Monday 13 April 2009

April Fools Run

Easter Sunday dawned bright and sunny with light winds.The omens looked good for a fine days riding on Exmoor.

Starting from the Corn Dolly in South Molton, where we are always sure of a warm welcome and a good cup of coffee, twenty one riders set off over the moors.

The first section of our ride took us though lanes that are, at this time of the year, festooned with daffodils and primroses, to North Molton Ridge and Sandyway Cross.Then we began the steady climb up to Fyldon Common which, at nearly 500 metres high, offers a fine view to the west where Appledore could clearly be seen 18 miles away. At Kingsford Gate we turned right to meander down in to Simonsbath. Then on the B3223 for the climb back up onto the Moor at Blackpitts Gate and across to Brendon Barton where a right turn led along a narrow road with gradients of 1 in 4 both up and down to Malmsmead

At Malmsmead we (that is most of us) crossed Badgworthy Water via the ford and headed east, passing Oare Church of Lorna Doone fame and over Robbers Bridge. We left this pretty valley by way of a testing 1 in 4 hill with a very steep hairpin bend. At the top we joined the A39 for the spectacular ride across Porlock Common, with a clear view across the Severn Estuary to Wales, and down in to Porlock. Here riders made their own arrangments for lunch in some of the eating places available in this picturesque village.

After lunch riders made their own way home, some going east, some west, whilst some went south, back across the Moor to Simonsbath for a cup of tea.