All 'boners are welcome to join, a small group of us riding through the longest night from Abergavenny to Stonehenge to greet the sunrise on the winter solstice. Free access to the stones makes for a great time to see the stones along with a few thousand other freaks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAXzzHM8zLw
We'll be leaving Abergavenny around 10pm. Slow and steady mostly road ride, quiet lanes, cycleways, bit of canal towpath, gravel holloway to get us up onto Salisbury Plain then a last run through the MOD firing range (they have a night off fortunately). Sunrise just after 8am. Then ride down to Salisbury for breakfast and train home. https://ridewithgps.com/routes/49265765
Come for some or all, or see you there at sunrise. Bring warm clothes, good lights and a bike lock, and a bit of food for the ride. We'll do a Google Maps tracking thing so you can see where we are if you plan to join en route.
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Different route to last time means no mid-way stop at the 24h McDonalds outside Chippenham. Which is probably a blessing in disguise. So we'll ride straight through, more or less.
Was a bit of an ordeal in the end, for me least. Were it not for a bunch of last minute cancellations, I may have pulled out myself as I've had the chesty cold that's been around and was feeling rotten. But decided to toughen up and ignore good sense.
So, hacking, wheezing and firing off snot rockets firing in every direction, I set off with Adam and Carl at 11pm from Abergavenny. A fourth rider, George, joined us near Bristol. We lucked out with a clear spell in the weather and a light cross-tail wind, but it was colder than I'd expected. Fairly good going as far as Bath where I took a spill on the towpath, but luckily nothing more than bruises.
It took forever to get to Bradford on Avon because the shorter of the Two Tunnels is currently closed, requiring a hilly detour and the canal towpath from Dundas to Avoncliff is pretty mucky at this time of year. Up Coulston Hollow (ouch!) then the excellent Imber Range perimeter path and the road through Westdown firing range. Breezed past all the solstice traffic and arrived at Stonehenge about 7am - still very dark. The warmth of the visitor centre cafe felt pretty good. Good fun at the stones, as always, though no actual sun at sunrise this year. Pedalled squares down to Salisbury for a coffee and a bun before passing out on the train back to Abergavenny. Rest of the day on the sofa.
