This was our first weekend away for several years, it would have been nice to take more people but the caravan we stayed in was too small for three of us!! We started with a cooked breakfast then off in the van to Lymington to catch the ferry to Yarmouth. The ferry arrived at 12:15PM and we started the 25 mile route from MBR immediately.
First of all we missed the turning and ended up going on a 3 mile detour. Eventually we were back on track and heading for the hills.
The first part of the ride was along a flat cycle path in to Freshwater, then on to the bridle-track and over the hills. The surface was excellent - hard and well compacted and very fast rolling. Once up on to the ridge the views were the best I've ever seen from the saddle and the air seemed to have twice as much Oxygen as Bristol's. We continued along the ridge and ended up in Newport, there we stopped for a cup of tea and for Jason to eat (again!!). The next piece of the MBR ride was a fairly long road section back into Yarmouth. Now we were there for off-roading and decided to try and make our own route back which, although did include a noticeable road section, ended us up on top the ridge again for some excellent down hill's back into Freshwater. We started by Jason being ungracefully dismounted (stood still in the town centre) as part of his in induction to the SPD club! we then went on a 10 mile short cut which ended us back in Newport!! Next the road stint, at this point we had already done approx. 25 miles and as we all know road riding isn't the most exciting and moral elavating thing you can do. Anyway we finally found our way (with the Help of Gray's map reading skills) to the ridge again. And what a worth while climb it was, when we finally reached the top the sun was just setting and we were privy to a fantastic view. As luck would have it some walkers were coming past and I took the opportunity to ask them to take a photo (the films currently being developed and the pics will be published here). We then continued along the ridge and down through the golf course and back into Freshwater and Yarmouth at 6:30PM.
We were in the saddle for over 6 hours and covered approx. 40 miles, what a fantastic day and everyone enjoyed it and felt a real sense of accomplishment.
Straight out of the car park and into the first pub for Liver & Onions and Mash ... Ohh and a pint!!
We met numerous MTB'ers on the trails and everyone was very friendly, it really felt good and I have no doubt that we'll be going back again one day. But South Wales first !!