Travel Journal

Day 13 – Chorley – Skelmersdale – Liverpool – Chester. 66.5m, Av speed 12.1mph, Max speed 32.6mph, Time cycled 5h 29m 10s. Cold, crisp day, spent first hour looking for bike shops to fix my broken spokes..! First one (in my little book) turned out to now be a hairdressers , so…eight miles down the road, I was happy to come across ‘Buy-a-bike’ in the little village of Charnock Richard, where Paul (Thanks mate!) swiftly fixed up my wheel & then, good as new…headed on to ‘Skem’ - roundabout after roundabout, including the wonderful ‘Bone island’ (it’s a roundabout shaped liked a bone, you know..), past Anfield & then finally on the ferry ‘cross the Mersey, before pulling into Chester just after dark..

Day 14 – Chester – Whitchurch – Wem – Shrewsbury – Ludlow. 71.5m, Av speed 11.6mph, Max speed 33.1mph, Time cycled 6h 7m 6s. Head down and an early start, quite relieved to leave the grubby independent hostel in Chester . Covered 42 miles by lunch on a mix of busy A-roads & country lanes, then the snow started & tucked into a delicious hot pork, stuffing & apple sauce bap in Shrewsbury… Snow continued and cold & wet, pulled into Ludlow, where after two weeks, it was great to see Lau again..! Rest day tomorrow, so didn’t bother too much about carbs, so we wrapped up warm and had a cracking Indian takeaway…mmm

Day 15 – Ludlow. Rest day. Lie-in, had a lovely relaxing day with Lau, met Lynne for a tasty lunch & then an afternoon full of lazy meandering..

Day 16 – Ludlow – lots of tiny Herefordshire villages - Hay-on-Wye – Brecon. 53.2m, Av speed 11.4mph, Max speed 33.6mph, Time cycled 4h 38m 35s. Lovely breakfast, then said goodbye to Lori for another week..Horrible steep climb out of Ludlow into Martimer (?cloud) forest..then enjoyable ride through back lanes and picturesque villages to Hay-on-Wye. Bookshops, bookshops everywhere & a smashing Cheddar and onion chutney doorstep sandwich (I make no apologies for food becoming the highlight of my days…. Appreciated the canal towpath cycleway into Brecon.

Day 17 – Brecon – Llangenny & Paddy’s birthday bash. 22.8m, Av speed 11.4mph, Max speed 28.5mph, Time cycled 2h 0m 17s. Deliberately lazy day, then a wonderful evening with Paddy (Happy 30th mate!), Steph, Rob & friends, pictionary, rugby and catching up...

Day 18 – Llangenny – Abergavenny – Usk – Severn Bridge – Bristol. 53.8m, Av speed 10.9mph, Max speed 28.5mph, Time cycled 4h 55m 15s. Lazy meander out of the Brecon Beacons, and enjoyed the winding lanes to Usk. Lunch (and fortunately managed to avoid a heavy shower) in Chepstow, before strictly adhering (ahem) to the 15mph cycling speed limit on the gently swaying Severn bridge & into Bristol with its vicious hills..Great to see Mum & Dad who came to meet for dinner & enjoyed bangers and mash as well as receiving some excellent home-baked goods (really good pasties mum..!)

Day 19 – Bristol – Congresbury – Cheddar –Shapwick – Taunton. 59.1m, Av speed 11.6mph, Max speed 30.2mph, Time cycled 5h 3m 32s. Wet, wet, wet and more wet. Busy (wet) roads out of Bristol, then into wet peat bog and forced to climb the islands in the levels.. Feeling the burn by Taunton, but made it to my B&B and dried off just in time to watch the League Cup final…

Day 20 – Taunton – Wellington – Sampford Peverell – Thorverton – Okehampton. 58.4m, Av speed 10.7mph, Max speed 31.7mph, Time cycled 5h 27m 9s. Lovely & warm-ish (yes, really!) day. Tough with the constant climbs, but enjoyed one of mum’s pasties on the village green at Thorverton (very nice indeed.. ). Bed for the night at YHA in Okehampton in an old, converted train shed - bizarre! Only two more to go…

Day 21 – Okehampton – Launceston – Delabole – Wadebridge – Newquay. 70.6m, Av speed 11.2mph, Max speed 36.6mph, Time cycled 6h 17m 21s. Seem to have developed a heavy cold… . Nose constantly running, set out on the wonderful granite cycleway in Okehampton…enjoying myself until I looked down & cycle computer wasn’t there..doh! Spent an hour retracing my route and looking for it and virtually gave up, but as luck would have it, saw it glinting in some grasses on the trackside..! I’m meant to finish this! Twenty miles on, a puncture, so another half hour to stop and fix it…feeling a little dejected by now, the climbs out of Launceston & Wadebridge were monsters and the hardest of the whole ride so far, then a horrendous 20% gradient out of Watergate Bay, and exhausted, finally made it to Newquay at dusk..nearly there..

Day 22 – Newquay – St Ives – St Just – Lands End. 56.6m, Av speed 10.7mph, Max speed 34.1mph, Time cycled 5h 16m 35s. Blustery wind trying to blow me off the northern Cornish cliffs all day. Last couple of steep climbs out of St Ives and into St Just, before the blissful last eight mile stretch to the finish line, where my fantastic support team (Laura!!) was waiting for me…MADE IT!! ...time for a rest...