galaxy
Guru
- Location
- Middleton On The Hill
At Leominster you were 4 miles from my house. If you wevereOnce again, time for an instalment of the ICAM challenge yesterday.
It was close to a perfect November day. A little patchy rain early on, but absolutely no frost. A gentle drift from the north-west, strengthening a little in the afternoon, and as that's where the weather was brightening from it was always going to a trip to Herefordshire. I set of before 6:30am, soon escaping the Gloucester roads which were already very busy. I have a number of routes towards Hereford and it's hard to find any stretches which are completely new, but I just managed it.
The broad expanse of the Lugg valley north of Hereford has a number of quietish roads providing a good route to the wilder lands, but the overnight rain and farming activity meant I soon had a filthy bike. After Bush Bank on the Knighton road I picked a little road to Ivington, also extremely muddy, then skirting Leominster I rejoined the Knighton road through Aymestrey and Wigmore. This took me almost to the river Teme, before I turned southwards along a very pretty road through Lingen back to the Lugg near Presteigne. Lingen has a fine motte and bailey which could be worth a closer look. Reaching the river again, a little kink in the Welsh border meant I slipped into Wales for a matter of seconds.
I crossed my outward route at Kingsland, where there's yet another crossing of the Lugg - one of six on the day:
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It's starting to look quite wintry at times. The frequent chack-chack-chack fron the fieldfares certainly reinforces the impression.
After Leominster there's a lengthy stretch of A-road, which is OK. It serves a purpose on a ride like this. I finally left it at the village of Ashperton, where this view to the Malverns appeared:
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From there it's pretty standard stuff through Ledbury and Dymock, the early start meaning there was no issue with light, and the Cotswolds looked quite impressive in the afternoon sun.
A mildly interesting quirk is that Strava's FlyBy showed me to have crossed paths with absolutely nobody - in 119 miles. You'll struggle to find a better day at this time of year.
This way again doors always open. Kettles always on. Being a fatty there’s always cake too