30th July- 7th August - Cirencester to Chester

30th Our last morning with Robert and Elisabeth, we said our goodbyes before they headed off to work then just relaxed for the morning. We watched Charlie and the chocolate factory that they had taped as we had not seen it before. David preferred the older version. We headed off for Putney to use the internet at the Library. They had a training company in the same building that hired out PC’s for the internet. Catriona managed to book bus tickets to Cirencester for 20pounds rather that 20pounds each to do it over the phone. We headed off for Tim and Pat’s after that giving ourselves plenty of time to get to their house by the time Tim usually got home from work (6.30pm). It was on the route #4 we had taken to Oxford so we knew the way or so we thought. We had another nice ride along the Thames and through Richmond Park. It was once we reached the other side we needed to stop for directions. We eventually made it to Tim and Pat’s just before Tim arrived home. We had a glass of wine in the garden and had a lovely chat with Tim, Pat and their son Chris before heading off to a local Italian restaurant The meals were lovely and we had a great time talking with Tim and pat over dinner and a bottle of wine. We headed back to their place where they put us up for the night in a bedroom at the top of the house. Much more luxurious than sleeping in our tent like we had expected to be doing that night.

31st We woke around 7am and had breakfast with Tim and Pat before Tim set off to work. Tim let us use his Eee PC and told me the name of the shop where he had bought his. Catriona checked emails and the warm showers and hospitality club websites searching for somewhere to stay in Edinburgh while David searched through Pats camping and hostel directories for places to stay during our upcoming ride. We set off at around 10.30am, very happy to have finally met Tim and Pat and so grateful for their hospitality. We set off for Kingston on Thames which had a Micro Anvika, the computer shop where Tim got his Eee PC. Catriona ended up buying an Eee PC 901 12GB model with windows XP as the 20GB Linux version would not be available until 11th August. We then set off for Victoria coach station, retracing our steps to Putney, then crossing Putney bridge and riding through Chelsea and in to Victoria. We had just enough time to pack our bikes up and put the paniers into our strippy bags before boarding the bus.
It was a good journey to Cirencester but when we got there it started to rain. It was a quick unpack of the bikes and a short ride around the town and stop off at the supermarket for dinner supplies before heading off 3km North to the Mayfield Park, where we set up the tent for the night.

1st Today we had 4 seasons in a day riding through the hilly Cotswolds. 1st we rode back into Cirencester to take a few pictures of the old buildings and morning tea where David had a Pasty and Catriona had a mocca.
Then off along the Byway toward Chedworth along quiet secondary roads, passing through pretty little villages and past rich estates.
We got a little lost trying to find Chedworth Roman Villa and just as we were about to give up we found it. We watched a video presentation on the site and spent about an hour wandering around the site which was originally excavated in the early 20th century and a building built over the top to protect it
It included a roman spa with hot and cold pools. We then set off again to Salperton. We headed to the Craven at Brockhampton for lunch but arrived after lunch had finished. We ended up having a picknick lunch with the food we had overlooking a lovely country mansion.
We rode on to Winchcome stopping at the tourist information centre to find out about campsites near Tewksbury which is where we were heading for the night. We bought some afternoon tea of museli slice at a local bakery then head off to Tewksbury. Tewksbury is full of old Tudor buildings that look like they are about to fall down.
The caravan park was almost full and we had to pay 18 pounds for the site. We set up the tent and went in to town to the local Witherspoons to have dinner and use their wifi. Unfortunately the wifi was not working but we had a good meal anyway. We had to walk back to the caravan park in the rain and it rained most of the night.

