Chiptacular
An hour ago I was really rather tired (a bit more awake now); unusual, so early in the evening, but I cycled about 35 miles today so I think it's fairly justified.
I was out for about nine hours, from getting the bike out to finishing the cleaning and lubrication and stowing it away again. I think we spend about three hours actually cycling, on a reasonably challenging route. As for the bike, I'm still pretty impressed with it; I don't feel achey at all despite the fair distance, and I suspect that the limiting factor is currently my own confidence (and perhaps the choice of tyres) rather than the bike's capabilities. My eyes feel a bit sore, despite having worn sunglasses all day, and I wouldn't fancy sitting on a saddle again just yet...
So, Andy, Vicky, Alex and I followed National Route 4 all the way to Avebury. Exciting things along the way included...
1) The (rather unsuitable) bridge over the conveyor belt at a quarry of some kind just outside Calne.
2) A couple of nasty steep by-ways; though once you change into a low gear and accept you're going nowhere fast, it's not too bad.
3) The former large airfield at Yatesbury, the remains of which are now compellingly desolate. I find these twentieth-century military installations rather fascinating in a melancholy kind of way. Plans seem to be afoot to redevelop the site, which is a bit of a shame. Alex and I got rather excited at a For Sale sign that seemed to be pointing to one of the hangars, but further investigation suggests that it actually referred to one of the houses sitting by the side of the airfield; the slightly bleak location might be the key to why it's been for sale for so long... I did some quick googling and turned up a scary story about Yatesbury with, for once, a plausible denouement.
4) Just at the end of the path by the airfield, a large and impressive house with a sign proclaiming
5) Cherhill and Avebury villages are very pretty indeed.
In Avebury we made the bikes reasonably secure and adjourned to the Red Lion for a lunch that I, for one, thought we'd thoroughly earned. As we left the bikes I noticed a guy looking at them so hung back to check he wasn't stealing them; I was reassured when I heard him pointing out to his compadres (his children, I think) that one bike had a totally different type of tyre. This being mine, which was on its Bontrager Cruizers, which are apparently new (not on Bontrager's website, for a start) and apparently pretty cool - though some of the terrain was more suited to the standard Bontrager Jones offroad tyres, which I'd left at home. I couldn't tell whether the random dude was impressed.
Lunch for me was a yellow Jay-Two-Oh, Provençal herb crêpes, and a side of chips (hurrah!). Good food, certainly welcome, and I didn't even make a scene like I did on my last visit :) The fact that Alex happened to owe me almost exactly the cost of my lunch made it even better... hehe.
Eventually we made it back to Alex's for tea and to lie flaked out on the lawn, trying not to get eaten by the cats (only kidding)... then Andy (and Vicky) joined me at mine to explain the process of bike washing... not something I really bothered with before. Turns out to be fairly simple; spray with pink Muc-Off, wait, rinse, allow to dry. Apply lubricant to various inaccessible points, several of which I failed either to find or to remember, and to chain. Repeat after every moderately mucky outing. Have to put the work in to keep it in good order, I guess. Wasn't overly impressed with it being 'almost as good as new' afterwards mind, what with only being about 30 hours from new at that point...!
Finally, of course, the excellent Coast, which came with a warning of 'archive footage of whaling, which you may find disturbing'. The article on landmines, and modern footage of a prawn boat, might in my view be considered a bit disturbing too, but fair enough. I do, of course, oppose whaling but hadn't realised that it was quite so abhorrent. The Delightful Alice Roberts (whose roots were looking a little on the brown side) was rather obviously uncomfortable talking about it. But just because whales are bigger and more closely related to us, should fish be disregarded? Maybe they should, I can't really say. I'm all for controls on over-fishing, but I don't believe fishing should stop entirely, and was a little discomfited to hear that many Scottish fishing ships have been destroyed rather than, say, laid-up until needed again. On the other hand, I have to object to the big trawlers; as someone once (or probably more) said, it wouldn't be considered acceptable to trawl around Africa with a big net slung between Landcruisers, then keep one species and discard all the others, now would it...
Now then, I thought given all this exercise I was going for an early night, and it's already 12:20... best be off...
