Day 5 – 9th April 2007
We awoke this morning to grey skies – something of a shock after the treat we had enjoyed over the previous 4 days. Again, we had a splendid breakfast – we seem to have been as fortunate with our B & Bs as we have with the weather.
This was a morning for long trousers and a warm top, and the flat countryside enabled us to keep up a good speed, covering 10 miles in the first hour. Shortly after crossing the A39 at Shapwick we met a group from the Somerset CTC who had been on a 4-day tour. Almost all were riding Argos bikes – no, not bought from a well-known purveyor of household goods, but a renowned local builder of the finest riding irons. We chatted briefly and they passed on some useful info regarding Cheddar and the Mendips. Also, the Severn crossing: cycles on the north side, apparently.
We stopped at Wedmore for some coffee, which is where I have scribbled these words. So far, 19.53 miles at 9.6mph – 2h 1m 9s.
Cheddar Gorge was rather fun. There were lots of slow-moving cars, not enough parking spaces, and it’s really not the place to visit on an Easter Monday bank holiday. But here we were. We earned many admirers and one round of applause when we cycled up only getting off to push for about 200 yards and that at the steepest section.
Once we were over the Mendips, lunch became a priority and the Blue Bowl, near the Chew Valley lake, provided a very good “ploughmans”.
From here, there were more hills than I expected and when we found our way into Ashton Park I was very cross to find that we had somehow missed our way and had to climb a very unpleasant 1 in 7 to get to the Clifton Suspension Bridge.
As cyclist we had no toll to pay, and it was from here that Sustrans, and Route 4 in particular, proved useful. Finding our way through Bristol was easy. Unfortunately, once we started heading out of the city towards the Severn Bridge, we were taken through all sorts of outlandish places, so desolate and deserted that one could easily imagine gangland murders occurring. Worse than that, I reckon that Sustrans added a good 3 miles to the route I had planned and it was a matter of some regret that I didn’t pay more attention to my own route planning sheet.
We did eventually find our way onto the bridge, and were rewarded with a fine sunset. We finally reached Chepstow around 8.30pm and found our digs with little difficulty The tribulations of the day were almost compensated for by the excellent Indian meal we enjoyed, prior to a romantic stroll down to the river Wye, and a less romantic night snoring and spluttering.