Stonehenge Run

[Millietant]

 Sorry Guys - lost the whole story so will have to do it all again !!

[krusty]

Sorry Guys - lost the whole story so will have to do it all again !!

Stoned again, eh?

[Millietant]

Here goes for a second time, hoping I don't lose 90% of the text and photo's

Had a run down to Stonehenge today with a couple of friends, hoping to get a photo of my old relic, in front of a really old relic.....but the powers that be decreed it was not going to happen - roadworks around Stonehenge meant that there were no road-side photo points accessible and to get into the car park and use the toilets at the visitor centre was going to cost £19 each for my companions (I get in for free as I'm an annual contributor/member to/of English Heritage, but i couldn't just go and leave them!).

Here's the route we chose, just shy of 250 miles of mostly twisty curvy A roads - and seriously, we did not realise how it would look in "outline" form  



From home we headed down The Fosse Way through The Cotswolds, with a cuppa stop at Kemble Airfield (the UK's biggest commercial aircraft graveyard).





Spotted this lovely Aston Martin DB4 when we pulled in for a tyre pressure check on the Tiger 800.



As we couldn't stop for a photo at Stonehenge, I managed to "sneak" a walking pace selfie and a slightly better pic of the actual Henge.





Thought I'd try and get a photo of another nearby "relic", the Wilton Windmill, with the FJ......but its barely visible.



The main A338 through The North Wessex Downs "area of outstanding natural beauty" isnt in the best condition !!



More to follow in the next post...........................

[Millietant]

Traffic was our biggest problem with the roads in the south today....lots of queues and double solid centre lines   (future rides this year will likely be north and west, to avoid "people" !!!!



Sorry for the quality on this one....my phone obviously couldn't focus while moving (slowly).



Gridlock in a little town (Burford) in the middle of nowhere, on a "quiet" Monday afternoon when the kids are at school and people are at work !!!



Final stop of the day on the return journey was in picturesque Chipping Norton, for tea and ice cream - another small,  "quiet" picturesque country town.....not !!





All in all, it was great day, brilliant weather, great company, varied machines - my FJ, a Triumph Tiger 800, a Suzuki V Strom (ridden by a 76 yr old), and my pal Jim on his Can Am Spyder trike ----funnily enough, today, I witnessed a rabbit being killed by a spider, for the first time....sorry, that should be Spyder, not spider  

A load more place with great British names have been visited....Littleton Panell, Collingbourne Ducis, Stanford in the Vale, Lechlade-on-Thames and Broughton Poggs to name just a few.

AND, just for Gavin....further proof that we do indeed build houses right beside main roads in the UK - this is the main A361 between Banbury and Daventry at a lovely little place called Chipping Warden  

[PaulG]

The main A338 through The North Wessex Downs "area of outstanding natural beauty" isnt in the best condition !!

In Ontario a backroad like that would be considered in very good condition.  Count yourself lucky.  On the other hand once we're out in the country, gridlock is a distant memory.  Oraygano - Orahgano or something like that. 

[Millietant]

If that was a back road here, it would be considered to be in decent condition too  - but its a main A class road !! (our back roads are either "B" roads, "C" roads, or "Unclassified Roads")

Must admit though, when I visit my family in Brockville, Cornwall and Montreal, the general condition of the roads there isn't that great (but then again, your summers are hotter and your winters are colder - and the construction methods and design lives of roads are very different on that side of the pond).

[Waiex191]

Very nice - makes me miss New England.  We didn't have many houses that close to the road though.