When you have to ride, Ride! Don’t talk.

Ok so a play on words from .. “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” ... the scene when ‘Tuco’ is in the bath and about to meet his fate, before pointing out how “When you have to shoot, Shoot!”. My indecision was similar, and undecided if I should go for a ride today. I kept talking about it, then couldn’t make my mind up and changed my mind several times, in the end the sun was shining so I just went for it, quickly plotting a simple route on my Navigator to follow the Wye river through that wonderful Mocas deer park estate to Bredwardine and then, after crossing the wooden toll bridge (free for bikes) into Hay before heading off towards Brecon turning off toward Builth Wells.

At Builth I ran the river run twice on the East side along the B4567 in a loop, tracking the river all the way following that stunning valley. The temperature now rising up to 15 degrees, what a great choice. At no point did I feel the need to put some music on, just listening to the bikes engine note humming along. At Builth I pulled up at the a Burger King next to a few bikes and ordered the smallest meal they did .. some chicken bite thing .. (tip don’t bother), before seeing the equally healthy Greggs opposite and stood chatting to a couple of chaps. One had ridden up from Pembrokeshire on his mint black Bandit 1200s. A few others joined the party including a couple on a K1600 fully loaded too. Later, I passed the Crosssgates cafe, the car park full of bikes as usual and took the turn off towards Knighton and on towards Clun. I spotted this old barn in Bledfa that looked interesting enough for a stop and photo. It looked ancient like it had stood there for hundreds of years. The roof slate was in a right state but the construction harks back to a time before brick and corrugated steel we see today.

 

While heading toward Craven Arms I took a left turn up to Clunton and did a loop around Clunbury up high along a narrow lane or two before winding my way near a small hamlet called Twitchen. Great being high on that ridge and I stopped to watch a huge Buzzard hovering not to far away. No fear of traffic up here, so I stopped the engine and admired the view from up high for a while before heading on home via the Bridgnorth road passing by the biker stop Cafe at Quatt. Definitely to shoot was the right decision, sometimes you can just overthink it, instead go for the ride .. I’m glad I did 😁.