Well, it was the hottest day of the year, so what better way to spend it than riding around some of the picturesque countryside?
    I had already been away since Friday, down at High Offley, but the sun drove me out of the 'dog kennel' at six in the morning, and by nine o clock I was back home and ready to head out once again.
    The plan was to set off from Kath's house, head towards Craven Arms, via Clee Hill.  Stop for dinner at Craven Arms, then head to the waterfall at Llanrhaeadr Ym Mochnant, where we would meet up with Sizzle and Di.  Amazingly enough, things went almost to plan.
"Almost" I hear you say ?  Well, we did manage to lose Mark.  Seems he stopped to answer his 'phone, and failed to notice we had turned left at the Island.

First stop of the day was at the summit of Clee Hill.

Even riding along, the air temperature was decidedly uncomfortable.  When we reached the top of Clee Hill, the air had cooled down enough to be almost refreshing.  We took advantage of the stop, and 'phoned Mark, who it seems was just down the road, so before long there were four of us once more.
    The next stop was the Station Cafe at Craven Arms for a well deserved nibble, before setting off for the waterfall.  Sure enough, when we arrived at the falls, there were Dave and Di's bikes, and, logically enough, Dave and Di were there also !

The Welsh version of "Big Foot"

We just *had* to soak various parts of our anatomy in the water, so it looks like bad  news for any wildlife that was downstream :-)

Assorted Moonshiners and Ex-Moonshiners revel in the cooling spray.

    After wandering around and checking out the camping facilities, we gathered back at the car park and said farewell to Dave and Di.

L to R.    Mark.....Myself........Roy........Di..........Dave.      

The rest of the day was spent meandering our way towards home.  We had a slight diversion due to an overturned lorry blocking Wenlock Edge.  We called in at the Moore Arms, which used to be a very popular "rally pub" back in the 1980's, but the field is now more like a landfill site.  Whilst on the "rally pub" theme, we passed what used to be the "Wayside Inn", at Marshbrook.   This is now a rather upmarket pub called the "Station", and the access road to the camping field is now fenced off and contains a horse.  If things keep going on in this manner, there will be no "rally pubs" left - -  or is that the idea ?
    There seemed to be a "red" theme to this journey, Kath on the red Ducati, Mark on his newly painted Thundercat { red, of course } and myself on the big red ugly bike.  Roy managed a red rocker box cover, so we let him off.  I was quite surprised at the fuel economy of the B.R.U.B - 172 miles on 11.44 litres, or 2½ gallons in real money.  That works out at 68  m.p.g.  Not bad for an 800 cc  vee twin.  Kath's Ducati went on to reserve at roughly the same time as mine, and used almost the same amount of fuel
    We rolled up at the "Rising Sun" by half past nine, and spent the last hour sitting outside enjoying a well earned pint.  All in all, a "Grand day out" as Wallace and Gromit would have said.

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