UK    SOMERSET AND KENT    

2009 - 2014

I collected my new bike from Thorn in Bridgewater in early October 2009 and stayed for a few nights at a number of B&Bs between there and my home in Tunbridge Wells to try it out away from the very dense traffic of SE England.

That worked to a certain extent though in fact the traffic was only marginally less dense.

Early Trials

My very first trials were on the Somerset levels in the lanes between Bridgewater and Weston super Mare around Burnham and Brean including the full length of Brean Down along the highest ridge of the peninsula (mostly close-cropped grass).

My next stop was at Somerset's eastern boundary to visit King Alfred's Tower near Brewham.

King Alfred's Tower

This was built in the early 1770s to celebrate the end of the Seven Years War with France and the accession of George III.     The location was chosen because it was believed to be very close to the place where King Alfred rallied the Saxons in 878 AD before the battle of Edington.      

It was Alfred's victory in this battle that stemmed the Danish advance from their conquests in Northumbria and Mercia and ultimately resulted in the UK being an Anglo-Saxon country rather than a Scandinavian one.

In any event the tower is at the summit of a high hill that was a struggle to ride up even with the help of the Rohloff gears.

I was staying at a farmhouse B&B at the bottom of the hill and shall always remember a conversation with the lady of the house.

She explained they bred and sold cattle with supermarkets being their main customers.   They had started out keeping the female calves for milk production and selling equal numbers of young male beasts for their meat.

But the UK population is squeamish about eating veal and Tesco decided to discontinue their purchases of the male calves.      The solution turned out to be genetic alteration of the herd to restrict future births to be female only.          

I found this disturbing and have hoped ever since we never have a feminist Dictator who wants to apply the principle more widely.

Later Rides

For the next five years I was still travelling to the Southern Hemisphere for the sailing season during which there is little risk of being caught in a Cyclone - broadly the six months from April to October. 

This meant my cycling opportunities in the UK and Europe were restricted to the least favourable months when the weather didn't encourage long periods away from home.

Nevertheless I joined the San Fairy Ann cycling club in Maidstone that has a large membership and many sections from the fittest of the fittest to its Wednesday Wobblers Group.

I went out several times on day rides with its slowest but one group who usually rode between 15 and 20 miles at around 10-11 mph along the lanes of Eastern Kent between Maidenhead, Ashford and Paddock Wood.

These were good exercise and usually along reasonably traffic free routes without too many hills but not really what I had in mind when I bought the bike and not worth a longer entry in this blog.