Cheltenham!

12/8/15

With a cheeky North wind in our faces we set out for home. A final look at the river Severn marked the last vestige of coast and we were soon arriving in Gloucester.

Every year the city improves and I am pleased to say we did not get lost navigating our way out and across to Cheltenham.

We stuck to the NCN 41 until about 200m from our house, unpacking and preparing to go back to school started to fill our minds but elated at completing the journey.

Tibetan Buddhists complete a kora or circumambulation of sacred sites to bring good karma for their future lives. Many people ask us why we set out on this journey, well this self propelled, meditative and enriching exploration of Britain's coast has been a kora for me.

There are five reasons for the journey.

First I love cycling, this efficient transport takes me to a place in the past where people connected by foot, horse, or bike. It may also have a place in the future when oil has run out and the world behaves more sustainably!

Second, I love journeying in the outdoors. The simplicity of having only what you need which you carry from place to place brings a calm rhythm to life.

Third is the love of the sea and it's fruits. I may have had scampi and chips a couple of times but we have not roughed it on this journey and Britain has a lot to celebrate with its cuisine.

Forth is that I love Britain. It may be a manufactured and managed landscape but twisting lanes through thatched villages, wild windswept cliffs and big sky's above flat fens are all beautiful to me. We had some pleasant surprises with a warm welcome to the cyclist on well designed tracks and renovated Victorian promenade making our ride through big towns and cities a pleasure. With a climate that is not too hot, not too cold, enough rain to keep the rivers topped up and forests green all make the UK just right.

Fifth, last but not least, I love travelling with Sue. I think she shares at least four of these loves and I am very lucky that she agreed to spend half a year, or as she observed, a hundredth of her life on a bike with me!

Figures:

Distance:- 33.4 km

Cycle Time:- 2 hours 29 minutes

Average speed:- 13.4 kph

Trip totals:

Total Distance:- 6459 km

Number of Days: 165 (including 20 rest days)

Height Gain: about 120,000m (over 13 Everests!)

4 punctures, 6 new chains

Too many cooked breakfasts!

Frampton on Severn

11/8/15

A series of Sustrans routes including NCN 410, 334, 26 and finally 41 brought us to our last river crossing over the Avon.

Fortunately there has been substantial strengthening of the bridge so we had no concerns about overloading this structure and a sculpture titled Stronghold by Pat Daw was commissioned to commemorate this reinforcement back in 2001.

Once across the Avon we were on our final route- the number 41 and crossing into Gloucestershire gave us a feeling of home.

The tracks cleverly wind their way along the Severn through power stations, chemical works and around a huge holding park for Toyota cars.

Once we waved goodbye to the two Severn bridges, we were into the rural estuary and no tea shops until we had completed about 50km to Berkley. With the familiar Berkley Tea Roon closed on a Tuesday we were relieved by another cafe.

On to the Gloucester-Sharpness canal at Slimbridge, such a familiar stretch of water too, I am not sure how many times I have canoed along here.

Frampton boasts the longest village green in Britain and it is certainly well used, as we approached the Bell Inn for our last night, there was a cluster of caravans and lorries all ready to set up the fair on Friday- we were rather relieved that we had made it here three days earlier than planned.

Figures:

Distance:- 69.6 km

Cycle Time:- 4 hours 43 minutes

Average speed:- 14.7 kph

Total Distance:- 6426 km

Walton in Gordano (near Clevedon)

10/8/15

Sue's birthday breakfast was in the most traditional of B&Bs and a fair amount of rain was not an ideal present!

The NCN 33 out of Burnham-on-Sea curiously directs you into the sea, perhaps Thorn Cycles need to develop a Chitty Chitty Nomad. In truth, the intention of Sustrans is for cyclists on the NCN33 to venture onto the sand for that ultimate off road experience but an incoming tide, the sheets of rain and seafront warning signs about soft mud and quicksand didn't inspire us today so we opted for Tarmac.

The traffic coming into town as we left was backed up for several miles and made us glad we were on a bike, the first stop was the Tiffin coffee shop in Bleadon. Skirting the south side of the Bleadon Hill, across the M5 we reached the foot of Crooked Peak which is a familiar sight seen from the motorway on the western edge of the Mendips.

You know you are close to home when an old work colleague flags you down for a chat. The last time we met Murray from Bournside school was also coincidental in Kathmandu some years ago when we were all stuck due to the Iceland ash cloud.

We picked up the NCN 26 (Strawberry Line) at Winscombe which took us all the way to Yatton and we were soon in Clevedon for an early evening meal (at 2.30pm! ), an ice cream and probably our last view of the sea in this journey.

Wales looks eerily close and if we had a telescope we may have made out West Usk light house where we stayed on our third night back in March. We checked into Taggart House B&B who had kindly arranged a bowl of Sue's favourite fruits for her birthday. We sat in the hot late afternoon sun, dried out waterproofs, shoes and washing, and just relaxed.

