Oh hayup... That's looking a bit wet that is.
Tregassow Lane, up the shallow end.
Thursday dawned reasonably bright and sunny, after a rather rumbustious night of roaring rain that battered my windows periodically throughout the night. Weather warnings for severe rain had been in place so it wasn't unexpected, and sure enough, the local news web sites were full of stories of people up to their nostrils in floodwater and so on. One such 'flood event' as a big puddle seems to be called these days even took place in this very village, at the bottom of Trispen Hill and erm, right beside the new build housing estate that is in the process of being built, and has already been sporting a pop up lake most of the winter, as always appeared in that corner of the site every year when it was just a field.
I've not seen a flood at the bottom of that hill before, so wonder if the building site has played a part in the way of blocked drains from mud collecting, or increased run off already taking its toll.
Anyway, being a nosey beggar erm... being a concerned citizen and with a litter picking ride in mind, I set off on the Voodoo to go and gawp at the flood only to find it had all gone, and some rather large hoses lying on the verge from where some furious pumping or sucking action had obviously been going on. The show home opens for the first time today, so no doubt the developer was keen to get shot of that flood pronto. They won't be able to hide the big lake in the corner of the site though so lets hope any prospective buyers notice it and pick their plot carefully.
Anyway, the aim of the day's ride was to mooch along Tregassow Lane litter picking, and photography/bloggery wasn't really on my radar, so story telling with photos has once again fallen by the wayside and there are no shots of the gloopy building site to illustrate all that. Maybe next time.
As expected, after such a hefty deluge the night before, Tregassow Lane was also flooded, as it does with remarkably regularity, despite being closed recently for work to be done along it.
Now I'm a big kid when it comes to dicking about on a bike in water, and I always enjoy a goodly splash through deep puddles and fords, and also grabbing some photos too if I can.
So I rode through the lightly flooded early part of the lane in the photo above and made for my usual favourite floody photo spot just around the bends a bit further on, as it's always a bit deeper along there.
With my main 'proper' cameras not being weather sealed professional jobbies, getting them wet is a big no-no, so getting a GoPro was very liberating for me, allowing photos to be taken in all sorts of interesting (well, to me anyway...) ways.
First of all though, I went for the Sea Gull's eye view via my selfie stick...
Casting off for some splashy shots, and I should've tidied up the bin bag hanging out of the right pannier, but hey ho.
My maths teacher always impressed on we kids the importance of showing our workings, so there's the selfie stick in all it's cheap and cheerful glory.
I don't know what I was doing when the wind changed, but that's a stupid look on my face...
Selfie sticks can be quite useful for things other than Instagramming one's mush and trout pout a hundred times a day...
Putting the selfie stick away I then lobbed the Manfrotto Super Clamp on the fork leg to allow some more stable, wobble free, shots.
I have no qualms about piling into the water on this stretch of road at maximum chooch, as there's little chance of rocks getting washed down onto the tarmac and laying in submerged wait, and there is no slime on the road surface either, unlike the slick tarmac to be found in some fords.
It's alright by the way, those boots are waterproof...
Oh yuck... My left trouser leg prevented water reaching my sock/boot top, but the trouser clip on my right leg meant a liberal soaking above the boot top and one very wet and soggy right foot.
I suffer for my art I do...
Anyway, a few wet photos bagged, I pressed on with looking for litter, and was quite pleased to find very little indeed - certainly way less than I was expecting. But it is a quiet lane, not seeing too much traffic, but is popular with Sunday strollers, but they obviously behave themselves a bit better thankfully.
Further along the lane though revealed what work had been going on in the form of some resurfacing, and that may also explain a lack of crap lying about as no doubt the road is thoroughly swept clean by a road sweeping machine before tarmac spreading starts.
The sun was in and out like a Fiddler's elbow, but I stayed dry - just, once again I dodged a bullet, or rather a hefty shower, as it battered down about 10 minutes after I got home.
The new road surface here gets a solid 10/10 for bimbling loveliness - nice and smooth, no gravel. Bet they still come along in the summer and surface dress it though...
Someone was busy moving in the other night...
Dropping down to Trevella Stream, Tregassow Lane twists down through a rough cutting and meets the lane to Bodrean half way down the hill. The flow of rainwater across the mouth of this second lane at the junction was accompanied on this day by a rash of quite large stones, presumably washed out of the bank on the roadside and down across the lane. That must've been quite some downpour to do that then. I took a couple of wider view shots but they looked a bit boring, even though they showed the spread of stones better and the way they followed the line of trickling water down the hill. The grass where the trickle met the verge was all mud stained too, while the tarmac was washed clean, more clues I suppose to the magnitude of the rain that fell.
Trevella Stream moving fast like a mini Mississippi...
Primroses basking in the sun in Tregassow Lane on the climb up to Trehane.
I reached the top of the hill in the above photo, turned left onto the hedge free, field side road and boom! Litter every flipping where. The culprits are the agricultural workers employed on harvesting the crops and the road was lined with empty water bottles and tins of Mackerel and Tuna. The more you look, the more you find on such stretches, and in the space of about a quarter of a mile I filled both panniers to the brim with crap. I didn't take any photos of all this as I was busy as a dog digging for daylight picking it all out of the grass.
Once the bags were full there was nothing left to do but head home, although I took my usual slightly long way round rather than the quicker, more direct route, just to keep the legs turning over and the riding fitness up a bit. Litter picking on a bike is a very slow process and does little for fitness or weight loss!
Having had a bit more trouble getting crap into the black bags due to them flapping about in the wind I got on Amazon and ordered up some big old Bulldog clips to attach the bags to the panniers properly, (once ordered I discovered they're coming all the way from China) and have also got some gardening gloves due on Monday as my biking gloves have been getting very mucky, likewise the handlebar grips. Soon I'll have an efficient litter picking bike set up sorted which will make things a little easier, and I'm hoping I can do about a picking ride a week, but it dopes give my back some grief so I'll see how I get on.
Right, that's that, it's Saturday now, late morning, and me might have, maybe, possibly, perhaps, more snow coming in this afternoon and evening! Whoop! I've got my bike lights charging up as I speak write and Fatso is on standby ready for some more fun, so fingers crossed for a bit of a blizzard later on!
Until next time then, happy cycling!
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