Disaster Strikes!

We have had to abandon LeJog having got as far as Huddersfield. Chris has a broken rib and can barely move, let alone cycle.  Neither of us slept a wink on Sat night as he was in agony and I was trying to work out the best way to get home. As all the car hire companies were closed on Sunday I got on the train to Bristol via Sheffield - a journey of 6 hours due to the diversion caused by Bristol Parkway being shut (we went via Wales!!).  The icing on the cake was the 3 hour stoppage outside Cheltenham due to signal failure. Got home 10 hours after leaving the hotel and then drove 4 hours back in atrocious weather and through multiple sets of roadworks.  Not feeling my normal cheerful self and we are both pretty gutted.  Just about to set off for a visit to A&E in Bristol - another 4 hours in the car 😰

Will see some of you sooner than expected.........

It's Raining Again

That song has been going through my head all day.........

After a farcical breakfast scrum, brought about because we had been told to make an early start as it was a hilly day. Breakfast was negotiated to be at 7.30am rather than 8.00am, but nobody told the kitchen staff!!  As a result when we arrived there was a jug of orange juice but no glasses, bread but nothing to put on the toast, packets of cereal but no bowls and a plate of about 10 croissants. As the staff struggled to sort things out there was almost a blood bath over what was there - and don't even mention the fuss with the people who wanted porridge or a cooked breakfast.  We managed to grab cereal and toast and were one of the first away - initially on a dry, cool but cloudy day. That must have lasted all of 4 miles up the road when it started to rain, and rain and then rain some more. We got a bit of variety when heavy drizzle turned to heavy rain and the moved on to torrential downpours.

We climbed up to Monsal Head, where we had been instructed to stop and admire the fine views - one of the pictures below is of me indicating the general direction of where the view would be on a better day. We rolled on with plenty of climbing to reach the suggested coffee stop at Bamford. A few miles before we got there the heavens opened and sheets of rain poured down, so that by the time we arrived we were both drenched and shivering uncontrollably. 2 coffees and a substantial wedge of coffee cake helped, but not as much as the arrival of the luggage van and the opportunity to retrieve some extra clothes!!  By now some of the others had arrived and we were quickly turning the Community Cafe into a fishing lake, so we decided to press on as the rain had subsided to light drizzle.

The next section was over a section of road used on the Tour de France in 2014 and on the Tour of Yorkshire. Called 'The Strines' it includes some steep descents with equally steep pulls out - one of which is meant to be around 25% at the steepest pitch.  The saving grace was the fact that the road had been resurfaced for the TdF so is still smooth and easy to cycle even in rain. We got over the section in the dry and even saw a bit of sun, but as soon as we started to come off the moor the rain started again in torrents, only stopping as we descended to Langsett.

This is where we were planning to have lunch, but it was dry so we decided to go on to Holmfirth. Not such a great plan as we ended up in a bus shelter with the bikes waiting for the worst of the thunder shower to pass...... We found a cafe in Holmfirth, where we were able to park the bikes under cover in view of out table. Hot drinks and toasties restored morale and I caused a few raised eyebrows by using the teapot as a drier for my gloves. We stopped off at a supermarket to get a couple of pairs of marigolds for riding tomorrow!  We finally got drenched again about 3 miles from the hotel trying to navigate our way through the suburbs of Huddersfield. 

We are now at the Old Golf Course Hotel in Outlane - unfortunately for them the M62 was built over the course - which now allegedly has just 8 holes!  We are mingling with 120 smartly dressed wedding guests and getting a few funny looks........ 

Dodging the showers

We left our rather posh hotel this morning with wet roads and overcast skies, but no actual rain. The forecast was for heavy showers all day and if you look at the photos you'll see the clouds - but unbelievably we managed to stay dry all day, with just occasional spots of rain which thankfully came to nothing.  The first 25 miles was almost entirely flat, but along narrow back lanes with huge puddles and a lot of mud.  The bikes (and us) were soon plastered with muck but we made good progress to our first objective (and only biggish town) of the day - Stone in Staffordshire.  Coffee and cake was duly ordered and we made the place look as untidy as possible.   

The route then got a lot hillier, but still on quiet roads, with enormous thunder clouds on view rather closer than we might have liked. We arrived in one village just after they must have had a huge dump of rain, but amazingly we managed to time it just right.  From this village the route took us through a fence and up a narrow path covered in moss etc, to pop out through a hedge on to a main road - probably surprised a few drivers as we would have appeared to be emerging from a ditch!  A little further on the road actually went through a house - think I would prefer not to have the bedroom above the arch (see below).

