On Saturday, 21 May, I headed out to Yelverton, where I picked Simon up. We then made our way to Princetown, and parked in the car park behind the High Moorlands centre.
There was a fair bit of wind, but I didn’t consider it too bad – certainly no worse than what I’ve cycled in before. We waited for a while, but it became clear the weather must have put everybody else off.
We just had the bikes offloaded and light set up when the rain started. Again, rain isn’t exactly the end of the world, and besides, skin is actually waterproof, so we decided to head off onto the dismantled railway path.
It wasn’t long before the wind increased a great deal, and the rain became heavier. At first we rode directly into the wind, and it was slow going. After a while, the path turned and the wind hit us more from the side. That was hard to cycle in, and on a few occasions either of us nearly got blown off the path.
Shortly before we reached the old quarry the halogen lamp of my bike’s headlight packed in. Simon lent me his head torch, and we turned back.
Once we hit the last straight-ish part, it was very easy going, and for quite some distance I didn’t pedal at all and was pushed along by the wind. In fact, I had to use the brakes to ensure I wasn’t going too fast.
All in all it was still fun, although obviously I’d have preferred no rain and no wind. Clear skies to do a bit of star gazing would have been nice too.
Oh well, there’s always next time…
Incidentally, the next ride will probably be around Burrator reservoir. See you then!