View Item

2016-01-25 00:00:00Taunton
January 2016 Report

The Ordnance Survey maps of Devon are often very pink. This is because of the density of the contour lines which means the roads, if they cross them tend to be very steep. When selecting the route for the ride on Saturday 16th January care was taken to ensure the route was on ‘white bits’ rather than ‘pink bits.’ The Taunton Group from Somerset were able to venture down the M5 with the tandems in/on their cars to the ‘bandit’ country of East Devon and start the ride from the National Trust House of Killerton. Free parking and a café is a prerequisite. Five and a half tandems present and we headed south towards Broadclyst. The weather had been very wet, but the preceding couple of nights had been clear and not surprisingly ,there was some standing water which had frozen. Nevertheless this was minimal and disappeared during the morning. Unclassified roads were then followed to the small villages of Talaton, Dulford, Mutterton and Clyst Hydon. These villages are not exactly household names (unless you live in one of them). For Devon lanes they are reasonably wide (ie just about the width of a car) but there were good views because there were not too many steep Devon banks. Traffic was pretty minimal, just a few cars and horses. It was decided to deviate from normal protocol and instead of having lunch en-route. The whole ride was completed without a lunch stop and return to Killerton for luncheon. This was because of the limited daylight hours. There had been a minor debate about the final leg of the ride back to Killerton. It had been planned to take the old A38 (now B3181). This is a straight road which no longer carries much traffic however the cars that use it frequently fly past quicker than the cars on the adjacent M5. For this reason the lanes through the Ashclyst Forest were chosen. This was decidedly more lumpy and traffic free and there were times when the wisdom of this choice may have been questioned. However when reminded that the lunch stop and destination were literally just round the next bend – any mutiny was averted! It was about 25 miles in total on easy to follow Devon lanes, which although it was not a fast route, itwas scenic and with little traffic.