Hot n sunny in September.

[K]

Well, one thing and another has had me constantly rearranging a trip down to Wiltshire & the Grandparents since the beginning of July. So when I got both a Sunday free, could afford the petrol AND it was decient weather - kinda had to be done really. 8)

Thought I'd stop off for a late breakfast not long into the journey and started to get the feeling I was being followed.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v205/spazmutt/Rideouts/Devizes1.jpg
Had I gained yet another stalker in Dr Rich?!

Nah, the roads were far too well surfaced for his tastes I figured. Pleasant enough fast dual carrigeway pretty much all the way down to Newbury from Northampton.
Not particularly exciting, but beats the motorway - and you get to look at some really big balls just before Oxford. :wink:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v205/spazmutt/Rideouts/Devizes2.jpg
Told you they were big. :P

So bye bye dual carrigeway and hello picturesque market towns and the A4. View for miles, no speed cameras and blissfully free of caravans. :twisted:

Pulled over by an old childhood favourite. Many was the school holiday spent with the Grandparents and charging irreverantly over this old monument- Silbury Hill.
Sad to say all fenced off now. :(
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v205/spazmutt/Rideouts/Devizes3.jpg

Thought I'd take a bimble up to Roundway Hill just before arriving at Devizes (my intended destination). Little twisty side road with a surface that would make Valleyboy cry tears of pain and suffering.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v205/spazmutt/Rideouts/Devizes4.jpg

Then I began thinking back to earlier... would Dr Rich be lurking ahead? :shock:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v205/spazmutt/Rideouts/Devizes5.jpg
Hmmm, more his type of road - but never let it be said that the 'Blade didn't take it all in it's steady stride. :twisted:
And worth it for the view and Ice Cream... only the Ice Cream van was missing. :(
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v205/spazmutt/Rideouts/Devizes6.jpg

Anyhoo, bimbled back down into town and popped by to say 'Hi', leave a couple of roses I'd brought from my garden and do a bit of tidying up for the Gramps.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v205/spazmutt/Rideouts/Devizes7.jpg
It's a nice place for a rest, adn lo, there was an ice cream van by the cramer (the lake thing infront of the Church).
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v205/spazmutt/Rideouts/Devizes8.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v205/spazmutt/Rideouts/Devizes9.jpg

Well, weather was still holding - infact out of the shade of the trees it was almost uncomfortably hot :roll: so I took a bit of a spin to another childhood haunt. Sadly also fenced off and not given the attention it should do in my opinion.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v205/spazmutt/Rideouts/Devizes10.jpg

All this exclusion from places I love and used to play in was beginning to be a bit of a downer - so I headed back to only haunt I knew I could still get down and dirty with - Avebury Stones.
The travesty there being that whilst the stones are as open as ever to anyone who wishes to navigate the sheep poo - I was a tad knackered to be bimbling round on my crutches. :roll:
So I just sat outside the pub and ate heartily of Wiltshire ham and eggs. =P~
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v205/spazmutt/Rideouts/Devizes11.jpg
Though I did stop for a shot back at my favourite stone - the one that always seems to be straining at the fence in some bizarre escape attempt.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v205/spazmutt/Rideouts/Devizes12.jpg
(Yeah, I know it's a bit skewed... but it was just a coke I had at the pub!)

So, bimbling back up the A 34 and was forced to filter through about 5 miles of traffic jam... got to the next slip road to find out why - an articulated lorry had managed to over turn itself! Both lanes being blocked off by the Police as I arrived so up and across country to pick it up again at the next junction.
Well, you learn something everyday - I was diverted past a rather imposing looking powerstation that I never knew existed!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v205/spazmutt/Rideouts/Devizes13.jpg

Uneventfull and blissfully traffic free trip from then on - past the big balls and back home.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v205/spazmutt/Rideouts/Devizes14.jpg

To be honest, I didn't think that I'd be wanting a cool bath quite that much after a rideout in September - gotta thank global warming for something I guess. :wink:

[valleyboy]

Nice pictures :)



Hmmm that would explain why DrRich couldnt make the rideout yesterday :wink:




plus.. Im generaly crying anyway right now... bikes 'ill' again... :( and I thought Kawasaki had better build quality than Suzuki's :lol:

[Carsick]

Oi, you should have said you were coming. My daily commute takes me past the stone that wants to escape and down towards Devizes. I like sitting at the Red Lion of an evening, cos you see all sorts going through the village.

Kind've makes me feel special to be travelling through the centre of a set of standing stones, twice a day.

[the white rabbit]

NOW THATS stalking. Look and learn chaps

:wink:




:lol:

Seruiously great pics and story. A ride with a tale to tell, thats what I like :thumbsup:

[tigersaw]

A lovely day out and a nice story. :D

I worked all day, as per usual.

I pass stonehenge pretty often, I find it pretty underwhelming really. I notice a couple of bumps have appeared on the top of some of the stones, are these cameras you reckon?

[fizzwheel]

Stonehenge isnt far from Liz's, K next time your down this way give us a shout if you fancy some company or just a natter over a soft drink at a pub.

[K]

I pass stonehenge pretty often, I find it pretty underwhelming really. I notice a couple of bumps have appeared on the top of some of the stones, are these cameras you reckon?

Quite possibly. The last time I was down there it was just a tiny little fence - that we hopped over and sat with the stones to watch the sunrise on my 19th birthday... in January! :shaking:

But it still looks like there is pretty much naff all security, so it wouldn't surprise me.

I does look smaller than you expect it to be - that is until you get right up close and then it makes you feel oh so very tiny.

What annoys me is that there was a 'Millenium Plan' to sink the nearby roads into tunnels, build a new visitor centre with special viewing 'bubbles' and pretty much restore the ground level to it's rough Stone Age equivalent. Also to recreate an exact replica, but fully restored, completed and along a similar 'stellar' alignment, that people had free access to.
But we spend the money on some crappy dome instead. :roll: :evil:


Carsick n Fizz - thanks for the offer. I don't get down there as much as I'd like to be honest. Partly because some of my favourite places like those, as well as Wayland's Forge and West Kennet Longbarrow, are a bit too demanding on the walking front at the moment. :roll:
But both the pub and a bit of local road knowledge sounds ideal. Espescially as most of my time there was spent as a child - so road appreciation wasn't really one of my strong points back then. :wink: