Marlborough with Lights

Map of route to Marlborough and back

I’ve been planning a trip from home in Devon to Marlborough in Wilshire ever since I went to Marlborough during a “Cheddar Gorge” 300km perm outing with Jono earlier in the year.

So on Sunday I got up early and after a brief bit of faffing (I’d put the GPS mount on upside down) I was off into the mostly grey dawn.

It was pretty in a “early morning up a hill” kind of way on the Blackdowns. Can you spot the deer in the picture below?

Early morning near Heymock. Can you spot the deer?

I was using the “DIY by GPS” system for the ride. I wasn’t actually that bothered about getting AUK points but I have a GPS unit so I thought I’d enter and see how it went.

The ride went great, the route seemed pretty nice until I got to the A371 near Castle Cary railway station. The bridge on the A371 was closed. I knew from the map that this was the best road route to get where I needed to go next. Any alternative would require a diversion of several km. However, I could see the station from the wrong side of the bridge. I could see that the station had a foot bridge over the railway. So after crossing a muddy field on foot I was back on course.

Crossing the footbridge at Castle Cary

I am thinking of running this route as an event next year so I was interested in the traffic levels. For the most part they were good and low. I might have to go directly through Frome next time from Nunny Hatch and not use the bypass on the A361. It is nice and fast but a bit of a race track.

I took a new road to Marlborough (the A3098 just past Westbury) and saw this magnificent beastie. It is a lot bigger and tidier than the one nearer to Marlborough I would see later

White Horse

Quick coffee in Marlborough at the Azuza Cafe then back onto the loverly hills.

Hills above Marlborough

Only down point of the trip came on the A361 on the way back to Taunton. I stopped to put on my leg warmers and discovered they were missing. They must have fallen out of my bag. They were size XL Gorebike wear Windstopper leg warmers So if you find some in the road some where on the Mendips, that’s where they are from!

I got back at about 10pm, so with a 7am start and not going that briskly it seems like the route must be fairly easy to do.