I was out for about nine hours, from getting the bike out to finishing the cleaning and lubrication and stowing it away again. I think we spend about three hours actually cycling, on a reasonably challenging route. As for the bike, I'm still pretty impressed with it; I don't feel achey at all despite the fair distance, and I suspect that the limiting factor is currently my own confidence (and perhaps the choice of tyres) rather than the bike's capabilities. My eyes feel a bit sore, despite having worn sunglasses all day, and I wouldn't fancy sitting on a saddle again just yet...
So, Andy, Vicky, Alex and I followed National Route 4 all the way to Avebury. Exciting things along the way included...
1) The (rather unsuitable) bridge over the conveyor belt at a quarry of some kind just outside Calne.
2) A couple of nasty steep by-ways; though once you change into a low gear and accept you're going nowhere fast, it's not too bad.
3) The former large airfield at Yatesbury, the remains of which are now compellingly desolate. I find these twentieth-century military installations rather fascinating in a melancholy kind of way. Plans seem to be afoot to redevelop the site, which is a bit of a shame. Alex and I got rather excited at a For Sale sign that seemed to be pointing to one of the hangars, but further investigation suggests that it actually referred to one of the houses sitting by the side of the airfield; the slightly bleak location might be the key to why it's been for sale for so long... I did some quick googling and turned up a scary story about Yatesbury with, for once, a plausible denouement.
4) Just at the end of the path by the airfield, a large and impressive house with a sign proclaiming
SMALL DOGWe thought this a bit of an odd name for a house, but a little further along was a second, more enlightening, sign:
SMALL DOG; sometimes escapes and runs suddenly across road; sorry!which was nice to know, but one rather suspects it might end up being a driver who's sorry.
5) Cherhill and Avebury villages are very pretty indeed.
In Avebury we made the bikes reasonably secure and adjourned to the Red Lion for a lunch that I, for one, thought we'd thoroughly earned. As we left the bikes I noticed a guy looking at them so hung back to check he wasn't stealing them; I was reassured when I heard him pointing out to his compadres (his children, I think) that one bike had a totally different type of tyre. This being mine, which was on its Bontrager Cruizers, which are apparently new (not on Bontrager's website, for a start) and apparently pretty cool - though some of the terrain was more suited to the standard Bontrager Jones offroad tyres, which I'd left at home. I couldn't tell whether the random dude was impressed.
Lunch for me was a yellow Jay-Two-Oh, Provençal herb crêpes, and a side of chips (hurrah!). Good food, certainly welcome, and I didn't even make a scene like I did on my last visit :) The fact that Alex happened to owe me almost exactly the cost of my lunch made it even better... hehe.
Eventually we made it back to Alex's for tea and to lie flaked out on the lawn, trying not to get eaten by the cats (only kidding)... then Andy (and Vicky) joined me at mine to explain the process of bike washing... not something I really bothered with before. Turns out to be fairly simple; spray with pink Muc-Off, wait, rinse, allow to dry. Apply lubricant to various inaccessible points, several of which I failed either to find or to remember, and to chain. Repeat after every moderately mucky outing. Have to put the work in to keep it in good order, I guess. Wasn't overly impressed with it being 'almost as good as new' afterwards mind, what with only being about 30 hours from new at that point...!
Finally, of course, the excellent Coast, which came with a warning of 'archive footage of whaling, which you may find disturbing'. The article on landmines, and modern footage of a prawn boat, might in my view be considered a bit disturbing too, but fair enough. I do, of course, oppose whaling but hadn't realised that it was quite so abhorrent. The Delightful Alice Roberts (whose roots were looking a little on the brown side) was rather obviously uncomfortable talking about it. But just because whales are bigger and more closely related to us, should fish be disregarded? Maybe they should, I can't really say. I'm all for controls on over-fishing, but I don't believe fishing should stop entirely, and was a little discomfited to hear that many Scottish fishing ships have been destroyed rather than, say, laid-up until needed again. On the other hand, I have to object to the big trawlers; as someone once (or probably more) said, it wouldn't be considered acceptable to trawl around Africa with a big net slung between Landcruisers, then keep one species and discard all the others, now would it...
Now then, I thought given all this exercise I was going for an early night, and it's already 12:20... best be off...
posted by Z31 at 11:35 pm
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