Zoomed up the Gorge. 34

Cheddar Gorge has been laughing at me for about 4 years now since I last tried it on a borrowed bike with much lower gears than the one I had.  Then, I had to stop for a time at the 'steep bit' a third of the way up. Once I had walked past that bit, it wasn't too bad. Now the age of electricity is upon us so here goes again. The map below includes the ride profile, so reading it from left to right, the initial steep section can be seen then a reasonable slope up to the top of Burrington Combe at 907 feet. Surprising how much chillier it was up there.

The Little Gits

Started the ride on the promenade at Weston accompanied by the three youngest grandchildren, the Little Gits! They just had to see Granddad off.  Went from there along the southern edge of the Mendips, over the A38 (that was a bit hairy at a busy crossroads) down through Axbridge and into Cheddar.  It was there I met the Law.

The Law

Met them in a nice way fortunately.  Three Police Community Support Officers were marking bikes as a crime prevention initiative.  It was free, so why not.  It didn't take but a few minutes and 'Sparky' is now registered and tagged on a National Database.  Bargain. The three young ladies were very friendly, knowledgeable, and a credit to Avon and Somerset Police. I would recommend any readers of this to contact their local Police Station to see if they offer a similar facility. Avon and Somerset will attend your home address to do it if necessary. (It might cost you a cup of tea. Be warned)

High Price alert

Carried on from there up Cheddar Gorge, a very busy place, full of tourists. I did stop for tea and cake before the climb at this place, Holly House. I cannot recommend it if your wallet is not bursting at the seams. £2.40 for a cup of tea and £3.90 for a slice of cake. I had the tea before I saw the price.   No cake today thank you.  Annoyingly, I had forgotten that a 100 yards further on is a nice little place that does tea and a scone for £2.50.



Started the climb from there and with the power assistance, made it up fine although the steepest part did need the highest levels power, 'rocket mode' as the handbook says. Once over that part, it was back to the lowest setting and a fairly easy couple of miles up to the highest point, the top of Burrington Combe. (You may recall the junction where we waited M and G.)  From there it was a zoom down the Combe and a ride back to Weston into a headwind unfortunately, but again, power assistance helped with that.
Very pleased with the 34 miles done this morning which made 151 for the week.  That just about puts me back on track for 5,000 for the year after the slow start to the year.