Wednesday 4th July, Independence Day for some, but for us, the Wednesday Cycle Riders of Swansea (to give us the respect of a proper title), something far more exciting..

Yes, today is the day of the 'John Cardy Magical History Tour' - a celebration of the great Isambard Kingdom Brunel and his vision for rail transport, a vision, incidentally, that the modern world and all its technology has still failed to achieve. You will hear more about this when TGJC stands at the foot of the great man's statue. In a slightly more minor way today was a celebration, once again, of the huge and amazing store of knowlege contained within The Great John Cardy's head.

"They gazed and gazed, and still the wonder grew that Cardy's small head could carry all he knew."

But first we must get to Tenby and the start of the ride and before we can do that we must go and pick up Walter. Walter is an occasional rider, fitting in a ride with us in between his travels around the world in search of adventure. A bit like a present day Walter Raleigh really! He only lives down the road so we’ll get there in a jiffy, better still we’ll get there in the car. Walter’s bike is leaning against the wall and Walter soon appears, his bike is loaded and we are soon off. The weather does not look promising but I assure him that Pembrokeshire has its own micro-climate and a good day is guaranteed. I do hope I am right! We reach St Clears and rain is falling steadily from a sky which is saying “And there’s plenty more where that came from!” I felt the need to again reassure Walter but I really didn’t want to interrupt his story.

What story?

Oh, didn’t I say? Well it all started like this – Walter had only just come back from a trip to the wilds of Alaska. His adventure started on a rest day when Walter wanted to have a short walk in the woods (about 16 miles apparently!) everyone else was keen to have a restful day so, I presume, they politely declined. Undeterred Walter followed a trail, whistling and yodelling contemplatively as he went along. Fortunately he was deep in quiet thought as he rounded a corner and noticed a large, rather furry animal snoozing in a tree. The bear (for that was what it was) had not seemed to have seen Walter so this was an excellent opportunity for a photograph to show all the folks back home. Our hero quietly retreats back around the corner, was reaching for his camera when he noticed, to his undoubted horror, that his assessment of the situation was slightly flawed. The bear had, in fact, seen him and was slowly advancing with what seemed like a clear sense of purpose. Now Walter, in his time, has read many an adventure story and decided to show no panic (Corporal Jones would have been proud) and stand his guard. No easy feat and I can imagine that Walter’s feet were most definitely uneasy. They stared at each other, neither daring to blink, each one summing up the other and making an assessment of who would win should battle commence. I don’t think it took Walter long to reach his conclusion, for the bear the timespan was considerably shorter.

Walter can always be relied upon to do the right thing and, without turning his back he slowly reversed back along the trail. For each valiant step backwards Walter made, the bear made one confident step forward. And so it went on for what seemed several hours but was probably only about 15 minutes. Eventually he reached the end of the trail and was standing on the tarmac of a car park, he was now out of the bear’s territory and he was relieved to find that the bear had stopped advancing.

The bear stood on its hind legs, roared and shook his head from side to side.

Walter, for his part, made his excuses and left. An eminently sensible decision in the circumstances.

Now Walter has a list of daring things that he has to do in life and he is consuming the list at an amazing speed. He has recently been to Cirencester to do some ‘wing walking’. He said that he had to have a medical examination to ensure that he would be able to breathe in a wind speed of 100mph. The knowledge of that reality would be enough in itself to put many off the idea but Walter had gone ahead, had himself strapped to the wing of a stunt plane and spent 15 exhilarating minutes high in the sky.

“And what are you thinking of doing next, Walter?”

“Well I still have to do the Cresta Run.” He replied in his rather matter of fact way.

Anyway back to the comparatively mundane present and we have now reached Tenby, have unloaded the bikes and we are sitting in John and Marilyn’s living room looking out on a rain-lashed golf course feeling rather snug and dry. So why on earth would we want to go out in that? But Pembrokeshire is very kind and at 10.25 the rain stopped and by 10.30 we were on our way through Kiln Park caravan site and past Hoyles Mouth cave heading towards St Florence. Big Trev was with us so it was going to be a relaxing ride. You see, Big Trev is indeed bionic but he enjoys taking in the pleasures of the countryside at his own pace which means that every now and then we wait for him to catch up. We were soon cycling through the pretty village of St Florence and I was within a few hundred yards of my parents’ house but there was no time to call in, perhaps I will be able to make a detour on the way back. Along the narrow lanes we rode until we got back onto the Ridgeway and headed for Lamphey. We followed the Celtic Trail (Sustrans Route 4) to Pembroke where John led us along narrow back lanes until we reached the castle where it seemed that someone had asked John to give a historical talk but even after intense investigation no-one would confess to being the culprit. So John went ahead anyway.

Such knowledge from such a quiet and unassuming gentleman is so impressive!

The next stop was Pembroke Dock from where we were to cross the Cleddau Bridge to Neyland. We had reached the top of the hill and the docks were in sight but John wanted to go to the left but I knew that the bridge was straight ahead and down the hill. I made the mistake of mentioning it.

“Look you!” he said “Whose ride is this, who’s in charge here? Its my ride and you have to do as you’re told!!”

