When I was a kid, we’d go to visit my grandmother in South Wales. On really sunny days, the family car would be packed with a picnic and we’d head over the Black Mountain to the brilliant beaches of the Gower Peninsula. As a way to spend a summer’s afternoon, it was hard to beat.

 

This route is all about recapturing that spirit. Okay, it starts from Swansea – making it easier to pick up if you don’t happen to live in my gran’s village – and begins with the run to Rhossili for an ice cream and maybe a paddle, if the tide isn’t too far out…

 

Then the ride runs inland, through the village where my grandmother lived and over the Black Mountain. True, the killjoys have put cameras on it now, but it’s still a stunning road – and nobody’s doing 90 round those hairpins, anyway…

 

This might be a memory-lane ride for me, but it’s a great way for anyone to make a new summer memory. When the sun’s shining, there’s nowhere better than the beaches of the Gower. Apart from the saddle of the motorcycle taking you there, obviously!