In November 2010 I was wondering what to do for my 50th birthday in the following July & then I thought of doing a Quantocks, Exmoor & Dartmoor long weekend ride to celebrate my membership into the SAGA club. I mean July is in the British Summer right so what could go wrong?
The planning commenced in earnest & I contacted all those people I’d met over the years on various bike rides who had luckily/unluckily given me their email address. With the details complete & the riders confirmed the plan was Saturday 16th July – Quantocks, Sunday 17th July Exmoor & Monday 18th July (my birthday) Dartmoor. In order to boost the numbers simplify matters we combined my Sunday ride with Oldfarts Exmoor Safari.
Saturday Q’s – we had 10 riders for the ride guided by Mr Q’s himself Knottie8. The weather was poor to start with but dried up fairly soon & we even had the sun shining while we were sitting outside the pub having our lunch. We did a great route which included the delights of Weacombe, Serts, Slaughter House & the Chimney. 22 miles.
the posse
Knottie
Trailmonkey
Shinythings
Mayer
regrouping
the chimney
We stayed overnight @ The Base Lodge bunkhouse in Minehead cost £15pppn & is situated less than 200m from the main drag & the Queens Head pub for food & refreshment (if anyone stays there tell Graham I told you about it - cheers). The place is MTBer friendly & we were even allowed to wash the bikes & use the showers before our drive back home on Sunday.
Sunday Exmoor – we had 14 riders for Roland’s loop with a slight twist as I wanted to divert off the planned route to go to Dunkery Beacon for pics, so my apologies to those who suffered on the climb up Macmillan Way because of me. Again the weather was damp & wet at times but not too bad over all. The climbs were long but we were rewarded with the dash across the top of North Hill with a huge tailwind & then the switchback descent down to Minehead. It did pi$$ down right at the finish tho. 26 miles
the posse
the route to Dunkery Beacon
Dunkery Beacon
Oldfart
don't wait for me then!
Anna B
Horner T stop
making a splash
Selworthy Beacon
at the finish
grazing on the seafront
Monday Dartmoor – we had 11 riders for the tour guided by me & lets just say the weather was very nice for ducks. The route included the Widowmaker, Groundhog Day & the Ringmoor cottage descent. Sadly about 10 miles in the 3 x days of hard riding on my ‘old legs’ caught up with me & after a last downhill we picked up the dis-used railway line route back to Princetown. 16 miles
the posse
Millie
Carl
Brian getting air
Orena45 goes 'flying' past Millie
Carl
Orena45
after another quick downhill
I would like to Thank everyone who turned up on one, some or all three days of riding to make my QED birthday weekend a success. It has been a very enjoyable 3 days on the bike with friends both old & new, we’ve had some laughs, we’ve had some lung busting climbs & some eyeball rattling descents. I don’t think I could have had a better time celebrating my birthday any other way.
Les