We eventually got to Carsington Water after 55 miles for a late lunch, at which point the odd glimpses of sun became full hot sunshine as we enjoyed our bread and bananas at the outside tables watching the world go by - and meeting up with some of the other cyclists as they arrived. From there it was only 7 miles to our hotel in Matlock Bath, which is another upmarket place (although we are in the less salubrious rooms). Luckily they had a hose outside so we were all able to get the bikes washed before putting them away (although given the forecast for the next two days I'm not sure it was worth the effort).  

Question: what has happened to the good old launderette? We haven't found any yet, except in Weston - but it closed before we even arrived. As a result we seem to be sharing the shower with a pair of muddy socks and / or cycling shorts most nights 😳

I am hoping this will post OK as we have no Wifi in the room, but it appeared to work downstairs. Photos are on the route today and our two posh hotels.

Cake and culture

So here we are in the Midlands in a place called Shifnal, about 5 miles outside Telford.  The day started with a bit of sun on a chilly morning but the day was mainly cloudy although mercifully dry. We did 75 miles, working our way almost due north through Herefordshire and Shropshire on mainly very quiet undulating roads - probably the easiest day so far in terms of terrain / weather / wind and lack of mechanical issues.  It was a buffet breakfast so no fisticuffs with the OAPs, especially as it was open from 6.30am.  We got on the road early as rain was forecast for late afternoon. The first (and really only) issue came when we got entangled in a humongous traffic jam in the village of Mordiford. Sitting behind cars belching fumes was not a great experience but we later saw a poster protesting about gridlock in the village due to the closure of a parallel 'A' road. They weren't wrong.

We were soon back on small lanes and were making good progress so we pushed on to Ludlow for a slightly late cake and coffee stop near the castle.  The cakes were substantial but probably wouldn't have won any awards at the Gourmet Food Festival starting tomorrow - the town was heaving with people who didn't want to miss a minute of the three day event. To try and fit in I bought Brioche burger buns to have with bananas for lunch as they sounded quite posh (and were the only rolls in a small pack!!).  The next few miles were basically flat with a slight tail wind on reasonably well surfaced quiet lanes - what's not to like??  It got a bit hillier before Much Wenlock and then again before Ironbridge.  We stopped in Ironbridge for a bit of a look round and were going to have a tea, but looking behind us the clouds were gathering so we made a run for the hotel - arriving as the first spots of rain started to fall.  The luggage had just arrived so we were able to crack on with washing the kit, ourselves and charging up batteries etc.  Holidays like this can be quite full-on at times.....

So why am I feeling inferior when it comes to food??  Well, one lady on the tour makes everything herself apparently - bread, pasta, you name it. Another never uses anything tinned, packaged or frozen (unless she froze some of her own home cooking for later consumption), while a third grows all her own vegetables, makes ten cakes at a time and either gives them to neighbours or freezes them. A fourth (and her husband is as bad) don't really like to eat out as you don't know exactly what has gone into the meal - although we did catch them scoffing cheesy chips in a cafe yesterday!  One of the blokes will eat no carbs, but appears to eat enough fat to block every artery in every rider on the tour while another (a food and exercise zealot) only eats 'healthy' food - which appears to include 3 boiled eggs plus scrambled eggs for breakfast after porridge and followed by mountains of toast with butter and jam.  To my mind it you can't eat cake on a bike ride of over 1,000 miles what is the point of life??

Photos include Chepstow Castle from yesterday, the Ironbridge, our stop in Ludlow and some other shots on the route

Note for Ken and Jeff: having been on the route of the Wellingtom Boot on Tuesday and the Wye Forest 50 yesterday, today we covered 3 hundred routes - Marches 1990 and 1995 plus the Houseman in 2011. At least 2 more in the next day or so

A good day on the bike!

A dry day with some sun (at last!). Breakfast would have been funny if we hadn't wanted to get away in good time. The coach load of OAPs were queuing at the door before 8.15, but we're still enjoying a leisurely fried breakfast as we left.  Most hotels operate a buffet for cereal, fruit juice etc and some also do the cooked food this way - not the Sandringham! I am guessing that most of their guests can't walk more than a few yards without taking a breather and presumably couldn't manage a bowl of cornflakes plus their walking aids. As a result we were waiter-served bowls of cereal (presumably measured out last night) tea that was so strong it could have been mistaken for molten tar and cold toast.  Luckily we weren't looking for what appeared to be a heart attack on a plate to appear.  I just hope they all survived until their coffee stop......

