CYCLE TOWARDS AUTUMN.......

CYCLIST ON THE TARKA TRAIL AT MEETH STATION

It doesn't seem possible....Here we are now in September. 
Most peoples holidays are now over and the children are starting to return to school for the start of a new term. 
I am now back home following my own family holiday and hopefully the local roads over my favourite cycling routes will start to become quieter as the main tourist season draws to an end....... 

In many ways it has not been a good year so far for my cycling....
At the start of the year I had so much planned and due to either  the weather or other reasons most of the planning has ended up in the cancellation bin. 

A touring trip in France was cancelled due to various group members having hospital appointments that couldn't be altered and a week long  cycling trip back over to the Isle of Wight had to be abandoned right at the start because of atrocious wet weather backed up by huge winds - and that's just two of the trips that were planned, on top of these there were quite a few Sportives with DNS against my name due to atrocious weather conditions..... 

Just before I went away on this recent holiday JD sent me a text to let me know that due to another appointment that couldn't be changed he would be unable to take part in the Lon Las Cymru ride that we had planned to start on the 8th September. 
Still no worry I thought, we would miss JD on the ride but that still left Peter and I riding and Dave crewing the motorhome that we would be using as our 'team bus'.....then... whilst I was away on holiday I had a text from Peter letting me know that his house move had been delayed and he too wouldn't be able to take part either....

As I really wanted to share this particular ride with at least one other rider it left the trip pretty well dead in the water.  
I know that I could ride the route on my own but I did want to ride this one with company........ 
The older I get the more I feel the importance of not wasting time so I will need to put my thinking cap on and see what can be achieved as we cycle towards Autumn  over the next few months of the year....... 

I thought that I would share one of my monochrome images with you for this post...
Taken earlier in the year it shows an 'old style' rider dressed in shirt and khaki shorts riding along part of the Tarka trail (part of the national cycle network) at Meeth in Devon. 
The exact location is the old Meeth Halt Station and the platform although now overgrown can clearly be seen.........
The scene struck me as a bit 1950's in appearance and I just felt that shooting the image in B&W tuned into the 'overall days gone by' atmosphere...... No cars, just a man on a bike.....perfect!