22.06.2025 51km + 72cm.

 ~o~

  Sunday 22nd 59F/15C [7.00] Bright, with sunshine until 18.00. Then rain at 20.00. It could reach 27C/80F or even higher in the late afternoon.

 Up at 6.15 after a very quiet night. I deliberately avoided coffee after dinner. Organic apple juice and a glass or two of water throughout the day. 

 Cast concrete for a railway cutting close to the motorway. The main road will pass over both.

 7.05 Time for a walk. 

7.40 64F/18C. Back again. I was comfortably warm in a t-shirt. Having looped around the spray tracks on a field. Perhaps not a good idea. My bare forearms are itching like mad! I have rinsed them well and applied cornflower water. 

 I have a choice now. Do I wash the gravel or fill the tub? I can't do both with only one hose. Or do I go for a ride? It's not as if I need the exercise. I've had plenty over the last few days. Rain is forecast for the next week. Which will certainly dent my desire to ride my bike. I can wash gravel and fill ponds regardless of the weather. Or because of it. If it's to be a ride then where do I go? There's a modest SE breeze.

 Some serious shuttering for casting concrete. Taken from the south side under the motorway. Which means the railway passes over the top of the new construction. Which must mean it is a bridge.

 As I don't feel like a longer ride I will explore progress on the new high speed railway line. There are lots of road closures. With staggered dates. Presumably nobody will be working on Sunday. So I can take a few pictures of the earthworks and new builds. Without being a nuisance. 

 I have printed out the project map and closure dates. To take with me. The new line runs close to the motorway and requires lots of new cuttings and bridges. The road closures are a real nuisance for those traveling north-south. With several shopping villages closed off to normal traffic for several months. 

 Shuttering on the north side of the same cutting. 
The motorway embankment is visible on the left.

 Made worse by simultaneous, long term, district heating, road closures. The latter all the more irritating for road closures remaining in place despite no work being done at the weekends. 

 A detour by car is not remotely the same thing as by bike. Sitting for five minutes at temporary traffic lights is no fun in the rain! Though not today. When everything was dust dry. Much of the area is very hilly. Though only of modest heights and drops. Sparsely populated by farms and small villages.

 9.30 Morning coffee over. Phone recharged. Off we go.

 Footpath tunnel under the motorway. Accessed from steps at the top of long narrow lane climbing a hill.

 12.20 28C/82F Warm, sunny and breezy. Back from a 51km ride. Perfect conditions spoilt only slightly by the increasing wind. I reached both sides of some road closures.  I am glad it was Sunday. There is a huge amount of earth moving going on. So the narrow lanes would probably have been busy with tipper lorries. On a normal, working weekday. There were hundreds of bikers in convoy on the motorway. 

~o~