Rain this morning and mostly a pretty dismal day early on, so I was a bit surprised to discover that it was rather warm out there when I left the house. Almost scorchio, and the sun had come out.
Today’s plan was to do the southbound route for a bit, then come back the same way. I got to Stoney Stanton on about 18 miles and was about to turn back, when – on a whim – I decided to take the right turn at the roundabout and find a different way home. I’d come home that way a few times in the past so it was really just a question of remembering the route. Which I didn’t. Instead I found myself, after a while, on a fairly busy A road which I remembered from the days when I used to commute to Coventry by car, over ten years ago. I must confess that I used the cycle lane. I don’t usually do that as a rule, but it looked nice and clear of gravel and debris. And pedestrians.
I came to a big roundabout next to a Morrisons and I thought I knew the way from there from my old commute, but I took a wrong turn, through Stoke Golding. This took me to Fenn Lanes a few miles further on though, very familiar territory. I took the left turn off Fenn Lanes toward Shenton and sat for a while on the Judith Birch bench, munching a cheese pasty and idly watching the sheep in the field opposite.
The road from Shenton to Bosworth was blocked by a flood (as documented photographically below) so I backtracked and took a road signposted to Sutton Cheney at the previous junction. This was quite fortuitous as it took me along Albion Lane. I’ve done that a couple of times in the past and remembered it as being pleasant, but wasn’t sure where it was when I’ve thought of doing it again. So I found it without actually looking for it. It leads right to the junction where one of my favourite benches at Sutton is situated. I must remember that.
Back the usual way, or one of them, from there. Very nice run out, a nice adventure. I’ll try to devise a route that takes in the pleasant stretch of road near Stoke Golding while avoiding the A road with the cycle lane.
I overheated a little at first but was very comfortable later on. A thick layer of cloud rolled over before long and I thought it might rain, but it didn’t.
Amazingly my Roberts personal DAB has got another 4 hours, 22 minutes out of its first pair of AAs, bringing the total to more than 28 hours. I would have been happy with 10 hours, and surprised with 15. And the batteries aren’t done yet. I must remember to put a glowing review on Amazon.
42.59 miles which takes me to 430 this month and 35,000 since I started doing this regularly in January 2015.