Dunkery Dash – a top day out
Skardy and I went out on the Dunkery Dash today, a point well earned I reckon. It’s out and back from North Petherton near Bridgwater and the control is a horsebox equipped with mountains of cake and a tea urn up on the highest point of the road by Dunkery Beacon. Climb out of NP was fine, followed by a dash down the hill to Cothelstone. The hill from Elworthy to Ralegh’s Cross was complete murder, but up on Exmoor we tagged on with a faster group and hung off the back most of the way to the checkpoint. Stopped for a cup of tea at North Wheddon Farm (www.northwheddonfarm.co.uk) to see Julian the proprietor – he was telling us about the snow. They had four feet of snow, they lost all their animals in it and had to go rescue them, and it took them ten hours to dig their car out. That’s weather 🙂
Not so hard on the way back (net downhill) but the climb from Cothelstone is a killer, especially when there’s a guy chillaxin’ on the hairpin and you think he’s made it to the top when there’s another mile to go. You know who you are. Altogether we turned it round in 5h17 with about 45 mins of stops, so not bad for a fat lad, although i did have the benefit of a BMC SLC01 🙂
Here’s a pic of Skardy at the top – thanks for the company and the encouragement!