Tag: RAF

September 28th – Up on the Chase on a balmy, sunny afternoon that apart from the colour, could have been May rather than September.

I came up through Heath Hayes and over Hednesford, over the site of the RAF base. I loved the new RAF Trail markers with the roundel.

Birches Valley was rammed, and not a hugely enjoyable ride – it’s hard to let rip when around every corner there are kids, or loose dogs… So I headed for Abrahams Valley via Penkridge Bank, and was relieved to see not just a deer fawn, but clear space with few people over there.

The pines are beginning to turn – another week or so and they’ll be gorgeous.

I hopped from Seven Springs to Stepping Stones, over Milford Common and Shugborough, where from the zigzag bridge I watched two horse riders cautiously fording the trent. 

Racing back through Longdon, a familiar patch of cyclamen I forget every year until they flower, and they take me by surprise. Such delicate, lovely flowers.

It’s good to be back on decent weekend rides after so long waiting for the foot to sort itself out.

January 7th – Up at the former RAF Hednesford, it was as peaceful as ever. Families pottered about with kids on bikes – perhaps new ones from Christmas. Dog walkers exercised their companions and it all felt like I’d never been away. I was tired – it had been a battle to get here in a cold wind, and energy reserves were low. Not all the tears running down my cheeks climbing through Wimblebury had been caused by the wind.

I reflected on a time that this place would have been a sea of wooden huts, noise and hubbub, bustling with RAF trainees preparing for war. I suddenly became acutely aware of our position as beneficiaries of their victory. History catches you, sometimes.