Sandown to Stornoway Cycle Ride......at last. By Mike Coleran: Day Two

Day Two

Wednesday September 12th 2012

Salisbury to Malmesbury

Mileage today - 71

Total mileage so far - 139

After yesterday's battle against a strong headwind, today was a breeze!(Pun intended)

Woke up early to see the sun shining and not a movement amongst the trees outside my bedroom window. Simon soon had breakfast on the go and, suitably fuelled up I was on the road by 8-15. Taking a canny route out of the city that Simon had shown me last night, I was soon easily passing Old Sarum and up the beautiful Woodford Valley,

alongside the River Avon. At Upavon I decided to take a chance and see if I could get on the cycle way which crosses Salisbury Plain. It is occasionally closed for military purposes, but I had been told that was not often. I was looking forward to that traffic free few miles, but I should have known when I heard the sounds of heavy artillery in the distance. Sure enough I was turned away by an armed soldier when I got the the start of the trail. That meant an extra ten miles extra on the days total. But what the heck! I passed a pub further down the road which almost summed up what I though about being turned back. It was called 'The Bustard'!

I managed to keep to very quiet back lanes through lovely Wiltshire villages up to the outskirts of Devizes. It was lunchtime and I was getting hungry, but I had to wait another hour until I got to Calne to find a cafe. There is a great shortage of country cafes/tearooms in this part of the world.

From Calne it was an easy 20 miles to Malmesbury, where I arrived about 3-30. After a coffee there and a walk around the Abbey grounds, I rode the final two miles to my b&b. A warm welcome, a hot bath, and a double bed in a lovely old farmhouse - just the ticket! Evening meal at 6-30.

I have been trying to upload some photos on here but am having trouble integrating them with the text. I will try to put some below but I

cant put captions on them for some reason. So if they are below, you will just have to guess where they are! Back tomorrow.