Figures:

Distance:- 48.5 km

Cycle Time:- 3 hours 17 minutes

Average speed:- 14.8 kph

Total Distance:- 6356 km

Burnham-on-Sea

9/8/15

It's nice to cycle through a big town or city on a Sunday morning, it is especially good if all the bike lanes and signage work. This was definitely the case in Taunton today so well done Sustrans-Somerset!

We spent about half of the day on a canal tow path taking us all the way from Taunton to Bridgewater. Bridgewater is the home to Thorn Cycles and it felt odd re-tracing some of the route we used about 3 years ago testing the bikes.

We left Cheltenham as the daffodils bloomed but the fields were bare. It has been great seeing the seasons unfold across the country and we return to blackberries and a hasty activity on all the farms.

Our lunch was a half kilogram pot of yoghurt each on a bench in Cossington- where we left the NCN 3 after a bit of disused railway and we joined the NCN 33 to Burnham.

The promenade at Burnham was very busy with a triathlon event just finishing and holiday makers making the most of a good day for tomorrow it will rain!

Figures:

Distance:- 58.9 km

Cycle Time:- 3 hours 55 minutes

Average speed:- 15.0 kph

Total Distance:- 6308 km

Taunton

8/8/15

The complete silence was remarkable, akin to the total blackness only experienced in the deepest cave.

A final hill climbed before a long decent to the river Exe at Bickleigh and a coffee at the Mill. We decided to avoid Tiverton and skirt on its south side and rejoining the NCN 3 at Halberton on the Grand Western Canal. This canal ran between Taunton in Somerset and Tiverton in Devon. Back in 1790's it was planned to link the Bristol Channel and the English Channel bypassing Lands End but the emergence of the railways put a stop to it's progress.

We reached the Waytown Tunnel and an abrupt end to our tow path and we headed in to Somerset. The rolling hills were an ironed out version of Devon and we were soon at Wick House B&B in Norton Fitzwarren just outside Taunton.

Figures:

Distance:- 51.9 km

Cycle Time:- 4 hours 6 minutes

Average speed:- 12.6 kph

Total Distance:- 6249 km

Hayne Farm (near Cheriton Fitzpaine)

7/8/15

Today was our longest distance so far and it felt it. The lanes were quiet and beautiful but the continual ascent and decent took its toll.

We skirted Holsworthy and joined the NCN 3 stopping at the picturesque village of Sheepwash which is blessed with a community store. Chatting to the lady running the shop, we were heartened to hear that, while there is the usual problem of convincing locals to use it, the resident village population is on the increase and those with a second home there return more regularly. We ate our a pasty in the village square which had a French feel to it, all that was missing was the chink of Boule and smell of Gitane. A supermarket van sped through reminding us where we are and a contributory factor in the demise of locally sourced food and the dairy industry.

Lunch was in the Waie Inn in Zeal Monachorum, both remarkable names but very unremarkable pub food.

On and on we toiled until the warm welcome from Margaret in Hayne Farm. It has been in her family since 1870 and she emphasised the problem of the insufficient price of milk to make dairy herds economically viable and how the farmers were all out using their tractors to blockade the local Morrisons supermarket.

Our bikes had a hay barn to rest and we had a classic room with a view in what was the most silent night I can remember.

Figures:

Distance:- 73.5 km

Cycle Time:- 5 hours 50 minutes

Average speed:- 12.6 kph

Total Distance:- 6197 km

Holsworthy

6/8/15

The Camel valley is a very different place this morning, the sheets of driving rain were replaced by warm sun. Marco came out to wave us off and presented a small bottle of Preseco.

The disused railway continued to Wenfordbridge giving us a nice flat start to the day and we quickly arrived at the Snail's Pace cafe (appropriate name for our journey). It has been built from an old shipping container and has a composting loo. It was too early to stop and eat but realising there were not likely to be any feeding places for the rest of our day, we had a coffee and got take-away bacon sandwhiches.

The climb up onto the western edge of Bodmin Moor was gentle and we were thankful that we were not on the route yesterday!

The long decent off the moor eventually brought us to our last camp at Noteworthy Farm and our return to Devon.

Figures:

Distance:- 57.1 km

Cycle Time:- 4 hours 21 minutes

Average speed:- 13.1 kph

Total Distance:- 6123 km

Hellandbridge

5/8/15

Sustrans routes often pass near a railway station or sports centre in a town so the NCN 32 was easy to rejoin in Newquay and we escaped efficiently. Remarkably quiet lanes took us to St Columb Major which had no tea shop but two tattoo parlours. We chose not to continue to Padstow but cut across and meet the River Camel near Bodmin. We found a reasonably sheltered valley route due to the high winds and promise of rain. We joined the Camel trail by crossing a convenient bridge to Grogley Halt (Grid reference: SX 016 683) and were soon joined by hundreds of cyclists enjoying this popular track. 

