Midlander's Mash Up 41

What a cracking day.  Had a planned visit today from two mates from Warwickshire, Mick and Graham.  Avid readers of this blog, they were keen to seen the local area from two wheels for themselves.  Arriving at my house at 9am, we were soon on the road and setting off south for a planned 40 mile circuit of not only the Somerset Levels, but some of the periphery areas as well.  Once the 'rat run' of the A370 was behind us, we climbed out of Bleadon Village and dropped down onto the Levels and went out through Mark, across to Chapel Allerton and stopped at the Ashton Windmill for a photo call, and to admire the view.  On then to Wedmore for tea and toasted tea cake at Nana Ida's Tea Room in Church Street. Out then via Sand Road to West Ham and Burnham on Sea and the Bay View Cafe for more tea. This time, it was my treat being a birthday boy tomorrow.

 Photo shoot

Heading home from Burnham, we realised that no photos had been taken.  Going through Lympsham and the Bleadon nature reserve, we stopped short of Uphill and posed for photos using the part derelict St Nicholas Church as a back drop.  This is me and Graham followed by Mick and myself.  Graham needs more tuition on a phone camera, he made the church disappear.

End of the line

Arriving back home we were just under half a mile short of the 40 mile target so we carried on to the Tropicana on the sea front to a) push the mileage up a tad and b) check out possible places for a fish and chip dinner by the sea.  Looking for someone to take a group shot, a passing street cleaner obliged.

What a star.

This young lady, despite being very busy, found the time to help us out. Not having a mobile phone at all, she took our picture and made a good job of it.  What a lovely personality she had.  You can see from her hair that the wind was quite strong and this helped us to decide that sitting outside for a meal was not an option, we would freshen up and go to a pub!

Strava logged the journey as 41.4 miles, we were chuffed to bits with that.  Despite a spot of rain at Burnham and spending a fair proportion heading into a stiffish breeze, we all thoroughly enjoyed it. Must have been good, they want to come back!