The Miles are racking up!
273 Miles / 439 km
First things first this morning was bike maintenance! I had to tighten up my brakes (my brake pads already need replacing) put some more air in the tires and make sure I was good enough for the road!
I left the hostel at 7.30 to head to Cheddar Gorge – My bike wasn’t loaded up and it was fantastic to ride a nice 5km up and throughout the Gorge. I stopped and hiked up to the cliff walk and the sun actually came out for a hot minute for me to take some awesome shots with the camera!! I really didn’t feel like I was in England at this point, felt more like Iceland!
After the Gorge I headed back to the hostel to load the bike up and head out! Yesterday I got so cold on the bike that it’s given me a head cold this morning and I’m dosed up on cold and flu tablets to hopefully prevent getting sick! I’m layered up in thermals, bike gear and rain gear today!
I didn’t leave till 10am, which I knew was gonna cause problems later, but I was trying to wait out the rain. I knew I wouldn’t make it to Hereford to my couchsurfing, so I looked up some hostels along the way to try reach for! Wye Valley was hopefully the aim!
The ride from Cheddar to the Severn Bridge was nice, and along good cycle paths, it was also relatively flat. The rain was on and off all morning and the wind was okay. I was pretty tired this morning after the terrible day yesterday so it took my legs a good few hours to get going. Crossing the Severn Bridge was fun, and the weather suddenly turned, and the rain stopped half way over. I was met with overcast but dry skies for the rest of the ride!
After the bridge I hit my first ‘Welcome to wales’ sign just to be hit with ‘Welcome to England’ 30 minutes later! I bike through the hills of western Gloucestershire and Herefordshire along the English/Welsh border. Oh there were hills and my legs were tired. I knew i only had about 25 miles left though so I took it easy and got to the top of the Wye Valley around 6.30, before dark! The last stretch was a 1/2 mile uphill and then a 1 mile straight downhill into a little valley where the YHA hostel was – a converted old farm house – actually really cool place. i managed to get a 8bed dorm to myself which was lovely. I washed my clothes, unpacked and repacked everything and had a well deserved beer!
Tomorrow is a long long day. Im 20 miles behind schedule as I didn’t make it all the way up to Hereford! Which means tomorrow is a 90 mile ride and a horribly early start!
Good Night
