I'm so proud of Nathan and Joel - they're getting on with everything with the minimum of fuss and complaint. They won't admit they're enjoying it (!), but they're both determined to complete our whole challenge. Nathan was quite disappointed that we didn't quite manage to cycle 60 miles today!
Our route today took us up the Severn valley. It's amazing that it's so flat, so close to Bristol and all its hills! After the excitement of crossing the Avon on a footpath/cycleway alongside the M5, and then crossing two or three different motorways several times, we got into a good rhythm and trundled steadily along back lanes and through quiet villages. We were very pleased to find that the church at Olveston (http://www.stmarysolveston.org.uk) had a porch to shelter us from a shower as we had our lunch (it was even one of the those church porches with a stone bench down each side for us to sit on!). We had a quick look inside the church and were glad to make use of their toilet! Despite the weather forecast, we managed to dodge most of the rain (apart from a couple of showers) until mid-afternoon. By then we'd just left the towpath of the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal with great relief - it had been a real boneshaker. We stopped for ice creams in Frampton on Severn - which is a beautiful village - and the lady in the shop, (who apparently lives in a boat on the canal, and has cycled the towpath frequently) told us that we'd do much better to go back to the towpath and cycle up to Gloucester that way, than follow the suggested Sustrans cycle route round the lanes. She assured us we'd just cycled the worst part of the towpath and the rest "isn't too bad". I'm not sure what she'd call "awful", but I certainly wouldn't recommend that towpath!!
We arrived in Gloucester thinking of Dr Foster (in case you don't remember, he went to Gloucester in a shower of rain, stepped in a puddle right up to his middle, and never went there again!) In our case it was a bit more than a shower, but although we found plenty of puddles, none were quite as deep, thank goodness.
Tomorrow we'll be cycling into Shropshire, so there'll be more hills than the last two days. We're due to spend the night at my mother's house, where there's no internet, so there'll be no Blog post. On Thursday we continue to Wrexham, and get to spend one night in our own beds!
Thank you again for all your prayers, and the messages of support on Facebook and elsewhere - please keep praying that we'll stay on track, and be as well organised as we managed today.
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| Yes, we were about to go across there! |
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| The footpath/cycleway across the Avon by the M5 |
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| The river Avon from the middle of the bridge |
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| Motorway traffic was very close to us |
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| We enjoyed this message in the porch of Olveston Church |
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| 'Bikes of the day' - one of several similar installations in Berkeley |
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| Another of the Sustrans Millennium signposts - there are four different styles - I'm not so keen on the yellow! |
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| A barge going through one of the swing bridges on the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal |
