Day 4 – Yippee! Glastonbury to Monmouth
Well woke up this
morning after drinking loads during the night and not much consistent sleep
with, but still have a headache. Not
sure what’s going on here, however bum feeling better! So it was off to breakfast and another full
English and paracetamol…
Here’s how the daily
routine for us has become. Get up around
7 am. Bath/shower and generally try and
convince the body that it is in fact daytime and it needs to be up. Roller legs
(yes you were right Nicola it does make a difference!) - sort out kit, choose
clothes for the day, what to carry in the rucksack, fill water bottles, add
rehydration tablets, pack suitcases, transfer to van, make sure all electronic
devices have been charged for the day, programme sav nav, (or as it has been
named ‘sh*t
nav’ on account of the
number of times it has told us the wrong way to go, or even better than that
when we need it, shut down). Try and eat
breakfast, usually full fat, back to room, final checks, then exit room, find
bikes, cycle to morning briefing, usually the start point, find out the plan
for the day and then make the first pedal rotation of the day.
My life has become quite
simple – to turn a blue line into a purple one.
On the ‘sh*t nav’, the blue line represents where you have come from,
the purple your route ahead. The day’s
objective is simple - Turn the blue into the purple until there is no more
purple and then stop.
The first ‘brew’ stop is
after around 15 – 20 miles. This first section
is usually hard as it takes that time to wake the body up and get everything
warm. The next section is before lunch
and is usually easy. Lunch is a buffet
or similar at a pub and is the highlight of the day, usually a beautiful quintessential
English pub stop and lots of good social interaction, mainly based on the
cycling so far. The section after lunch
is the graveyard shift, again hard to get started but we’ve noticed you get
moving quicker than for the morning session.
Then we stop for the afternoon ‘brew’ stop, a welcome rest, then off for
the final leg which is easy, the ‘home straight’. Then find accommodation, recovery shake,
stretches, shower, recovery trousers on, sort out kit, wash stuff, find some
food and drink and get to bed early.
That is the daily routine, and we’re starting to make it slick…
Anyway today was fun and
we both enjoyed it – we were going to see the family so we both looking forward
to the day, also we knew the area as we were close to home. Glastonbury was left in sunshine, and we past
through Wells, apparently the smallest city in Great Britain. The cathedral is wonderful, the toilets a
welcome stop. Then on to Bristol. We had a few navigation problems through
Bristol it is fair to say. Also raining,
our first rain of the tour. Lost about
an hour, but did succeed with the help of one of Peak Tours excellent team, Johnny,
who rounded us all up and steered us through.
Over Clifton suspension bridge, stunning views and then we headed off
for the lunch stop. We were cheered in
by Cass and Roy (Smith) some very good friends of ours, which was a) a surprise
and b) very much appreciated. Most of
the rest of the group had been and gone by then, so a quick lunch and off
again. Now started raining pretty hard,
actually I don’t mind it, it was still pretty warm and the bike seems to move
faster in the rain, maybe less friction or more propensity to get there
quicker, not sure.
We crossed the Severn
Bridge in soaking weather, couldn’t see the tops of the towers as they were in
cloud, but hey a new country, Wales we had just entered. Really starting to head north now.
On the other side we
were met by Maureen (Michaela’s mum) Dan (12 year old son) and Ben (16 soon to
be 17 year old son). Despite the rain,
Dan more than happily cycled the last section with us into Monmouth and as
usual his uplifting and motivational presence helped enormously. When he found out that at each ‘brew’ stop,
you can eat as much snack food as you want, whilst eating three Jaffa cakes, he
declared that he wanted to do the whole thing.
It was an easy cycle
into Monmouth, and a nice dinner with family, and celebration Ben’s birthday,
which sadly we won’t be with him for on 16th.
We hardly saw Stefan all
day, I think he went for it today, did it really fast to avoid the rain. Hope he feels OK.
We have now done around
260 miles, already more than a quarter of the trip done. We both generally feeling OK, bodies are
adjusting and hey we made it out of Devon and Cornwall – those hills area
killer! Tomorrow an easy day – life
isn’t too bad.
Route and photos to follow - having connection problems!
