2005 Charnwood Cycle Tours

and camping weekends

Easter Tour 20= 05

The easte= r tour at Rhyader was enjoyed by 23 members ̵= 1; very interesting place and a good campsite. What a super Easter we had. Good weather for us to ride in this fantastic scenery around Rhayader. Lots of thanks and no complaints so I assume everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Several separate rides were organised mainly based around the <= st1:place w:st=3D"on">Elan Valley and a joint = ride of sorts on the Monday to visit the cycle museum at Ll= andrindod Wells and the kite feeding station south of Rhayader.

Spring Tour to= Southeast Spain

Cazorla & Segura=

April 24^th to= May 8^th

. Flying to Alicante from East Mids we set off southwest with blue skies every day for the first week and most of = the second week. The towns and villages built on any available hill or rocky outcrop are really beautifully, most of them having one or more Spanished styled churches and a castle at the top of = the hill. The original streets are narrow and the houses tightly packed making = them most attractive. So narrow are the streets that most towns have a sort of bypass around the old part of the town. We then explored Cazoria and the Segura valley, unfortunately on a Sunday that made the roads a little busy, though did not take away the char= m of the area. We then moved on to a more remote area north of Yeste. Totally unspoilt scenery except for the reservoirs that= only added to the beauty of the countryside. The final part of the holiday was in the mountains inland from Benidorm that probably had the most attractive towns of all if one tried to compare them, and super views from the high roads over the mountains. At one point we could see the high rise concrete jungle of Benidorm some 10 or so miles away, way down on the co= ast. With all those holidaymakers down there the surprising thing was there was = not a tourist in sight up above, a mere 10 miles away.

Camping Weeken= d at Meriden

Three motor homes from the section made there way down to <= st1:place w:st=3D"on">Meriden for the weekend and enjoyed som= e good cycling on both Saturday and Sunday. They were joined by four members who cycled down on Sunday and several others who travelled there by car.=

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Early Summer T= our to the French Alps

8^th= June to 22^nd June

A group of six including 3 section member flew to Geneva for this tour. It proved to be a tough tour even though the mileage was kep= t to a minimum. Spectacular scenery

was enjoyed by all as can b= e seen in the ‘my pictures’ section of the website. Most of the passes included on the rough itinerary were climbed including many used in the Tou= r of France.

Camping Weeken= d in the Vale of Pickering

1^st July to 5= ^th July

Cancelled due to lack of interest.

Birthday Rides= at Bala

29^th July to = 1^st August

The CTC Birthday Rides was organised by the ‘Welsh Festival of Cycling= 217; and held at Bala Rugby Club, Bala, Gwynedd. Although only a long weekend rather tha= n a full week it was well organised and catered particularly well for cycling families with young children. Howard, Betty, Pearl and myself in our motor homes and Marcus wit= h his tent were the only members from our section and D.A. although there were a number of members from the Nuneaton Section. The organised Sunday ride was = very well supported cycling along the side of Bala Lake, up the easy side?? of Bwlch= -y-Groes and down to the visitors centre at Lake Vyrnwy for lunch. The afternoon ride crossed the dam and up the north side of the = lake to climb back to Bala over the Hirnant Pass.

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Pearl & Betty climbing Bwlch-y-Groes

Pearl eventually reaches the top of Bwlch-y-Groes

We rode the organised ride for Saturday on the Monday and it appeared that many others at the rally did the same. We ran into rain in the morning as we cyc= led through Llandrillo and Cyn= wyd with its youth hostel to Corwen for lunch. The = sun came out in the afternoon as we travelled along narrow roads on the north s= ide of the river Dee with superb views of the valley, through Llandderfel, and back to Bala.

Mildenhall Rally Weekend

26^th to 29th August

Five motor homes and a tent from our section arrived at the rally for the weeken= d. Most of the eleven section members enjoyed a ride to P= rickwillow pumping station on the Saturday – see history page for further detail= s. Sunday was spent around the trade stands, in particular the market in the afternoon. Many members visited a local Sunday market not far from the site= . Once again a very well organised and enjoyable weekend.

Church Rides<= /span>

10^th/11^t=
h September

Only two units managed to get to Knossington for the weekend. The weather on Saturday was appalling raining for practically the whole day so only Pearl and myself set out managing to visit 18 churches= and raise £65 for the Historic Churches of Leicestershire restoration fun= d. Pictures of four of the most unusual churches can be seen under ‘YOUR PICTURES’ section of this website. Sunday was a little better when we cycled to the the Rutland Railway museum between Ashwell and Cottesmore, full of rusting steam engines desperately requiring renovation and a useful café for a coffee stop= . We also explored the remains of a canal that appears to have run between Oakham and Melton but can find little about the histo= ry of this waterway.

Camping Weeken= d to see the Severn Bore

16^th to 20th September

The Seve= rn Bore camping weekend attracted 3 motor homes to a very well kept site at Bulley west of Gloucester. The Severn Bore is really worth seeing. The river slowly flowing at half a = mile per hour along with various bits of rubbish towards the sea is suddenly transformed by a four-foot wave into a 10 mile per hour torrent flowing inl= and. The best place to see the bore we found was on Telford’s Bridge in Gloucester. The b= ridge itself has been bypassed and goes nowhere so is an ideal place to wait for = the bore. Pictures taken from the bridge of the bore can be seen under ‘Y= OUR PICTURES’ section of this website. The docks at Gloucester and Bristol that have been redeveloped for tourism and very attractive were also visited during the long weekend.

Camping Weeken= d at Hallaton

8^th – 9= ^th October

Due to most of the easyriders having something else= on for the weekend the rest of us took a late camping weekend on the spur of t= he moment to a super site at Hallaton. On Saturday= a hilly morning route took us along some narrow lanes to Illston-on-the-Hill where we met the Photographic & Loiterers just before they held their A= GM. The return route was a little easier but included some rough stuff near Slawston. Sunday’s ride took us along a quiet c= ycle route from Welham to Market Harborough.

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