Respite

Divination Diversion

The Sun was shining brightly this morning and my black Behrings did their thing with the on-board solar heating. The surface was quite dry, too, and the traffic spaced well enough apart to turn an intended "slow day" into an exhilarating feast of sweeping over takes and maximum throttle passes.

By West Meon, though; tired and bord from 3-days back on the bike and back up the same road, the over zealousness of the fog-riding all but a distant memory, I sacked it. I turned right toward East Meon.

We were in Bayeux the other weekend and at the tapestry there's a model of East Meon as it was in Norman times. I just clicked in my head, "check it out".

The little road meandered under the old Meaon Valley Railway via duct and the road dampened over cow pats and other animal shit (mud, if you will) making progress needfully slow. Given the stunning vistas of greens, blues, and other country sights (including sheep - not many of those I've seen down here: ah, sheep) and smells the easy ride was most welcome.

East Meon came and went. I noted the Norman church had had some idiotic spire stuck onto it in some century and that the Norman manor house remains behind its Norman wall, and that the model seemed to have omitted just how steep a freaking hill the one behind the church is, and then the village had passed.

East Meon Church - and that bloody awful steeple

Do I try to feed back to the A32 by turning right with Godfrey's Dead Reckoning at the helm, or do I continue the advertised 4-miles toward Pertersfield and skip up the A3 and then the A325 through (slow, oh so slow) Borden? By surprise, I happ'ed across the tail end of the A272, a famously craved bikers' favourite leading back to Loomies (just 1 mile North of West Meon where I'd turned off). What the hell?

There was no sense of rush; no great urgency. I was on a mini-break from the A32 and loving every minute. Back under another viaduct-cum-tunnel under an impressive embankment and all too soon there was the West Meon Hut and the Loomies junction.

I needed some time out. I thought it was needed away from Shadowfax but I found it's possible to relax together. It's the first time I've really enjoyed riding for some days.