout - the rain was very heavy at times. Camped at the Red Lion pub - had a meal and a few ales to assist sleep? Slept OK until 5am - I cooked the breakfast - although Colin was determined to incinerate something in the confines of this own tent. We were on the road by 8am - still bloody raining....
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| Nigel on the Sunday morning - had been awake since 5.30 !! |
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| David with is brand new Triumph 1200 Tiger Explorer - hence the big grin.. |
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| Colin at Rhayader checking the map before heading of for a spin over the Brecons |
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| Nigel - and yes we did have a few minutes of sunshine... |
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| Rui packing up in the rain - but not wanting to get his knees wet !! |
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| Rui preparing for the speed test over the hills... |
Rode to Rhayader via Hereford and stopped at the Honey Cafe for a coffee and cake. Arrived in very good time and the guys decided to go for a spin over the Brecons and Sennybridge. I am taking a break as this bloody cough is making me tired..
Off to the Eagle Pub this evening for a hot meal and another chance to put the world to rights..
The storm hit Wales at about 1am on Sunday and carried on through until the morning - then rained all of Sunday - it was still pouring down and blowing a gale when we packed up to ride home. Not a very comfortable ride home at all - the bike was very unstable in the high winds - lots of trees down and debris on the roads.
Got to the Severn Bridge and we were informed that the bridge was shut to high-sided vehicles and motorcycles due to the high winds. Hints were made by the local constabulary that a way over the bridge was the cycle path on the outside edge of the bridge so we decided to give it a go - managed to get 100 yards on to the bridge and disaster - the wind was so high that I had to stop riding - and having done so the wind hit me and over I went - bugger. Other than a broken mirror there was no damage. With assistance from the lads we manage to pick up the bike and re-trace our steps back off the bridge... then travelled home via Cirencester and Marlborough. Again a very uncomfortable ride in the high winds - the others did not appear to be as effected by the high winds but I was - it's your f***ing panniers I was advised by Colin... they are more like sails apparently. We stopped a couple more times to have coffee and tied to thaw out our hands and feet and deposit gallons of water onto cafe floors at various locations. Rui taking an opportunity to change his socks in a cafe..
We all went our own ways home just after Tidworth. All in all a good but very wet weekend... just the preparation we needed for our up and coming trip to Spain - A very strange sort of dry run......
