South West England

We were treated to a wonderful cooked breakfast and Gabi and Roger helped us plan a route to our next destination for the day. We even got a printed map of the first 5 miles. I apologised profusely one more time for our late arrival and we departed. Roger very kindly rode with us for the first 4 miles through narrow lanes and endless hedgerows. It was England as we remember it from 30 years ago.

Unfortunately I did not realise it at the time but I was completely exhausted ( écrasé ) and I could not cope with even the gentlest of hills. Sally and Roger had to wait for me on regular intervals and after we said our goodbyes the first thing I did was to get us lost at the next

village despite a really good map.

We stopped for morning tea at Tiverton and joined the Grand Western Canal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Western_Canal
and followed the canal path its full length. The path ends at a small tunnel so we stopped and phoned our hosts for the night to let them know we would be late ( 2 days in a row!) We re-joined the A38 and after 3 kilometres I got blown off the road again by a passing truck onto the grass bank. We asked our phones to choose a better route and it said follow the M6 motorway! So much for technology!

At Taunton my chain jammed and I could not free it so I had to lay the bike down and step off while still moving. This happened three times in a row. And just for good measure as we left town a car cut me off and forced me into the gutter and caused me to fall off yet

again. I am getting to be a bit of an expert at that by now.

At the top of the last big hill, we stopped for a break and while there a lady pulled over towing a horse trailer.

"Do you realise that hill was a mile long! You deserve a medal for that. But I do not have one, so here is an energy bar for the road! "

What a wonderful gesture. Sally promptly downed the bar and after a couple of minutes took off and left me in her dust.

Our hosts for the night were Roxane and Nick in the village of Curry Rivel. We managed 90 kms that day and paid for it later. Their house was the old farmhouse and had required a long of renovation. We ate yet another wonderful meal and talked about cycling in general.

Their son is doing a tour of the world on uni-cycle and they showed us photos from along the way and the specially made racks to hold the panniers.
http://www.worldunicycletour.com/

A large breakfast fuelled us up for the start of the next day and we started with a downhill run into the valley. We followed mostly small roads and arrived in Street and Glastonbury for lunch.
I love Glastonbury. We have been there 4 times and every time was fun. This time we visited the inside of the church which was open to visitors and had a cuppa at the back of the church while chatting to the locals.

Then we took a cycle route out of town and followed more small roads. We chose a bad route over the hills which went up for ever and eventually arrived at Radstock after having passed through

Midsomer Norton. We were only 10 minutes late today.

Our host for the night was Blair who looked after his 2 girls on his own. You could tell straight away how proud he was of his kids and how he encouraged them along. His oldest daughter had a scholarship at a good school in Bath and she was making the most of it.

He gave us 2 stickers to put on our bikes. One is on Sally's mudguard.

They say " Cyclists - stay awesome".

It is a copy of one found on the back of some trucks saying "Cyclists - STAY CLEAR" as if we can control how close a truck comes to us.
I love riding along behind and sometimes to encourage Sally I yell out " Stay awesome Mrs P".

We camped in his back yard, ate a filling meal and the next morning were treated to a cooked breakfast with everything possible adorning the plate. 3 fantastic breakies in a row!
During the night the badgers had dug a new hole right next to the tent and we did not even hear it.

We followed a cycle path to the Kennet and Avon canal which took on some massive and steep hills. On one hill a local said to me " I bet that she will say she rode up this hill" and sure enough when I caught up with Sally her first words were ' " I rode up that hill."

I cracked up laughing. But in fact I had been tricked by the local as Sally was very proud of her achievement because she HAD in fact ridden up the hill.

At Avoncliff, I suggested to Sally that she stop for morning tea and catch me up later as I was going so much slower than her. She was happy to have a cream tea. But she went like the clappers trying to catch me up even though she did not need to. She said she had never been so pleased to see my backside! We tried to follow the canal path all the way to John and Vicky's but it became a bit of a goat track so we took to the roads for the last few miles.

We spent 3 nights with Sally's cousin at Bromham eating, drinking fine wine, and generally enjoying life. We ate outside every night until dark and were divebombed regularly by 3 different types of bat. The weather was superb. I took the chance to help out in their allotment and I do hope that the nice edges I cut result in good tasting beans. Sally took the chance to wash and dry all our dirty clothes and to rest up for a while.

After our respite we set off towards Bristol via Lacock -a village which was pretty much wholly owned by The National Trust. It was a fascinating place to visit and claims to be the home of photography. http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/lacock-abbey-fox-talbot-museum-and-village/features/learn-about-the-history-of-photography

Then we headed through Chipping Sodbury where I became the proud new owner of a dongle to connect online to the internet without needing WIFI. Minor problem though - it was locked to the 3 network so I had to find a 3 shop to get a SIM card.

The village itself is just beautiful and we stopped for a coffee and 2 apple tarts from the local supermarket. We stopped at the information centre and discovered that the word Chipping roughly meant Market Town. Its main street was exceptionally wide due to it holding regular markets in the main street. And behind every pub was a large courtyard where there used to be stables for the stagecoach horses on their way to London. Now they have become seating for the tourists.

We arrived at our hosts for the night in the town of Almondsbury where Astrid welcomed us with a superb meal for the night. Astrid had made an around the world tour a few years earlier on her bicycle and had written a book about it which we read a bit while we were there. A fascinating story.

Tomorrow Wales awaited us so we got an early night.