Hoggin' the Bridge

Not the best photo quality, I'll grant you, but it's a still screen shot from the bike-cam. Today Morrigan and I joined about three thousand other bikes (see extra) to hog the Severn Bridge on a ride into south Wales. The ride is organised every year and raises cash for several charities including the Meningitis Trust, the local air ambulance and the Severn Freewheelers Blood Riders. In the last five years its raised over seventy thousand pounds.

And it's a great day out. The noise and smell of so many machines being herded towards quite a small exit road at the old Severnview Motorway Services is something to behold. Some of the bikes are... unique (see extra for a proper rat bike) and as we ride through the villages all the folk come out; the kids trying for low-fives from the riders, the old folk sat in deck chairs on the pavement. And everybody waves.

As you make the final approach into Chepstow there's the traditional "lady with a box of jelly babies" for you to grab into. Finishing up at Chepstow racecourse for a fair with stalls, burgers and the loudest rock band this side of Hades... the afternoon may involve a snooze...

Extra, extra, one of me...