Alarm clocks were set for 7am but I was awake at 05:20 due to the bl00dy birds!
Bikes loaded we were ready for the off just before 8am. We'd had rain during the night and whilst we packed up the skies looked rather ominous but by the time we set off the sun was out amd it was already feeling warm. Amazing!!
Our first lane of the day was literally immediately at the entrance of the campsite. Another of Salisbury's straight gravel tracks with a few pot holes and whoops to test the suspension.
We tracked along field edges and through copse woods along the Monarchs Way and for the first hour and near on 20miles it was practically all offroad, awesome.
As the lanes came to an end and turned intoa normal residential street, OMG, some of tthe houses were literally A..MAZ...ING!!
Continuing east we passed through West Winterslow, Broughton Stockbridge before tracking back north west. We rode alongside a beautiful manicured gold course at Lackford before crossing a sluice in the river Test. A friendly driver stopped on the bridge for a quick chat telling us that the strange looking wire next were for catching eels amd that this section of watercourse was actually owned by Jihn Lewis. Well there you go. Never did I think JL were into buying waterways.
Continuing north we hit Andover and it was time for fuel. In the fuel station a chap filling his spanking new Land Rover Defender struck up a conversation asking about my Tenere as he had had his eye in one for a while. We chatted at length about bikes and our journey - him being a former Enduro bike roder and racer. On asking he kindly gave us a recommendation for a sit down breakfast so off we headed to Hilliers garden centre near Weyhill just outside of Andover and a good recommendation it was ..... although we felt rather out of place dressed as we were with everyone else in the comparatively smart clothing! Oh well.
Checking the route as we left and how to get back on track we decided to ride a byway that should link us back up to our route but we should have taken notice of the dead end sign at the start of this byway cos as the undergrowth continued to thicken - but we pressed on - it did indeed turn out to be a dead end. DOH!! It likely did link up to the byway we wanted to be on ...... before the A303 was built that now bisected it!! DOH.
Route rejoined and we continued along a mix of wide open gravel trails, trails with lots of overgrown undergrowth covering the tricky rutts - which was far from best - and plenty of lanes with a white base ..... chalk = lethal when wet, but fortunately for us it was bone dry. This route really would be a completely different challenge in wet conditions.
As we Amesbury we crested a hill in a lane and had a perfect view down the length of the runway at Boscombe Down airfield.
We briefly rode on the A303 to get us to Solstice park then hit Bulford and continued to Larkhill where the route was to take us in the byways directly past Stonehenge but due to the summer solstice and the hippies we hit a Road Closed sign so had to detour significantly around this area and rejoin our route at Berwick St. James. Here again these were wide open, white gravel trails with lots of potholes and whoops. I let Russ ride the T7 for a while here so he could have a go ..... I think he liked it.
Now we were on the open plains with fast, wide gravel tracks. We took a short detour to see Copehill Down training ground before exiting the plains at Tilshead wjere we stopped for a coffee and got chatting to another biker on a KTM 890. He was from Reading, up for the day to have a play around on the plains.
Byway after Byway took us further north through Devizes and past the White Horse and on past La**** passing the National Trust Grand Manor House before we dropped into a tricky and muddy lane, some of the first mud we'd seen all day!
We found more mud, quite a bit of mud at Slaughterford before reaching the point furthest north on our route. It was now just after 4pm and despite being more than half way we still had a fair ways to go to get to our destination so we pressed on with a nice A road bkast before dropping into another tricky lane at Star Farm just after a place called 'The Shoe' - what a weird name for a place.
Now heading SW we hit Batheaston just outside of Bath and decided to stop at a nice pub overlooking the toll bridge for a much needed beer. Shortly after this our route ended but we rode a short section of our day 3 route and rode Pipehouse lane to get us into Midford. I remember riding this lane many years ago with Paul Brown . It was tricky back then but now its severely washed out so it was quite a challenging descending it without incident.
At Midfird we had dinner before setting off for the short journey to a nearby campsite. The campsite hadn't answered the phone so we were chancing it regards availability. Knowing that it was attached to a pub and it being Saturday night we knew it would be busy but it was heaving! Luckily they had space for us so we paid our fee and found a pitch. A quick shower then off to get a drink whilst we watched all that was unfolding. There was a balloon festival so they inflated a few balloons on the grass. The music was playing in the barn amd everyone was having fun. Relativity early nights for us though cos we were all pretty knackered with another early start planned for day 3 tomorrow. Bring it on.
I enjoyed following your adventure.
Recognised some lanes but my knowledge doesn't go much further than Stonehenge.
Brave people balloonists, or mad, no steering apart from up/down and reliant on the wind, no thanks