2nd We were woken at 3am to the Westminster chimes from the Abbey and heard them each hour after that. In the morning it had stopped long enough for us to pack our bags but after having breakfast and cleaning our teeth it started to rain heavily again and we still had the tent to pack up. Luckily we were camped under trees which protected us a little from the rain.
As we set off some random guy in the caravan park said “It’s days like these when you wonder why you do it I suppose” he was right but another guy had told us the weather was supposed to clear by lunch time. We rode in to Tewksbury around 9am and had a hot chocolates and David had a steak wrap (pastry). We then set off along the byway route as the sun was beginning to come out. We rode back to Tredington and out to Deerhurst where we visited an old Saxon church and Odda’s saxon chapel.(10th Century)
Deerhurst has the distinction of being one of only 2 English towns with both a Saxon church and chapel. We then rode along quiet rural roads to Ashleworth to see the National Trust owned Tithe barn. We then continued on to Ashleworth Quay to have lunch at the CTC recommended Pub on the river however they only served rolls, so we headed off to Ashleworth and found the Queens arms pub which was serving food. David had pasta and Catriona had beef stew and vegetables, just what we needed to keep us going up and down the hills of the Cotswolds. We rode on to Corse then started on the hills of Upleadon, Brand Green and Redmarley D’Abitot. We then cycled on to Estnor castle and watched 10 overs of a cricket
game before cycling into Ledbury. We stopped at the TIC (tourist information centre) to get directions to the camping ground, did a quick shop for dinner and then cycled 2miles out of town to the camping site, Woodside lodges country park with its beautiful country views. We ended up cycling just over 30 miles for the day and because of the hills we were stuffed.

3rd It had rained again overnight but we made up our minds last night that we needed to get an early start as we had so long to cycle this day. We had had breakfast and packed up and were on our way back into Ledbury by 8am. We stopped to look at the old buildings
and church then set off toward Wellington Heath. Not a good start as before we even left Ledbury we had travelled 2 miles out of our way. Once we were on the main B4214 road we were right until we started to follow the Byway signs which lead us off and around in circle into the countryside.
After having travelled 10 miles and were still only 5 miles from Ledbury and heading back in that direction we found a couple pruning their hedge and got directions to Bishop’s Frome. We decided to stick to the B road rather than chance following the Byway route. We made it there no problems. We then set off for Stoke Lacy again following the Byway signs and being left in the middle of nowhere with no idea where to go. We found our way again heading for Leominster (pronounced Lemster- go figure) it was a torturous ride up and down the hills. It got to the point where we were not even enjoying the downhills as we knew there would be an uphill to follow. We eventually made it to Leominster which seemed to be dead on a Sunday and none of the pubs were serving the Sunday roast we were looking forward to. We ended up having lunch at a pub and a well earned rest. After lunch we set off for Croft castle. We got lost again following the Byway signs and made our way to Yarpole. We could not find any signs for the castle but luckily a lady pulled up and asked us if we needed help. When she said “Just up the hill” we almost died. We made our way up the hill and then down to cross a road and into the castle grounds. Guess what the castle was up the hill so off we went again up the hill only just making it. It was 4pm and the grounds didn’t close until 5pm so we decided to have afternoon tea in the tea shop. Catriona had a pot of tea and some Greens organic 70% dark chocolate and David had a hot chocolate with a scone and jam. We had another well earned rest and set off to look at the Croft castle at 4.30pm only to find they stop admitting people at 4.30pm. We hurried down to the castle in the hope that they were running late closing. They were not, but the lovely man at the door let us in after we explained we had ridden all day to see the castle and even if we just got to look in the entry hall that would be good. He took pity on us and let us in to see the rooms that were still open. The rooms we saw were very grand and we were glad we had made it in.
We then went out and took a few photos and set off to Ludlow for our overnight accommodation and in doing so crossed over into Shropshire ("how lovely").
We reached Ludlow around 6pm and the supermarket had closed so we bought some food for breakfast at a convinience store and went to a pub (The Bull Ring)
where we were able to get our Sunday roast. We headed off to the campground hoping they would have a site for us. Luckily there were plenty so David set up the tent and Catriona went off to charge her Eee PC and update the blog. The campsite has magnificent sweeping views of the valley and Ludlow below. (Yes the campsite is uphill from Ludlow!)


