Tuesday 11 June 2013

View from my handle bars

This is what I see as I ride . The Garmin has worked well for the mostpart. A few ..where the hell am I moments...but no real issues. I am getting a bit fed up.looking at it all the time rather than the countryside. Oh well the joys of being navigator I guess!

Tidy bathtub in wales boyo

So I finally found a bath tub I can fit into! Tidy see !

At the top..

...after the last hill came the view back over to where I had just ridden through. In places in the woods there had been tidy low lying foggy patches see...boyo.

Howton

The bed and breakfast at howton near kilpeck.
This is a lovely place to stay if you are cycling this way. Nice room, good food, nice people and we were offered use of a bike stand and tools. So any le joggers in need of a good place to stay around the kilpeck area..come here!

Kevs second puncture

Waking up to a flat ..not the best way to start a ride, but thankfully it was in the hotel conference room.

Crossing the Severn bridge

Riding across the severn bridge into wales . As we got closer to wales the skies became black and gloomy, no wonder Roman soldiers didn't want to go there! We both perfected our tidy welsh accents see as we bicycles over this tidy bridge into the valleys see...boyo.

Wales welcomes u

Cyclists get a graffiti welcome. Not until you reach the big ...tidy...road boys do you get a proper sign see.

Welcome to Wales

"You pays for your own sheep see" lol!

Total miles 70 miles
Total ascent 1405 metres

After a good night's kip I didn't wake up til 8am. It was raining and my desire to jump up and ride 60 miles or more suddenly left me.

Kevs day started with a puncture that appeared overnight. Eventually we set off into the grey murk, kitted out in longs and wet weather gear.

The ride started with a tailwind and flat roads...blimey a tailwind???
Getting around bristol was fun, then it was off to cross the severe bridge into the looming gloom and mist that heralded the arrival of wales! ...tidy.

Tintern abbey was I good ride, lots of green forests and tidy roads boyo. The hill down to the abbey was a good ten minute cruise to the bottom, where we met a Scottish.couple cycling the other way. I was pleases she had mastered english because I couldn't understand a word of what the guy said! Riding along the river Wye was picturesque, nice villages and pretty much what  I thought wales would be like. Sheep everywhere see...erm...boyo!

All was going so well...then the route took off up into the welsh hills...and let me say now that those who say the Cornish or Devon hills are the toughest on this ride clearly didn't come this way! These hills were pigs. Steep and repetitive, pne after the other for a couple of hours. Not even a bag of jelly babies was going to
Get me up a couple of them and Celeste was groaning on agony under me so I just got off and eked up several. Kev is better at hills so he rode up.

I was over heating I'm my wet weather gear so I found a hedgehog and stripped off and changed into my summer kit. Much better. Then it rained.

Thankfully the rain didn't last and the hills became less and less as we finally rolled into howton, and found the bed and breakfast.

So here I am on a nice big room, chickens outside, bike in the hall,
Tea and biscuits, and pasta .

Knackered!

Tintern Abbey

At the Bottom of a huge hill I rolled up at Tintern abbey. It must have been a bleak existence for a monk. No wonder the cows are nervous.

Scenes from a tidy ride in the valleys see

Riding in wales felt different. For a start it was darker, greener and damper. The hills look deceptive, several were killer grades and one had to be 25% easy...boyo. The downhills are fun but the road surface was very poor, potholes are everywhere on the shadows and blind bends hide the odd car coming at you.
On these hills I need a triple. I'm a big guy at 6' 4" and heavy as well...gravity sucks see...boys.