Anyway we finally got going shortly after 9.00am and navigated our way out of Weston. Being so close to home the only parts of the route we weren't familiar with were the first and last 5 miles.  This made for a much faster riding day, although we had to go slower over the section round Bristol as we ended up with a tail of riders locked on our back wheels to avoid getting lost. Our first stop was Chepstow for lunch, which we had bought earlier. We sat in the centre of town watching the world go by and enjoying the sunshine. We had done 42 miles of relatively easy riding, although crossing the Severn Bridge in a howling wind was a bracing experience, especially for those who hadn't tried it before. The hills started in the afternoon, not too steep but lengthy with a steep descent from Symonds Yat down to the Wye valley and on to tonight's stop in Ross-on-Wye.  I had 'lost' my lowest climbing gear (careless I know but that's me I'm afraid) so we visited the bike shop there where a lovely young guy sorted me out while Chris hid outside..........

Everything we saw today was familiar, but the weather was kind, there were no mechanical problems and we didn't get even slightly lost - so in my book that counts as a good day on the bike, although I'm looking forward to something a bit different tomorrow (and I don't mean more rain!!) Tonight is one of two nights on the tour when dinner is not provided but since we are in a Premier Inn on a dual carriageway we will be eating in the Beefeater next door (there is a back road to the hotel for getting in and out luckily but nobody is planning to get back on their bike).

Photos are Weston at night, some shots of Chepstow and the Wye Valley, plus an iconic view of the first Severn Bridge

Fawlty Towers (Weston Style)

A lot happened today so my inferiority complex will have to wait.  We woke to leaden skies and by the time we had finished breakfast it was raining. We took our time and it managed to stop just before we left at around 8.30am. It was busy getting out of Exeter and we got stuck going uphill on a narrow road just outside the city, with a double decker bus metaphorically breathing down my neck, with Chris stuck behind it.  Spotting what appeared to be a dropped curve at the entrance to a property I turned left to get off the road, only to discover that the kerb was only partially lowered - the inevitable happened and me and the bike went down with a bus load of commuters staring out the window. Apart from being shaken I had a cut knee and grazed leg, with copious amounts of blood but no real damage done. We stopped to wash it and put a dressing on and then carried on - having done all of 3 miles!!

It was one of those days when your jackets were on and off with monotonous regularity. It was warm and humid, with wet intervals, during one of which a group of us enjoyed a wonderful coffee and cake stop in Culmstock. We carried on to Wellington, on the outskirts of which Chris got his first puncture of the day. Having managed to navigate our way through Taunton he got his second before we had reached Bridgewater. This one took longer to fix because the valve got bent and pliers had to be applied. Having finally sorted that we were about to leave when we discovered a problem with my rack pack. The rack had slipped down the seat post and was resting on the wheel😡. The tools all had to come back out and it was 3.00pm before we finally managed to buy a sandwich in a garage for lunch.

We had a longish slog across the Somerset levels and were a bit worried about time so had to step on the gas, finally getting to the hotel in Weston-Super-Mare at 5.20pm, with dinner at 6.30pm.  This would have been OK except we were told we had to clean the bikes before the hotel would store them for us - so we joined 7 other riders in a small alleyway at the back of the hotel with buckets and sponges, plus one hose pipe to get them in a fit state to be allowed in.  It was then a mad rush to get our bags up to the 4th floor and shower in the smallest shower, in the smallest bathroom, attached to the smallest bedroom you could imagine. It is classic 50s/60s guest house decor and fittings and is actually quite funny. Dinner is served between 6pm and 7pm and don't even think of being late. Menu was again classic guest house (I guessed the 'choice of desserts' with unerring accuracy and they were astonished when Chris said he wanted trifle without 'squirty cream'.  The vegetables must have been cooking since lunchtime if not last night and were obviously designed for the coach load of OAPs who were also in the dining room.  

We went for a walk along the sea front and came back to discover that were missing a Bingo session in the bar and what appeared to be a poorly cat singing into a very loud microphone - fairly hard to recognise any of the tunes but the OAPs had possibly turned their hearing aids off anyway. Breakfast is at 8.15am and thou shalt not be early. The menu is as interesting as dinner, but at least you can't over cook cornflakes 😀

 

WiFi only exists in reception so I will go down and try to publish this from there - unless the lure of bingo and a sing-a-long is too great.

Photos are the view from our 4th floor room, the Mechanic at work, coffee stop and a rather surprising totem pole in Culmstock

Forgotten Photos

A soggy welcome to Devon and still smiling in the rain yesterday