As the country comes to terms with 'social distancing' measures set out by the government in order to mitigate the risk of spreading the Coronavirus, a big dilemma is deciding if we should go for a ride this weekend, or stay at home and isolate ourselves some more. Myself and Mark came to the conclusion by taking a little care, keeping the suggested two metre distance from each other, we should enjoy this sunny Sunday and head out West to ride some of those long awaited roads through Herefordshire and beyond. Despite all of the usual biker meet cafes being closed, we met on the OK Diner car park in Leominster, and it seemed many other bikers had the same idea too. At one point I counted at least a dozen bikes on the garage car park next door, but thankfully most did seem to keep their distance from each other, a real mix of sports bikes, adventure bikes and the odd Harley too. The biker community have all been waiting too long for a suitable dry sunny weekend day, so today was just too good an opportunity to get our fix, and for me personally a long awaited relief away from a week or so working from home alone.
Keep apart folks, abide by the rules 👍
Mark suggested we head out to the wonderful Llyn Brianne reservoir via Builth Wells, to wind our way up through the valley where the river meets the reservoir. I left Mark to the navigation, and followed. The roads out here are superb, hardly any traffic today and finally, a great opportunity to get a good 'lick' on through the twisties at last. It was cool with a biting wind up on top but we chose to stop and eat our packed lunches looking down over the reservoir. I have to say I was missing my usual 'Full English' today, but thankfully I had prepared a flask of hot tea to help keep warm. There were quite a few bikes parked up here too, and many others had driven up to sit in their cars and admire the view as well.
Our route back took us over 'Sugar Loaf' to Llandrindod Wells, before heading into Shropshire via Clun and Craven Arms. I left Mark who decided to visit his parents who live in the area, so I headed toward Bridgnorth before taking that fun back road to Kinlet, Button Oak and on through Bewdley. A good deal of fun it was too, and good to get away from all of that bad news on he telly for a bit. I believe the decision to ride today was the right one, there is plenty of discussion on forums suggesting we should stay at home and polish our bikes instead, but in my mind keeping some level of sanity by simply riding a motorcycle that has always been a mostly solitary pursuit anyway goes along way to avoiding 'cabin fever' we shall all most likely suffer in the coming weeks!
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