Quietly and humbly I fell back in line and followed the great man until we found ourselves riding down a street sumptuously decorated with bunting. John Cardy thinks of everything! We greeted the cheering crowds sitting up on our bikes, arms up in the air and felt what it must be like to win the Tour de France. Our bikes gathered speed but we didn’t care – we were all on a high, so much so that not one of us saw the cobbled part of the road. Totally out of control we landed in a heap and at this point, dear reader, I’m sure you are concerned that we have received no injury. Well, be assured that we were all OK. Mercifully it was Colin that went down first which meant that the rest of us had a very soft landing. Colin himself was unharmed, this was nothing to him. Hopefully soon you will be able to read about his and Val’s recent adventures where they cycled from St Davids to Great Yarmouth then on by train to York for the Cycling Festival. The incident in question occurred at a railway station on the way home where Colin somehow found himself going up an escalator flat on his back holding a fully laden bike above him. Really, what some people will do to get attention!

We were soon back on our bikes and heading for the Cleddau Bridge, the Irish Ferry was just coming in and the wind was blowing strongly. On the bridge itself the noise of the wind was deafening. Big Trev asked me if I was going to take a photo of everyone crossing the bridge so I shot ahead, but alas with the difficulty of keeping my balance a photo was out of the question. I did, however manage to steady myself against the railings and take a picture of the ferry and the waves being whipped up by the wind just so that you can see how we suffer for our pleasure.

We arrived at a rather full Brunel Café and immediately made it fuller. Fortunately the weather was reasonable enough for us to sit and eat outside. It was soon time to go again and we headed towards Brunel’s statue. By the time I got there John was already shaking the great man’s hand. And do you know? I rather think that the great man was enjoying the experience as well. Two great minds together. John climbs down from the plinth and stands in front to tell us of Brunel’s vision of people being able to buy one ticket in Paddington which enabled them to ride on his new Great Western railway line to Neyland and from there board his new Great Eastern passenger steam ship all the way to New York. He actually achieved it but only once, nevertheless after 150 years of technological progress rail companies still are not able to grasp the concept of making it easy and straightforward for passengers to arrange their journeys.

So we bade goodbye to Brunel and headed back for the bridge and homewards. The wind was still strong on the bridge but this time we were prepared for it, we rode along the main road for a while and reached the turning for Cosheston where we had to cross the road and had our first encounter with a ginger haired lad on a bike. As he had the advantage of youth and a seemingly complete disregard for safety he was much quicker than us at crossing the road (for survival he had to be!) We took the turn to Cosheston and started to climb a steep hill of which we had not been warned, (this has happened before if I recall – see Crymych, City of Dreams) but Big Trev is bionic and the rest of us are fairly fit so we all made it. A pleasant ride to Milton and the main road which gave us another glimpse of the ginger haired lad, this time heading hell for leather back towards Pembroke Dock. Up to the roundabout and to Carew Cheriton where we used the footpath by the side of the stream to connect with the road leading back to the Ridgeway. And, guess what? The ginger haired lad was there again standing beside his bike in the long grass contemplating something. This is suspicious and I wonder whether he was a spy employed by the Pembrokeshire Freewheelers to keep an eye on us, after all we were on their territory! We chose to take little notice and ride on but we all wondered why John and Mike Brewer had raced on ahead, we were soon to find out for a little further on there were two swings at the side of the road and by the time we got there they were having a great time reconnecting with their childhood. They would probably have stayed there for the rest of the day had it not been for the fact that Walter the Great Adventurer wanted a go. At first they refused but Walter gave them a determinedly stern look and the two, remembering that this is a man who is brave enough to face bears, decided it might be prudent to go and search for other entertainment.

I still was not sure if I would have the time to make a detour to visit my parents but within minutes of us being on our way again fate intercepted to give me the opportunity (or was it the Milton Snipers – see Banzai! Banzai! Talley Snipers at 2 o'clock!!) whatever the reason Walter the Great’s rear tyre punctured so while the others swarmed around to fix it I went on ahead. I reached the house and it was all quiet, I walked in to find my father asleep in his chair. I said “hello” and his eyes just opened and got wider and wider. I think he thought he was dreaming. Mum was called and she, in turn, stared at me in disbelief. We had a lovely half hour chatting before I had to leave but not before my father took a photo of my mother and myself with the bike.

Back in Tenby Marilyn and her friend June were busy serving tea and cakes while June’s husband Stephen confirmed our belief that TGJC takes immense pleasure in tricking people to take part in endurance adventures in extreme weather.

We’ve had our suspicions about that for a long time!

A brilliant day with many thanks to John for the ride and Marilyn for the hospitality.

See you next week

Lew Spokes

Sampson Our Leader In case you can't read the sign behind him
History lesson - Pembroke		An audience enthralled
Pembroke Castle		Windy Cleddau
The Lunch Stop		Posing again
John Cardy with his 'Heavy' Two Great Men Big 'Casual' Trev
Cardy and Mates		Cardy No-Mates
Kids at Heart		Me and My Mum
Swinging Hero Swung Hero