A few brave souls from Ledbury made it up Midsummer Hill to see the sun rise this Summer Solstice.  The weather forecast was good - a clear night was promised, followed by wall-to-wall sunshine for the morning at least.

Alarm went off at 03:10 - did I really want to do this?  A stiff black coffee later - extracted bike from garage - there was already a good glow to the north-east, but quite a few clouds around.

'Am I going to make it in time?' I thought as I was riding through an eerily still Ledbury.  Gradually, more and more birds woke up - a beautiful sound.

Up Knapp Lane, through Eastnor, past Bronsil and then onto the lane at Hollybush - is this hill ever going to end?  Finally made it to the top to be greeted by a view of coloured clouds over Worcester:

Pink sky over the Abberleys

Silhouetted North Hill and Worcester Beacon

This hooded figure remained motionless throughout

Angry red clouds just before sunrise

Then it appeared..

... briefly before rising into the clag.  It really did seem it was getting colder.
However, by 05:20 the sun rose above it all.

The famous shelter bathed in sunlight.

It was a much better sunrise than last year, but not as good as the first time I made it, on June 21st 2005.