Sunburn and beautiful England
Trip Start
Jul 08, 2008
1
13
16
Trip End
Jul 25, 2008
Highbridge,
England,
United Kingdom
Monday, July 21, 2008
South of Hereford we had the best bit of cycling yet along the Wye Valley. We coasted along without many hills to speak off under the forest canopy for shade. We stopped at a little village for some drinks and snacks and it really was England at its best with beautiful cottages surrounding a lovely little park by the side of the River Wye. All good things must come to an end at some point and soon we started to climb. We encountered some of the steepest hills to date before descending into Chepstow. The weather was amazing and stayed amazing all day; giving nice sunburnt knees to myself.
It was in Chepstow that things started to go wrong really. I knew that was the lunch stop that I had been working towards all day but the other guys weren't so hungry so we battered straight onto the Severn Bridge (that was quite a magical cycle) thinking there would be stuff on the other side...but there wasn't...so I started out at pace towards Avonmouth to get something...how was I to know that Avonmouth is the arse end of the earth and has nothing but chemical factories, car showrooms and closed butty vans...so I kept powering along the A38 until I hit Bristol...even then food was allusive. It was nice to be reminded how annoying the UK can be. After all the hospitality we have been shown on this trip I asked the security guard in Sainsbury's to keep an eye on my bike for a second while I grabbed a sandwich...he told me no it wasn't his job and I should get lost. I stormed off out naturally which enhanced my food issues even more!! By the time I got food and called back to the boys I was now 10 miles and a different direction away from them. We resolved to meet at the end of the day near Highbridge so I set off up the stupidly steep hill (all in all I reckon I climbed 1500m in the day) out of Bristol and over the Mendips. Once off the Mendips there were horrible head winds the whole way to the coast. By now I was a couple of hours in front (not helped by Carl having puncture number 6!!) so I scouted around for a campsite and once again we totally lucked out in Greenacre campsite. The owner Mike Johnson not only gave us a donation but brought us down a couple of bottles of beer each (and allowed me to us his Wifi to write this up). While waiting for the boys I went off down to Asda and bought a load of food for a bbq which we had by the tent.
Video action
It was a late night to bed by the time we had the food cooked and I bought way way too much so we were sorted for steak sandwiches all next day.Miles 87.67
Average 12.9
Hours on bike 6.47
Max speed 38.5
Total distance 839.69
Comments
Quite impressed
Alright dude. I'm quite impressed you've made it this far, looks like my leeds prediction was wide of the mark! Enjoy the West Country!