Another dry afternoon. I had mounted the X by 4:30pm. With an immoderate wind coming from the north-west, I decided it would be quite nice to go up over Swarkestone Bridge and west along my beloved long A road next to the river. This usually involves going straight up to Melbourne first, but when I came to the crossroads near Lount, I encountered a ROAD CLOSED sign.
To be fair I’d encountered exactly the same sign while driving to Derby on Friday, to be vaccinated. I’d just forgotten about it. So I took exactly the same detour that I made up as I went along on Friday, bypassing Ashby and going through Smisby and Ticknall.
Quite enjoyed myself but I stopped for a wee about a mile short of Willington and noticed that my rechargeable rear light had run out of juice. Not a huge problem as I had an AAA-powered spare, but actually I did wonder if that was nearing the end of its current-battery lifetime as well. So I decided to turn back. However by the time I’d reached Swarkestone I’d decided to press on, through Weston, Aston and Shardlow, to come back down through Donington and Top Brand, where I took this pic. The orange dot is a church on a hill at Breedon that’s illuminated at night.
Not cold. Really quite nice out there. Listened mostly to the Monday Night Club on 5 Live.
A young lady emerged from a side road on one of those battery-powered scooters on the A road, near Barrow on Trent. I assumed I’d be overtaking her over the next minute or so but nope, she left me for dead! I wasn’t pushing hard and there was a bit of a headwind but even so, I was surprised. Those things must be very handy for commuting. I might get one to propel myself around the West End when the pandemic is over. Easy enough to take on a train.
Back on 42.90 miles.