Cycling Tour – North Dorset: 24th-26th July 2010

This year, the Early Summer Tour was organised by Guy Atchison and saw an intrepid collection of UL members head to North Dorset for a weekend of ringing and socialising in the beautifully sunny climes of God’s Own County. The only catch was that instead of the usual church hall floor and using cars to get around, we camped out in Guy’s back garden and everybody needed to bring a bike to get between the towers!

The tour saw us ring at a variety of lovely Dorsetshire bells (what other kinds are there I hear you cry) as well as meeting some local donkeys, crashing a village fete and drinking more Badger beer than I care to remember. In the evenings, several, rather shattered UL members returned back to Holwell to be treated to the most amazing barbecue meal I had ever seen. With the food washed down with barrel loads of beer and cider, the evenings activities went on to include various party games and singing in true traditional UL manner.

The following day saw service ringing at Holwell and a quick visit to the oldest working postbox on mainland Britain. The afternoon saw more garden games with the UL showing incredible lack of ability at Archery, Table Tennis and Croquet among, no doubt many other sports! All too soon we had to say our farewells to Guy and his family and head back home, but I certainly hope that the success of this tour will encourage many more Summer Cycling Tours!

By Peter Jasper