The "Photos From Today's Ride" thread...
Discussion
Another blustery ride on the Ridgeway today from a different direction. Found some great trails and starting to dial in some good 45 miler MTB routes now . Was busy with riders today also, making the most of it , as its chucking with rain now. Luckily any surface water was blown away by the wind , as the bike shows after 28 miles, still looked as clean as it left home.
Chapman's Pool, from the bottom of Houns Tout.
Hauling the bike up a near-vertical Public Footpath using a fixed rope. I missed the tide so couldn't ride across the bay to the boathouse.
Abandoned Purbeck Stone quarry on the coast path.
Different ride - Ballard Down, between The Pinnacles and Old Harry Rocks.
'Fort Henry' near Studland Village. Built for the D-Day rehearsals to protect VIPs.
The view of the D-Day rehearsals enjoyed by (among others) HM King George VI, Winston Churchill, and Generals Eisenhower and Montgomery...
Met this little fella in Fort Henry. If I didn't have "eyes like a s
thouse rat" I could have trod on it.
Another different ride - Poole Cycle Speedway Club training ride as I passed on the way out to Bere Regis.
Two-bay Single/Single Bailey Bridge out on a local nature reserve. Claims it is "the prototype Bailey Bridge" and hints at it being in place since development days during WWII. A tiny plaque on the bridge states that it was put in place in the 1980s with panels donated by the former MEXE site in nearby Christchurch. Roll the dice and take your pick. Whichever is true, it's in crap order underneath from exposure to salt water. The timber decking has been replaced but bearers and bracing struts have rotted to nothing, and it's in dire need of some TLC.
I've not posted in this thread for a while, so apologies for the mass photo-dump. All stuff from June 2020, mostly around Purbeck in Dorset.
I went for a ride down to Ringwood, stopped at the Velo cafe, had a cake and coffee ( inside ). Then back across the high heaths of the New Forest. It was a bit windy, but the wind was on my back on the return leg, which lead to some eye watering speeds on that bike.
And when I say “eye watering” I mean just that.
A nice 58 miler all in all, and nice to get back to something resembling normality.
Edited by BrundanBianchi on Saturday 4th July 15:54
The quarantine rules in Bolivia are pretty extreme so this is my first proper ride since mid-March.
After meeting at a friend's house the first thing we did was a 500m climb up to the Muela del Diablo (Devil's Tooth).
A quick snack break before the descending started. My friend calls it cross country but I'm not sure I'd describe steep loose gravel with a sheer drop on one side as such.
We're heading down towards the buildings in the distance.
The Devil's Tooth behind me.
The toll bridge we wanted to cross wasn't open so we had two other options to cross Rio Caca (st River), neither of which were great.
The first option was to ride through what is literally a river of sewage flowing down from La Paz.
And the second option was to haul our bikes up to a goat track and carry / push / ride them to the next bridge. As no-one wanted to ride through other peoples' turds we opted to go rock climbing with no safety gear and with our bikes on our backs. How hard could it be?
Each cutout in the rockface was no bigger than a human foot and the drop was straight down to the river of turds. My bike was starting to feel quite heavy at this point....
But we all made it safely up and over the track, probably to the disappointment of the few locals who were taking a break in the sun below us.
Lastly we had another ballbreaking climb in the heat to get back to the main road where we could quench our thirst with Coke & water from this lady.
After meeting at a friend's house the first thing we did was a 500m climb up to the Muela del Diablo (Devil's Tooth).
A quick snack break before the descending started. My friend calls it cross country but I'm not sure I'd describe steep loose gravel with a sheer drop on one side as such.
We're heading down towards the buildings in the distance.
The Devil's Tooth behind me.
The toll bridge we wanted to cross wasn't open so we had two other options to cross Rio Caca (s
t River), neither of which were great.The first option was to ride through what is literally a river of sewage flowing down from La Paz.
And the second option was to haul our bikes up to a goat track and carry / push / ride them to the next bridge. As no-one wanted to ride through other peoples' turds we opted to go rock climbing with no safety gear and with our bikes on our backs. How hard could it be?
Each cutout in the rockface was no bigger than a human foot and the drop was straight down to the river of turds. My bike was starting to feel quite heavy at this point....
But we all made it safely up and over the track, probably to the disappointment of the few locals who were taking a break in the sun below us.
Lastly we had another ballbreaking climb in the heat to get back to the main road where we could quench our thirst with Coke & water from this lady.
Nice run out today over the Ridgeway again, although still finding some decent byways and bridleways. Didnt quite make 50 miles today , as wind was in my face for a lot of the higher ground riding. Found a 3 mile descent , which I nearly stacked into a rut, at one point, as the bike went a bit sideways. I gave out a girlie squeak and it somehow straightened up 
Found a farmer had chained his gate shut and leaving no option but to clamber over today. Map said it was a bridleway and the sign pointing down it was missing the blue arrow and was just a green metal plate. Another farmer made life awkward with chains wrapped around the gate , post and barbed fence , which all three gates on his land , the chains were about 6 ft long . They can be a miserable lot, even with the right to pass through.
Also thought I had seen everything , but was not the case today , as had a naked rambler on the ridge. I was thinking whether to put my gillet on as chilly at the time !!
Found this also up there and one for Yellowjack to fill us in on the incident.
Found a farmer had chained his gate shut and leaving no option but to clamber over today. Map said it was a bridleway and the sign pointing down it was missing the blue arrow and was just a green metal plate. Another farmer made life awkward with chains wrapped around the gate , post and barbed fence , which all three gates on his land , the chains were about 6 ft long . They can be a miserable lot, even with the right to pass through.
Also thought I had seen everything , but was not the case today , as had a naked rambler on the ridge. I was thinking whether to put my gillet on as chilly at the time !!
Found this also up there and one for Yellowjack to fill us in on the incident.
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