A wet one.... (long)
squeaker said:
may make a late call on this one
Like at 07:15 on Sunday morning - it seemed as if the rain would stop by 13:00....
Borrowed wifey's 'T' (turned out to be mostly a good choice - see fords, later).
09:45 - set off in rain, varying from light to heavy (boo!) - soon got into the habit of emptying the puddle on my chest
Crossing the the first cattle grid the trike went a bit sideways - interesting: it seems that on wet steel a bouncing wheel will slide downhill....
Soon the first ford was encountered: stream in full spate so onto the foot bridge with mirrors tucked in - but the bridge was narrower in the middle! Various rude words as I struggle to lift the front wheels up - thanks to lady tandemist who helped, and apologies to the queue of DF riders that I held up..... Future fords were either forded (hence good choice of 'T' - but several threatened colonic irrigation even so
) or the trike carried over the footbridge.
By Hyde control the rain had eased (hurrah!), but started again as I left (boo!) - not that it really mattered as the combined effects of rain, river and cycling moderately hard in rain gear meant that I was very damp all over
Fortunately on the way to the next control at Colbury the rain did stop, and I could even get the camera out to capture these road hogs....
I then managed to let the camera fall out of my jacket pocket onto the road: the battery escaping into a puddle (boo!, but fortunately no 'hiss', so it all went back together again - I like / need metal bodied cameras - hurrah!).
Finally the sun did come out (hurrah!) and some (limited) drying out took place. Leaving Colbury, with rain gear stowed, I thought 'that sky looks rather dark' and, yes, it started raining heavily again (boo!). Fortunately this was more of a (rather prolonged) heavy shower than continuous rain, and the sun did come out again (hurrah!)
By Beaulieu the rain had definitely given up (hurrah!), so after the obligatory pic of the house
the rain gear could again be stowed, and the serious business of catching / keeping up with the DF group in front could start in earnest.
In fact, so earnest was I, that I overshot the final control and had to double back (boo!) - clearly a nice cup of tea and a piece of cake was called for (hurrah!): elapsed time 5hrs 20 mins
In retrospect, the 'T' was definitely the right choice (and I don't mean for its 17" bottom gear) with it's higher mesh seat (no puddles, less submerged in the fords, better view of the scenery) and touring tyres (1.35" Marathon Plus on the rear, 1.5" Marathons on the front).
