Ride the UK

Day 8 - Bristol (Hanbury) to Glouster In an earlier than normal departure we are away about 8:00 am. We have postponed breakfast until later as there was no included breakfast here as there often is with AirBandB's. Also,  since we left New Zealand,  and actually for a couple of weeks before,  I have been doing a 45 minute meditation routine based on a stress management program developed by Jon Kabat Zinn at the MIT in the United States. I feel this has been a big help for me to keep me more relaxed than I otherwise would have been. Not a perfect Mike but better Mike. This is a big commitment at the beginning of almost everyday. Especially as there is often pressure to get going so the end of the day is not too late. But I really believe the time delayed  is worth it. On  leaving from Henbury we are already 10 km ahead on this section making this pretty flat 65 kilometre day quite easy (Hopefully).   We see a repurposed phone box on the way converted ...

Day 9 – Glouster to Droitwich Now we have reached the West Midlands of England. Today we will go through Worcester to Droitwich Spa. We are trying to push the distances up a bit. The overall aim is   28 stages in 24 days. However it is a delicate balancing act - making up time but not getting too exhausted. We leave Gloucester and our  great bargain of a hotel.   Down town in Glouster Glouster Cathedral We drop off about 8 kg of camping gear in a tapped up box at the post office to send to Tina in Luton in the south. Cost about £25. Absolutely worth it. We do a last ride right around the cathedral then spend a frustrating 30 minutes trying to find our way out of town and back on to the correct cycle route. Normally routes in and out of towns are very geared to cars and trucks here. Which closes down the options for bikes and can make things very difficult.   We are now heading across the Severn flood plain.   In a way this country is less ...

Day 10 - Droitwich Spa to Newport This will be a good days cycling. We only get lost and have to back track twice. We are learning that part of the story for our route finding  is always being aware that we may be  off track and being ready to recover. We leave our Airbandb in Droitwich Spa at about 9:15 am. Our hosts are very admiring of our adventure. They had just been to John O’Groats the week before for the first time (our destination point) but that was on an organized bus tour. Hosts in Droitwich Spa. He used to work as a stone mason on the Cathedral in Winchester. We are back into more hilly terrain now but nothing like Cornwall and Devon.   There's more beautiful riding through quiet country roads with pretty houses. We stop at Bewdley for morning tea at about 12 noon but we have a long way to go today so push on with lots of riding on forest paths and   then some nice canals. We have a late lunch at Bridgnorth at 4:00 pm.   I expect...

Day 11 – Newport to Northwich We are spending  a lot of time searching the internet for accommodation during this trip. 1 because we don't want to commit too far ahead 2 because we don't want to pay very much i.e. To   average about $100 per night New Zealand So we spend time this morning searching for somewhere to stay on the West Pennine Moors 40 kms on from Manchester after Bury. On Friday   we need somewhere around Warwick after crossing the Forest of Bowland moor. We are eventually off to a cafe for breakfast at about 8:45 and cycling by 9:30.   I do get frustrated at times by slow starts or lots of delays but today's stage should be easy.   We wonder if we will avoid getting lost today. The wind is increasing today from the SW. That should be mainly a tail wind. The predominant wind in the UK is from the south west. Which does mean that when travelling from south to north we should experience more tail wind than head wind. Newport We lea...

Day 12 – Northwich to Shepherds Shack Northwich is just North of Helmshore. We have had a big day yesterday and we have paid quite a lot for our little cottage in Northwich. We now   have 3 nights ahead booked. That is some relief.   The map in our guide for Northwich is very confusing. On our touring route we often travel much greater distances to avoid the busy roads. This also means we do more climbing.   Road infrastructure is pretty exclusively set up for cars and trucks, not bikes. So getting out of town is often a drama and we are very happy if we end up leaving (without getting seriously lost) on a quiet road,   as the guide normally plans. After confusion we find our correct quiet road. Sometimes we meet a farm vehicle. A few kilometres   later we find we have gone the wrong way.   Either we have missed a sign or if the sign was missing. After a period of mass confusion we eventually find – almost randomly,   our way to a canal which...