Take a hat

Bucks in the Autumn Braved the morning rain and headed off towards Dorney. Over the hill to Cookham and then along the Green Route to Maidenhead. On past the posh riverside houses towards Bray and through the Churchyard to the M4 bridge path. The Olympic Rowing Lake soon appeared and then the Walled Garden Centre. Already travelled 19km just to get to the meeting point, could be in for a tough day. The weather forecasters got it right and out came the sun. Joined the group for a coffee and then set off with them towards Chalfont St Giles via Burnham Beeches, Farnham Common and Gerrards Cross. Beautiful in the woods with the sun glistening on the wet leaves. Nearly wiped out by a driver using our quiet road as a rat-run, back roads were a lot quieter before Sat Nav! Had lunch in the Fox and Hounds, at Chalfont St Giles before heading home via Beaconsfield and Cookham. Nice ride, plenty of hills so happy to be home.

Autumn cycling in the Chilterns - 20km to Henley and 30km back to Marlow Monday morning, a cold, clear and windless day. Headed into the Chilterns. Some very plucky pheasants on the road, never seen so many. Reminds me of a tongue twister...... One smart fellow; he felt smart. Two smart fellows; they felt smart. Three smart fellows; they all felt smart. Try and say it.... The leaves are just turning and the deer are rutting, it must be Autumn. On the hill between Hambleden and Fawley Henley on Thames One particular Stag was making an awful din whilst chasing his herd around a field near Luxters Winery. Met TW for lunch at the Henley Tea Rooms in Thameside, Henley. Cycled back via some really good place names, Badgemoor, Bix, Bix Bottom, Middle Assendon, Stonor, Turville Heath, Fingest and Frieth. Roads were quiet, apart from the pheasants of course. Glorius day.

A nice way to get weary Overnight frost was being cleared by bright sunshine as I headed off for my first ride with the CTC. I joined recently to get more access to info on Touring from their website. The local section, CTC South Bucks, wrote and invited me out for a ride. The morning meet was at Bourne End Garden Centre. Doesn’t sound great but it has a really nice cafe hidden inside. Just £1.50 for a mug of coffee with unlimited refills. Plenty of tasty looking cakes and sponges to choose from. It's a a favourite meeting point and I can see why. The cycling group that assembled was friendly and there was a bit of banter about the leader being obsessed with hill-climbing and that it could be tough - but they would wait for me! So I set off, in a group of about fifteen, with some trepidation up Harvest Hill towards Burnham Beeches. From there the route took us past Cliveden to Taplow, along the Jubilee River to Windsor and then across the Great Park to Ascot Racecourse. W...

Thought we would make a detour into Southampton on the way home to take a look at the new Cunard ship. Very impressive. The new Queen Elizabeth TW dreams of going on the maiden yoyage but unfortunately we are the wrong side of the tracks and the ship. QE was loading and getting ready to sail on her first trip. The Waverley was also in Southampton water The Waverley is the last sea-going Paddle Steamer in the world. Probably more our style.

We made a quick trip over to the Isle of Wight to visit TW’s Uncle. Glorious day to see a lovely place. Over on the favourite Ferry from Lymington to Yarmouth then round the south via Waterstone and the Military Road.     Disabled parking is free on the Island, here is why! Lymington Mud Not a cloud in the sky all day. TW and TMIL had a good old chat with Uncle and we all had a nice pub lunch in Shanklin.On a bright October day cannot think of a better place to be. The only hitch, we paid £2 for parking only to discover that TMIL's disabled badge entitled us to free parking on the Isle of Wight.

Homeward bound Ready for check-in The wind had a final blow as I took the route from the Hotel to the Airport. Once in the terminal I had plenty of space, and time, to take the trusty TREK 520 apart and put it into its bag along with any other heavy stuff. That left me with one pannier for hand luggage (max 10kg). Right, ready for check-in!. Even though there are only two flights per day they still need all the security paraphernalia. The additional charges lady looked particularly efficient. I suppose with only 300 or 400 passengers per day she needed to justify her existence. My fellow passengers were desperately re-packing, putting on extra layers and filling their pockets to try and avoid excess charges – Bonjour Monsieur et Madame Michelin! Check-in was not a problem for me as I had paid my 40 Euros for the bike, still a bit of trepidation though, never quite certain I've understood the rules. Or maybe Mr O'Leary has changed them? I went through...

