Yesterday's ride: I had a bit of a slow start so wasn't ready until after lunch. Having seen
@gavgav's ride writeup and mention of some dozy driving in the morning I changed from the route I had in mind to keep on some quieter cycleways and lanes, even if it meant treading very familiar ground.
The route was: into Shrewsbury and round the centre, Uffington, Upton Magna, Withington, Walcot, Eaton Constantine, Cressage, Acton Burnell, Longnor and back via Condover and Lyth Hill.
The start was slow as there were people heading for the football match (Town won
) but once past that I had a pretty clear run to Porthill and into The Quarry. The river hasn't risen as I'd expected so was full to the bank but no more. The flood gates at Greyfriars bridge were locked so I had to reroute past the Abbey again. Passing the tree that was being cut down on Sydney avenue I see from the stump that the heart of it was rotten and hollowed out which explains why it needed to go.
Heading out to Upton Magna I took a left in the village and headed for Withington. There weren't many vehicles along these lanes and those I did meet had polite drivers; something that continued throughout the trip.
Instead, the issue I had to face was the wet roads with lots of standing water about and the odd minor flood across the road (I didn't realise it had rained that much.
From Cressage I was riding into the wind. So progress wasn't particularly quick. Something that spurred me on was noticing that there were recent tracks from a bicycle on the dry bits of road. I did eventually spot the other cyclist in the distance and over the next couple of miles reeled them in until we reached the last climb before Acton Burnell where the other rider looked back and noticed me, whereupon he put in a bit of effort and the gap stayed the same as far as the village where he turned right and I went left.
The wind I was riding into seemed to have strengthened on the way to Longnor then, being due westerley, didn't really help much when I turned northwards for home. I gave way to a horse and rider that I met where the lane was narrowed to a thin strip by standing water and got grateful thanks off the rider as the horse apparently doesn't like getting her feet wet and gets spooked by vehicles splashing through.
I wasn't sure how busy the main road would be so finished off going over Lyth Hill as the light faded.
35.2 miles at 12.7 mph average.
I took the good camera with me but didn't spot much I wanted to photograph this time:
Longden Coleham from Victoria Avenue - the river is full but hasn't come as high as I thought.
The water fowl seem to like the water being on the tow path.
I liked the gift-wrapped front door at the Hare & Hounds, Withington.
Looking across the field to the old water mill at Walcot.
