Exmoor Spring

As some of you will remember, I've ridden a number of Audaxes on Dartmoor, and have generally had a pretty good time, if a little wild.  For a change, I thought I'd try an Exmoor Audax this weekend, hoping for similar riding, but perhaps with easier conditions.

Maggie and I went down on Friday, had a lovely seaside walk in the sunshine on Saturday and Sunday, Audax day, dawned cold, with no sun and low cloud.  Umm.

Anyway, fortune favours the brave, and I set off from  Minehead, at about sea level, getting to the summit of the moor fairly quickly by way of Porlock Hill.  That's a fairly steep and famous hill, but we had the luxury of the toll road, free to Audaxers, which must be a beautiful ride on a good day, but there wasn't much to see on Sunday.

Out on to the top of the moor, with mist and a cold wind from the east.  That was OK for a bit, as we went South and then West, but shortly after the control at Simonsbath it was into the wind and along the top of the moor for a dozen miles until the route descended to the next control at Dulverton.

A happy feature of many of these wilder Audaxes is that controls tend to be in pubs, and this one, the Bridge Inn, served us well, with a long table for the riders so that you could get your card stamped, get something to eat and drink, have your bottle filled and be on your way in pretty short order.  I had a short chat by the fire with some fellow riders and then set off for the final leg.

Easier going, now, following the valley of the River Exe for a while, then over Wheddon Cross past the Rest and Be Thankful Inn, and down through Dunster, where we were staying, to the finish at Minehead.  Card stamped very efficiently, grumbles at the AUK website, which was down again, so that entries couldn't be uploaded but had to be hand-written and recorded later, and cream teas for the riders.

A great ride, but you need to pick your day.  Like today, or Saturday.  

Oh yes, Mike Morley's hat.

Mike has evidently mislaid one of his hats on a rural ride.  It's in the Luttrell Arms, Dunster, Mike.  They've looked after it for you.

Mark

Author: Mark G

2 Comments:

Terry 02 April 2019 at 12:01 BST

I didn't know of Porlock toll road when hostelling in 1954 - we'd heard of Porlock and expected to cope with the descent. My teenage friend and I were riding 'fixed' approaching from the west - our plan was to buy a larger sprocket then ride up. On descending near the hairpin a lady walker urged us to 'Get off-you must be mad'. Rounding the bend we understood her concern and did so - and didn't buy a larger sprocket. Some years later I found myself riding up Porlock in the dark at Easter - but this time (and many more) on my 500cc Triumph motorcycle in the MCC Land's End Trial.

mike morley 04 April 2019 at 14:11 BST

Well thank you Mark for the comment about yet another desirable hat for me! I have been five days offline as my computer crashed and I have had to buy another one. So now I am back on line!
Interesting to see Terry's comment. I remember riding Porlock on old Claude Butler Fixi in 1957. Much later in life I used to stay with family on Exmoor at a farm with our caravan. My company ABB were bidding for a power station in Katherine Northern Territories and I was in charge. No mobile phone signal existed and the farmers wife used to come running down the field in her nightie with the her landline phone saying "Katherine" was on the phone. She never understood that Katherine was not a person but a power station.
The farm kept a flock of sheep and her pet sheep was called Jessica. Vanessa, Natalie & Tim fell in love with the sheep but one day it was sent away to another farm for human consumption and the kids were very upset. Such is life!