The rain reached it's heaviest downpour just as we arrived at the Camel Trail Tea Garden so we stopped for food before continuing on, rejoining the NCN 3 at Bodmin and to the final climb out of the valley to Tredethy House. This Tudor country house was home to Prince Chula of Thailand until the 1960's and provided us with a very nice night's accommodation.

Marco, the Italian owner, made us a magnificent homemade bread, Italian cured meat and local cheese board which we devoured with a few glasses of red wine. Marco told us a few secrets about this spread that would make Jamie Oliver jealous, one of these is some tasty sweet pickled onions which he can only find in Lidl! He lamented that, although the hotel was full, we were a rarity staying in to enjoy his cold platter. He has owned the hotel for nearly 10 years and enjoys the quiet, although not the 100 miles per day he has to drive to complete his children's school run.

The breakfast spread was as impressive as our evening meal but listening to the morning grumbles about the absence of bacon and eggs, I sense that the English are yet to be convinced about the continental start to the day.

Figures:

Distance:- 40.3 km

Cycle Time:- 3 hours 33 minutes

Average speed:- 11.3 kph

Total Distance:- 6066 km

Newquay

4/8/15

Another day and another National Trust property. The Elizabethan manor at Trerice was near the end of our day of up hill and down dale so cream tea first before the house and garden. The lady at the gate cheerily gave us a £1 token each for arriving by bike informing us that this should be the case for all properties in England and Wales. We now need to convince NT that they owe us about £30 for our visits!

With the wind behind us and good quiet lanes we made our way to Zelah where we picked up the NCN 32.

Newquay is what it is but the Quies hotel was very welcoming and had excellent facilities.

Figures:

Distance:- 37.9 km

Cycle Time:- 3 hours 8 minutes

Average speed:- 12.1 kph

Total Distance:- 6026 km

Redruth

3/8/15

Continuing in the spirit of this lawless journey, we have no real intention of sticking to the north coast of either Cornwall or Devon. Our return will mainly be on the Sustrans link from Land's End to Bristol and remain predominantly inland with an occasional excursion to the coast.

This morning, with the wind behind us, we headed to St Just and on to the Levant Mine museum which the National Trust labels the real Poldark. The site has extracted copper for thousands of years digging great shafts under the sea up to a mile and a half out. The lovingly restored beam engine which helped extract the ore and transport miners was the main attraction and great to see it working.

Skirting around the north of Penzance, with views of St Michael's Mount again, we stumbled upon Tremenheere Sculpture gardens which were opened with contributions from David Nash in 2012. With a long day ahead, we only had time for the restaurant but I had a perfectly cooked bowl of steamed mussels in cider and cream.

An awkward traversal of Cambourne on the NCN 3 brought us to Tricky's hotel, the name being a cruel play on how difficult it was to find.

Figures:

Distance:- 61.9 km

Cycle Time:- 4 hours 40 minutes

Average speed:- 13.2 kph

Total Distance:- 5988 km

Land's End

2/8/15

Get ready for bed or you won't be growing to Flambards tomorrow bellowed the angry father in an adjacent tent- Sue and I spoke in whispers after that, what is Falmbards?

Keen to keep off the main roads, Sue devised another off-road route which skirted around the RAF Culdrose airfield. We have been up-close to so many military establishments now that I feel sure we are on a suspicious list. The rough track pitched Sue off her bike but it eventually ended in a farm yard. A nice man got out of his tracter and with had a chat with us, ending every sentence with aaaahy. Once back on Tarmac and approaching Helston there were unfamiliar sounds from behind the high hedge, mechanical but not agricultural. Reaching a gap and a gate revealed a field full of fun fair- it was Flambards!

Signs of Cornwall's mining past were dotted across the landscape and we paid a visit to Godolphin House, once home to a mineral wealthy family, now owned by National Trust and an exclusive holiday let.

On, up and over to Marazion and a fine view of St Michael's Mount. The tide was out so we cycled across the causeway where the sand was preferable to the newly repaired cobbles.

A quick march up and through the castle then on a great off road approach track in to Penzance.

Another tea shop in Moushole refreshed us for the final push to Land's End where most visitors had left and, thankfully, the theme-park that marks this corner of Britain was closed. After the obligitary picture it was on to our luxury twin room in the Land's End Hostel. We had a swift drink in the First and Last but being packed there was no hope of food so it was on to the chippy in Sennen.

This is our last corner of Britain. Durness was the first, then John O'Groats, somewhere around Margate must have been South East's turning point and now Land's End, tomorrow will be our home straight back to Cheltenham.

Figures:

Distance:- 58.0 km

Cycle Time:- 4 hours 45 minutes

Average speed:- 12.2 kph

Total Distance:- 5926 km