Monday, October 30, 2006

Aberystwyth

Yesterday morning saw Matt, Dean, Tim, Tim's father-in-law Derek and myself meeting up at Loz's house for 9 o'clock for a ride out to Aberystwyth. Unfortunately Derek and Tim were limited on time so had to turn around just west of Newtown. We took the A5, M54, A458 to Welshpool, A483 to Newtown, A470 to Llangurig and the A44 to Aberystwyth deviating off onto the A4120 passing through Devil's Bridge.


Tim's 2004 GS1200 BMW which he's now clocked up just over 20,000 miles on!


Tim (left) and Derek with his BMW R75/6


My grubby looking Blackbird


This is where we say our goodbyes to Tim and Derek

Once arriving in Aber, first things first, it's time for some refuelling at the first chippy we came to. To be honest it was a bit of a mistake as we all spent the next two hours feeling bloated and sorry for ourselves (apart from monster muncher Dean who could probably have eaten the same again). Matt wouldn't shut up harping on about how he never wanted pie and chips in the first place and why couldn't we all have eaten a nice healthy baguette instead.


Oi, yer thieving little weasel

After the grease fest it was decided to take a look around the castle ruins which is free by the way.








A view south from the castle looking towards the harbour

After strolling around a pile of old rubble for half an hour it was decided to loiter on the seafront for an hour as we were waiting for Gaz and Cara to arrive. They couldn't make it in the morning as they were attending Karate which they'd missed for the previous few weeks.


The seafront by the bandstand where everyone parks their bikes




Hasn't anyone told him the tide's gone out????


On the beach, and it's almost November, who'd have thought it


ahhhh at long last they've arrived

After allowing Gaz and Cara all of 10 minutes to rest and get themselves a drink (sorry about that) it was time to head home. Gaz had this brilliant idea of heading back a different way in the direcection of Craven Arms but turning off the main road to ride across the Long Mynd and through Much Wenlock. If you've never been across the Mynd let me tell you, it's a bit hair raising at the best of times without trying to do it in almost pitch black!!


Unfortunately we couldn't get any photos (I've stolen this one unashamedly from the internet) due to it being dark but you can see the steep drop off on the side of the road and there's no hedges, fences, no nothing between you and god only knows how many feet to the bottom of the valley.


A layby on the excellent A489 from Newtown to Craven Arms

All in all I had one of the nicest ride outs of the year if not the nicest. I think I might have said this before but I really like the feeling you get when you arrive back home in the dark after a ride. I don't quite know why, maybe it's something to do with knowing you've had a full days riding.

Posted by Mike

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

And how would you know, did you have a pair of binoculars strapped to the front of your helmet?