Birmingham................

So, what to do on a Saturday? Well go for a ride to Birmingham of course! Silly question.....
Well is it really? Hummmm....as you will know, I hate cycling in the rain so when the weather forecast changed from dry, to wet and back to dry...then wet and sigh... dry-ish... I thought...bugger the weather man, I am off out!

So, off I went in what should only be described as “mizzle”.... a sort of wet drizzle which gets everywhere....nevermind I thought... it would be dry by 10am and then I would dry up....am I allowed to swear here???? It basically rained the whole way. Sigh.

The ride... unlike Wednesday when I “blasted” down to Penkridge, this time I took my time making it in 35 minutes... its a bit difficult when you can't really see where you are going and then on to the Wolverhampton in about 90 minutes. Now, I have done the ride to Wolverhampton before but the locks into down don't get any easier! Never done the rest of the route although I have seen from the train....

Hummm...what can I say about the canal path from Wolverhampton to Birmingham? Well, it goes through some derelict areas of old factories and some of the paths were getting muddy. I did enjoy walking through the Coseley Tunnel which at 320 yards long was too dark to cycle.
So, did I get to Birmingham.... sad to say with about 4 miles to go I decided that I was too wet to go on so climbed the hill to Smethwick station and got the train home. I am sure if it wasn't raining I would have made it.

Anyway, a 25 mile ride is the longest I have done so far but, did I enjoy it....hummm, sort of.

http://gb.mapometer.com/en/cycling/route_202070.html

Interestingly...it took me 3 hours 30 to cycle there...and only 40 minutes to get the train back...sigh,

On a more positive note, the cycle from the station back home was no bother. I thought I might have been tired, but it wasnt really an effort.

http://gb.mapometer.com/en/cycling/route_202077.html

So, 26.5 miles in one day... not bad.