Cap d’Agde to Nimes Airport (Garons) - 130 kms  Sunrise over the Mediterranean I settled on Nimes to Luton with RyanAir. I asked the Hotel Manager ‘how far to Nimes’. About 75 kms he said. No problem, lets book it. Now this man was a keen golfer he is supposed to be able to count, putting in an incorrect card just isn’t tolerated. It was in fact 130 kms! Despite the mathematical incapacity, the Hotel was very helpful and booked and checked me in for RyanAir and printed my Boarding Card. Not an easy process. Flamingos unruffled All night I could hear a terrific wind getting up. I don’t know if it was the Scirocco but it came from the south and was warm and humid. The Hotel forecast rain. Set out at first light and headed back to Agde. Was soon lost in the one-way system again but eventually started heading east towards Marseillan.. Horrendous wind! Most of the time it was a warm cross-wind as I worked my way around the south of Montpellier and on towards Nime...

Narbonne Plage to Cap d’Agde – 52 km Backbird Good breakfast at the very imaginatively named Hotel de la Plage. Another cyclist was heading off to Barcelona to compete in the Triathlon. He offered me a lift but I told him my breaststroke wouldn’t be good enough (As if my running and biking would be!) Set off along the coast through St. Pierre sur Mer. At the end of the main street there is a short climb and then a right turn onto a quiet road that follows the coast, the Route des Vins. More vineyards and a few camp-sites. Crossed the Aude and headed on. The area became progressively more developed. I was making good progress until I got near Serignan. My Michelin map indicated a right turn would get me onto a quiet road. No such luck, a ditch that would have deterred Charlemagne stood between me and my side road. I suppose you have to go into Serignan to pick up the road. So I had to grit my teeth and pedal on down the busy road. Eventually, in the distance, I saw the rows of ...

Day 9 - Le Somail to Narbonne Plage Picking in progress A good night’s sleep was punctuated only by my nocturnal wanderings downstairs and a jet screaming overhead. When you live on the flight path near Heathrow the last thing you want to be woken up by is a plane inches above the roof! In the early dawn, grape-picking started in the field behind the house. The motorised picker would pass over a full row of vines. At the end it would empty its grapes into a waiting tractor and trailer. The tractor then sped off to the Cave. The picker would then turn around and pick the next row and be met by another tractor – and so on. Much more entertaining than breakfast telly! At breakfast, where I demolished everything, I joined a friendly Swiss/Canadian couple. They talked about disease, not theirs but the plane trees. Apparently the tall trees that line the canals are suffering and many may need to be felled. That could be a bit of a catastrophe! They don’t just look good and give sh...

Day 8 Carcassonne to Le Somail - 70 km Looking back towards the Citadel Had a good nose around Carcassonne before the tourists arrived and then headed back towards my canal to resume the journey South. On the way, I bumped into the nice Swiss couple from Berne who had blanched the previous day when I had brought up the subject of the recent defeat of Young Boys by the mighty Spurs - he-he! The breakfast at the hostel was good but my route through town took me past yesterday's Patisserie and it would have been rude not to stop in and buy a little something for a morning break. Suitably armed I headed for the canal, took the left bank, wrong! The track petered out after a couple of kms.  I had to go in reverse back to the Gare and set off again this time on the right bank. I wasn't concerned in the least though, it was a lovely sunny day, the track was smooth, any wind was behind and it was downhill all the way.     The cana...

Castelnaudary to Carcassonne - 44 km  The canal basin at Castelnaudary Spot the hat  We bumped our way to Carcassonne. Had to focus on the track ahead to avoid tree roots. Took a few hits though – ouch! A mountain bike would be a much more comfortable experience on the Canal du Midi. The canal itself seems to be getting progressively busier with boats jostling at the locks as we moved south, back into grape country. After a failed inner tube on Stephens’s bike, probably a compression puncture or snake bite, and some leisurely lock watching we still reached the tourist magnet of Carcassonne in time for some lunch. We had to leave the canal shortly before town and take to the road but soon arrived at the Gare and found the necessary Patisserie in the ‘new town’. We sat in a square and watched the people go by, an admirable past-time on a sunny early Autumn afternoon. The Youth Hostel was located inside the old Citadel so I headed there whilst Les Ecossaise ...