A dry day was promised after a few days of persistent rain. Handy for a Saturday. With a moderate wind coming from the south, I thought I’d do my “other” southbound route, which differs from the usual one in that it turns off down Fosse Way after Stoney Stanton.
Pretty mild out there. I set off just after 0900. The roads were wet from yesterday’s rain for the first hour or two, so I took the Boardman.
Cool for the first couple of hours but I got the clothing strategy just right. I stuffed a fleece and a nylon outer layer into my backpack after Brinklow, while I gorged on a sausage roll that I’d bought in the village shop there. Brinklow is also the home of the Lost Deli, but it wasn’t open when I got there.
I hadn’t been down this route for quite some time – I think I’ve only ever done it four or five times – and I did manage to take a wrong turn, down Watling Street (also known as the A5). Fortunately it narrowed to a single carriageway after about half a mile so I was able to do a U turn.
I went down Fosse Way as far as a place called Princethorpe – I don’t think I’ve been down that far before, I’d done 36 miles at this point – and I took a left to go exploring. I found myself on a very pleasant, well-surfaced and delightfully flat stretch of road. I did about three miles of this then I came to a T junction with a very busy road, so I decided to turn for home. As it turns out I was a few miles from the south-western outskirts of Rugby.
I took the above pic at the High Cross monument, which marks the centre of Roman Britain at the intersection of two great Roman roads (Fosse Way and Watling Street). You might remember that it was featured in Great British Car Journeys a few years ago.
Just found this old bit of film from 1966 in which it’s featured, as well, about 30 seconds in:
https://www.macearchive.org/films/atv-today-14121966-fosse-way-part-three
I listened to 6 Music for a bit, then I started the next Reacher audiobook, The Enemy. The last one (Persuader) featured some flashbacks to Reacher’s time in the army, and I suppose Lee Childs must have got the taste for it because this one is set wholly in Reacher’s army days. Makes a change, I guess. Written in the first person again. I prefer the third person ones. Annoyingly the audiobook MP3s were a bit quiet even with the volume right up but I can fix them.
Back on 79.36 miles, which makes this possibly my first Quadruple Fondo October. 422 done this month, which is 72 miles over target, and about five miles short of target + last month’s deficit.
That was a really nice run out, I must go down that way more often, especially the flat stretch near Rugby. Probably one of my five or six favourite rides this year.