Gone West 2004

This year’s outing began with an overnight stay in a Travel Lodge somewhere near Swindon before getting up at some  ludicrously early hour on a Friday morning to pedal towards Bath and finishing off in Bristol. 
Fortunately, it was a lovely day for our band of cyclists from all corners of the world and the scenery off the mainroads was a delight.  It was a gentle day in some respects, designed to carefully break in the newcomers.   There were one or two punctures along the way and a few minor falls, have you ever heard of cleat collapse?  We skirted around the edge of Bath and then headed towards Bristol, the hotel being right in the centre and deemed to be a “bit rough”.  This proved to be the case when we heard at breakfast from one couple who’d been kept awake all night whilst “guests” trashed everything in the room below!  Our couple got a refund!  We’d gone Italian the previous night having taken over an entire restaurant, the meal was organised by an old friend who had gone native in Bristol!

We covered 60 miles on Friday, we woke up on Saturday morning to find it raining and it didn’t stop all day.  We got soaked and we had to raid the lorry for extra clothes whenever we stopped and the places we stopped deserve a mention.  Morning elevenses was to be in a shop car park until our wonderful support team discovered the local Methodist church hall was holding a coffee morning to raise money for the amputees in Sierra Leone.  The senior citizens welcomed us with open arms, put the kettle on, laid out more tables and chairs and produced coffee and biscuits by the plateful.  All to accommodate this very wet group of ‘driven’ cyclists and the support team – we did make a donation.  We all agreed that morning that every penny we had been promised by our sponsors was very well deserved!

Whilst in the Methodist Hall we were advised by our leaders that a change of route had been decided due to the weather and unfamiliar route through the Forest of Dean.  Now, whether it was because we were all saturated and had lost our powers of reasoning but one or two of the party still insisted on going with the original plan and take the longer route through the Forest of Dean without the back up of the Support Vehicles.  As we collected outside to restart the group split in two, 21 headed out on the shorter route south of the River Severn and the other 21 set off over the Severn Bridge and through the Forest of Dean.

The rain lashed down as the two groups set out, some people didn’t have waterproof jackets and others had them but they didn’t seem very waterproof if you know what I mean.   We never heard the full story of those who went on the northern route but the rest of us went to church for the next stop!   We hadn’t crossed the Severn but we had crossed the Severn and Gloucester Canal several times and watched the lock keeper open the lock gates manually for a pleasure yacht.

Our support team had been desperate to get us out of the rain and to find somewhere we could produce hot soup – they were becoming more and more worried about the state of the cyclists.  Following enquiries Maria was given the number of the local vicar to see if he knew where we could set our tables up, butter the rolls and put the kettle on.  The vicar paused for a couple of minutes and then told Maria we could use the church!  She thought he too may be suffering from being out in the rain too long but was ready to investigate. 

It turned out that the church at Upper Framilode on the banks of the Severn had just had built a small kitchen at the back of the vestry.  It was a perfect shelter for this rather damp group and included changing facilities and a loo!  By this time people had run out of clothes and others were delving into the bottom of their bags to find anything dry.

We made a donation to the church funds and moved outside.  Fortunately the rain held off for the last lap and people cheered up.  We were about to arrive in Gloucester and descend on the Beefeater that was going to be knocked down the next day.  The food was particularly mediocre!

Sunday we were allowed a lie-in of half an hour although no proper breakfast!  Just a box of cereal, a carton of milk and a banana as opposed to the full English to which we had become accustomed. 

Shortly after leaving Gloucester on the way back to Swindon we encountered the worst hill of the weekend, Birdlip – most of us had to get off and walk, and it rained.  That morning it took us two hours to cover 4 miles which was not good.  The view at the top, however, was superb.  The van and the lorry and the campervan had parked under a bridge for elevenses during a rain shower but it cleared.  The sun came out to dry us out and people started smiling.

We had 40 miles and a few more hills to do that day but cycling along country roads we could see for miles – the sun shone and we only had one or two punctures.  We stopped at the Head of the Thames, a pub!  The landlord let us set up at the back of the pub and a few people even managed a little shut-eye relaxing in the sun.

It wasn’t to be such a strenuous day as before which was most welcome.  We travelled through villages with names like Brimpsfield, Miserden, Duntisbourne Abbotts, Daglingworth, Kemble and Minety.  Finally, we arrived in Swindon’s Lydiard Park around 4.00.

We took loads of pictures, congratulated ourselves, ate more food and crisps.  A few people made speeches including Susie, trustee of the Who Cares Trust? and who had accompanied us the whole 160 miles, and then we went home.  We were tired, aching - with lots of wet kit stuffed in our bags but we were triumphant and one or two people were heard whispering “what’s happening NY (next year)” but we will all have to wait and see. 

Many congratulations to Gill and her team, let’s hope you will go a long way towards raising over the £16,000 we raised for The Who Cares? Trust last year and by the way what is happening next year?