Bradford to Bath

Sunday was the second day of our West country adventure and an early morning cycle ride along the Kennet and Avon from picturesque Bradford the nine or so miles along the soggy towpath to Bath, chucking up mud behind us as we went. It was a lovely ride up and out over the Avoncliff aqueduct, along to Dundas Basin and then a final loop approach to the Bath lock flight and a swoop into the town itself, just in time as the morning's blue skies darkened and the rain began to fall.

We locked up our bikes and headed off for refreshment at the impressive teashop emporium which is hidden underground in a vaulted basement near the city centre. The menu was mind boggling, offering pages of exotic taste and flavour combinations from all four corners of the globe. It seem churlish to ask for a coffee.

Time rushed by and we soon found ourselves needing to return. Unfortunately despite the surveillance cameras trained on the bike racks where we'd locked up somebody had liberated my front tyre, leaving a sorry looking frame chained to the post. The situation got worse when we realised that buses were replacing the normal train services back to Bradford, and there was no way of getting the bikes on board. In the end we had to relock them, catch a bus to pick up the car, return to Bath, chuck the bikes in the back and head home to London. An odd image of Beau Brummel laughing manically on a unicycle going round my head.

.