A fantastic day's cycling, although when I set out from Wick I was worried about what was to come. Within a mile I was heading up a long straight incline (with seemingly no end in sight) on the A420 towards Chippenham and it was raining quite heavily. Fortuntaely, the rain helped me realise I had left my cycle helmet in the car. A quick call to my superb support vehicle soon rectified the headwear situation, if not the topography or the weather.
It wasn't long, however, before both improved. A left turn onto the A46 co-incided with the rain abating and I was soon up to decent pace on a level surface. I passed through a number of familiar place names. It was just that they seemd to be in the wrong place - Pennsylvania (I knew I was on a long cycle but I didn't expect to go there!), Dunkirk and later Cambridge. There were also some interesting place names - Old Sodbury and Little Badminton caught my attention.
From A46 I turned left onto A4135 to Dursley, before turning north on A38 and onto Gloucester, where I made my first navigational error of the trip. I had intended to stay on A38 northbound towards Tewkesbury but lost the signs for the A38. Then I passed signs for A417 (which I know goes to Ledbury) on my right, when it should have been left. Finally, it sank home that I was going in the wrong direction when I was on A40 to Ross on Wye. Fortunately, my knowledge of the area from visiting growers, meant that I could pick up the Newent Road and eventually get back on track. A quick call to the co-pilot confirmed I could cut across country and reach the lunchtime rendezvous, albeit a different venue from the one we had planned.
As it turned out, the earlier mistake meant I travelled through Hartpury, where there is a beautiful church and onto B4211 which is a decent rural road, condusive to good cycling and passing through a number of lovely villages on it's way to Upton-upon-Severn. It was then only a short distance to return to A38 on route to Worcester. From Worcester, I took the A443 to Holt Heath and then B4196/4194 to Stourport, which turned out to be the most undulating section of the entire day.
On arriving at the hotel we found we had a bath in our room for the first time on the trip, so a cold soak to ease the legs was painful but necessary. We then set off to explore Stourport and to see how it had changed since I last used it as a base for our Worcester cricket tour in 1992. The bridge over the Stour still gives a very picturesque image, the pitch and putt coarse (home of the Stourport Open) is still there alongside the crazy golf course and the barges still traverse the locks. We spent a very pleasant half hour with a couple of guys on a journey around the Birmingham canal ring, as they raised their barge through one of the locks.
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| George learning the thoery of lock keeping |
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| It was fascinating to see how the lock works first hand. |
The only downside to our stroll through the High Street was that the Indian restaurant that we used to frequent is now a Lloyd's Bank. We did find a suitable restaurant and had a very enjoyable meal. Chicken tarka dal can be recommended but the nans were traditional size.
All in all a great day sampling the counties of Somerset, Glouestershire and Worcestershire.
Today's milage: 81 miles
Duration: 5 hours 26 minutes cycling
Calories burned: 4770
Max speed: 29.76mph
Av speed: 14.88 mph
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