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Nine bikes and 11 people met at the usual start point, but at the more leisurely time of 10.30 a.m. The weather forecast for the day was favourable and so we set off on Sunday 10th May on a Pack ride-out for lunch at the Thames Head Inn, Gloucestershire. This pub, situated on the A433 between the popular Gloucestershire towns of Tetbury (5.7 miles) and Cirencester (2.8 miles), is said to be named after the spot where the River Thames begins its 154 mile journey to London Bridge. But first, we headed up the beautiful Wye Valley, past Tinturn and on to Brockweir for our first coffee stop. Here, we had planned to meet bill, Sarah, Martin and Fay on their 3 bikes, but we also met up with Bob on his Sprint ST; he had been late for the start and had guessed where we might stop for coffee and so took the motorway route to get there ahead of us.
With numbers now swelled to 16 people on 13 bikes, we headed off via B-roads through the Forest of Dene to the outskirts of Gloucester and then on towards Cirencester to meet the Cirencester to Tetbury road. We met very little traffic on these beautiful roads through idyllic Cotswold countryside and, after approximately 90 miles we all arrived together at the Thames Head Inn. There was the opportunity for people to walk the mile-and-a-half across the fields to find the source of the Thames, but everyone had more sense than that and had lunch in the sunshine in the pub garden and watched the free historic aircraft flying display overhead, courtesy of nearby RAF Kemble. Lenny had to take his shirt off in the sunshine to show us all his new tattoo, although someone said that it looked like he'd got a nasty case of ringworm in his shoulder!
After a lazy lunch and the obligatory group photo, we saddled up and headed for home via more scenic roads. The plan was to take a B-road to meet up with the Old Severn Crossing and then continue back along the A48; unfortunately, we got to within about a mile of the bridge and took a wrong turning, which eventually meant that we joined the M4 and crossed the Severn on the new bridge - oh well, it was at least on the way home! For those who stayed on the M4 west beyond Junction 30, there was a massive traffic jam between Junctions 30 and 32 as a result of a lorry-load of hay that caught fire on the motorway. Serious filtering was needed to make progress, as well as frequent use of the horn to clear rubber-necking car drivers who were strolling around the carriageway!
This was another superb day out - good riding, good weather, good venue and above all, good company. See you at the next one on Sunday 17th May 2009?
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