SATURDAY 26 JULY
117 MILES 1580 METRES ASCENT
As Francis has said below, it was another cracker of a day. After our filling B&B breakfast we headed out at 9am in short sleeves for another exploratory meander. Generally it was pretty flat compared to most other days, but there were a few wee crackers of climbs to make us suffer a bit in the heat, but generally cycling along we created enough of a cooling wind to make it a very enjoyable day. I had never been to this part of the country (other than the Wrekin Hill Race years ago)and it was great to be cycling round these wonderful rural lanes, pretty much free of traffic but full of wonderful thatched houses, renovated farm buildings and, of course, brilliant country pubs serving real ales - unfortunately we committed the cardinal sin of drinking lager shandies as we needed the refeshment they provided, as a few pints of real ale at lunch would probably have had us sleeping at the handle bars afterwards, so sorry barman! The night's hostel was right down near the River Severn by a lovely canal, where Francis'family met us and treated us to scampi-in-a-basket in a cafe nearby and some lovely local cyder.
FRANCIS' ACCOUNT=
Another long day! The weather has been incredibly hot and sunny as we have navigated our way southwards through Shropshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire using a myriad of narrow lanes. The cycling was excellent and the pub at which we stopped, at random, for lunch turned out to have been chosen as the CAMRA pub of the year for the West Midlands.
One noticeable change during our ride has been the change in the smells, from that of wildflowers in the Highlands to that of ripening corn in the Midlands. The second striking change has been in the day length. In the Highlands, it was light at ten o'clock, but here it is dark before ten.
John has been amused by the posts which are used to indicate the depth of water near bridges and by some painted marks on a bridge which indicated the depths of recent floodes.
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