A Grey morning over the Salisbury plain again, it was cold and miserable and the fog made for very very lonely experience as visibility was down to 20 metres in places, adding to the sense of isolation on the rolling downs. So 32 kilometres in two hours from Cow Down to Water Dean Down and back.
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Up and out, to another grey morning, drove to Tidworth and parked the car at the Cow Down entrance to Salisbury Plain, We then cycled west on the byways which criss-cross the plain pass Silbury Hill, Haxton down, Figheldean down. Popping out on the Wiltshire Cycleway at Figheldean and then south to Bulford and then back to the start via the rather busy road which runs through Tidworth. The Plain was silent apart from the song of the numerous Skylarks who where displaying overhead. Another thing which was interesting was there where a lot of beef cattle freely roaming the plain, a little unexpected considering all the military activity.
So the round covered 26 kilometres and completed in one hour and twenty four minutes. A very foggy morning, the fog/mist didn't really burn back until I was almost back in Andover. So a southern loop to Broughton and back via Houghton, Stockbridge and the Test Way up to Chilbolton Common. Then the steep climb to the Fullerton crossroads and back through the Clatfords and home. 43.6 Kilometres in two hours nineteen minutes. Even though the weather was rather gloomy with the fog hanging on into the morning, we did get to see two rather nice bird spots. A Little Egret in the Bourne below Broughton, but the best was a Barn Owl quartering a paddock at Houghton in that lazy erratic flight style they have, got to observe the Owl for a couple of minutes before it flew off into a nearby copse.
As the Barn Owl sighting was quite rare, i updated the sighting on The Barn Owl Trust Survey Website. Handy Canecreek headset finder website for trying to determine the headset for a particular headset. Or the alternatively the Hope document attached is a great resource
Swinley Forest Blue on the Cube 29er, it was a grey morning with constant drizzle, It proved to be harder going than expected, the actual trails where in good shape, unfortunately this was not the case for the connecting fire roads which where rather cut up and consequently rather muddy. Had no issues with grip on the trails, as always the absence of a dropper post is obvious at a place like Swinley with the constant changing terrain and looping climbs, where being able to adjust the seat post height on the fly would be a bonus. The handlebars proved to be OK in this situation, unfortunately not so for the foam grips as they slipped when cycling up the ascents. All in all a fun but muddy blast around the blue trail.
Not the most pleasant day for a cycle ride, -2 degrees centigrade when we left and grey clouds overhead which half way round decided to rain upon us. Inspite of the inclement weather we managed to get out to Collingbourne Wood and back, 44.2 Kilometres in two and a half hours.
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