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On previous International Jawa CZ Days I’ve ridden my old
350cc Jawa to Stonehenge and Avebury (both World Heritage sites),
the Cotswold's (a beautiful area of England), Cheddar Gorge (famous
for it’s cheese) and the Coast, so what could I and other UK
Owners Club (Swindon Branch) members do this year? Well following some
discussion with Branch Chairman John Kennedy the idea of a World
Tour (yes you’re reading this correctly) was decided upon, however
due to various personal commitments we had to actually have our run
on Saturday 8th July, a day earlier than the rest of the
world (who said the Swindon Branch weren’t always in the lead!)
John,
Tom, Claire and Ian ready for the start.
Now before readers say how can there be a
tour around the world in one day? Just read on and find out.
At the planned start time of 10:00 there
were three bikes ready for the run (others were obviously still
going to do theirs runs on the Sunday – the official day). John
Kennedy with his 350cc Jawa Blue Style with Velorex sidecar; Tom
Soffe and his daughter Claire with their CZ 180cc [by the way it was
also Claire’s 14th birthday] and myself with my old
Jawa 350cc. With John leading the way and me ‘tail end Charlie’
we set off on our run with the weather warm (about 22°C), but
mostly overcast and quite breezy.
First
World Tour stop - Polar.
We
first headed along Tadpole lane north of Swindon, passing the
Swindon & Cricklade Steam Railway depot (well worth a visit if
you’re into steam locomotives) before getting to Purton. From here
we then went towards Wootton Bassett before turning off to travel on
the B4042 to Malmesbury. This is a nice road with plenty of sweeping
bends, and before Malmesbury you pass through what is reputed to be
the longest village in England – Brinkworth, a unique sort of
place many miles long but with virtually no depth. On entering
Brinkworth there is quite a long downward slope and it was here that
we met up with a cyclist who was doing about 35 mph. As it was a 30
mph limit area I thought it was my duty to point out to him that he
was speeding (in a jokey way of course), he have me the thumbs up
sign and said ‘thanks’, as he did wonder what speed he was
doing!!!
Second
World Tour stop – Pennsylvania.
At Malmesbury we passed the headquarters of
the Dyson factory (of Vacuum cleaner fame) before heading off along
a scenic road to the picturesque village of Sherston. The road as it
leaves the village market square narrows, and due to some road works
traffic signals had been set up to control traffic.
The
lights
were red as we arrived, but as we waited all of a sudden they went
off. At that very moment a car pulling a trailer came through from
the opposite direction, and it had the temporary traffic light
cables wrapped around one of the trailer
stabiliser
legs that had somehow dropped into the lowered position. The guy had
taken out the whole of the traffic signal set-up. We cautiously
edged our way through the narrow road section, leaving this guy to
sort out the ensuing traffic chaos he was about to cause.
It was now on towards Acton Turville, but
before getting there we stopped in a small hamlet for our first
photo shoot. Here there was a place called ‘Polar’, the first
point on out mini world tour.
Third
World Tour stop – Scotland & Ireland.
Our next stop was in a rest area on the A46
to Bath road. Here we stopped for about 30 minutes before setting
off a few miles further down the road to another small hamlet called
‘Pennsylvania’ – the second of our mini world tour points. So
we’ve now travelled from Swindon to the Polar area and to the USA.
The two Jawa’s and the CZ now headed into the city of Bath
(a World heritage city), but with no time for sight seeing, we
continued on to our next rest stop just south of Bath at the
beautiful Kennet & Avon canal. Here we had a further rest stop
and the chance to stretch our legs by walking up to the canal and
taking some refreshments in the small café there. John stayed with
the bikes and had his packed lunch.
It
was then time to head south again before turning left onto the
A361 heading back towards Trowbridge. It’s along this
stretch of road that we stopped for our next world tour stop, and
that was to both Ireland and Scotland. This is just a small
collection of houses with this unique postal address. After a few
more pictures it was again off on our way to Melksham, Calne and
then towards Lyneham (home to the large transport fleet RAF base).
Just before Lyneham was our last photo stop of this trip, and that
was to ‘New Zealand’, this recorded it was then back home to
Swindon.
Final
World Tour stop – New Zealand.
In all from leaving home to returning, the
old Jawa and myself had covered 110 miles (John and Tom would have
done more by the time they got home), and it had been a really
enjoyable days riding. The map below shows the circular route we took.
[+]
click to enlarge map
OK, so it wasn’t a real world tour, but
with International Jawa/CZ day being a world wide event, it seemed
appropriate that we do something along the theme.
It was an enjoyable ride though, with all of the
bikes performing faultlessly and enhancing the Jawa/CZ reputation.
Thanks to John for organising
it.
Ian
Bridge (Swindon). From Swindon Smoke Signals – with
thanks.
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