4th We decided to have a rest day today after all the hills of the Cotswolds and Herfordshire. We decided to get some washing done as well so we packed it all up and headed into Ludlow with the PC. We walked around the castle taking quite a few photos..
We then headed to the information centre where the very helpful lady told us where the Laundromat and the library were. So we dropped the washing off and headed to the library where they had free wifi. I updated the blog and searched for places to stay further on in our journey. We had a break for lunch at a little pub where David had quiche, peas and chips and Catriona had chilli and rice.
After lunch we headed back to the library for some more interneting. In the afternoon we had a walk around Ludlow admiring all the old black and white buildings.
We did some shopping for dinner, picked up our washing and set off back to our campsite. We had to recharge the Eee PC as we had forgotten the power cord and had run the battery down in the library so while it was charging we had aa chat to the man who owned the campsite which was a riding school as well. He also runs riding for the disabled and told us all about that and the town of Ludlow and the way it had changed over the years. He also gave us a bit of a history lesson about Shrewsbury being the town where the English fought off the Welsh and that Telford was an old mining town built on the slag heap.

5th Woke early (5am) wanting to get a good start to the day and found it was pouring with rain so went back to sleep for half an hour. It had backed off by 5.30 so we decided to pack up. While we were having breakfast the heavens opened up again so we had to just pack up everything under the tent as best we could and the whole tent itself got soaked while we packed it up. David stopped to take this photo on our way out of the campground.
Headed in to Ludlow to get a hot drink only to find most places still shut as it was too early. We set off to ride to Ironbridge over a few hills but Catriona had had enough and decided we should catch the train as it was so hard trying to ride with your eyes so squinted to keep the rain out that you could hardly see. We managed to get tickets to Shrewsbury on the 8.49am train and didn’t even have to fold the bikes.
The rain was not so heavy in Shrewsbury but we were soaked to the bone. We stopped in at Starbucks to have our hot drink and use the wifi. (Found out you had to subscribe to Tmobile to use the wifi so just used their power to charge the battery to 100%. We dried off while in Starbucks so set off for the library to use the wifi there. Managed to book accommodation in Liverpool and find out about train tickets from Chester to Liverpool. We set off to the station and bought our Chester to Liverpool tickets then off to look around Shrewsbury. We came across amazing flower displays in the grounds of Shrewsbury castle.
We then headed off for Attingham Park stopping at a pub for the best ever jacket potatoes, bacon and brie on one and chicken, mango, and sultana curry on the other, both with a lovely side salad. We rode on to Attingham Park another national trust property that is being restored.
It reminded Catriona of Pride and Predjudice. Off again after a quick tour through the mansion and off on route 45 heading for our accommodation in Wixhall. We passed by Moreton Corbet Castle ruins and stopped to take a couple of photos.
We managed to find more hills to ride up and down, past a shooting range which sounded like a battle was going on, It was getting late, had started to rain again and we could not find the campsite at Whixal. We stopped to ask for directions but no one seemed to know where it was. It was around 7.30 so we decided to back track to Wem where we knew there was a caravan park. It ended up being a great decision. It only cost us 5 pounds for the night and they had an onsite café and bar. We put the tent up to let it dry then had showers and dinner. Headed off to bed at around 10.45pm. We ended up having ridden 35miles after lunch.

6th Had a great nights sleep and the tent even dried. We decided to take the B5476 up to Whitchurch instead of following the cycle route as the road was not very busy and it was much quicker that zig zaging around the countryside. We stopped off in Whichurch the home of tower clocks, and had a coffee/hot chocolate at Juan’s café. We then set off through the rolling countryside through Hollyhurst, Pinsley Green and crossed a canal with a drawbridge at Wrenbury.
Beautiful countryside the whole way. We decided to go to Malpas for lunch at the Red Lion Pub where King James I once drank. When we arrived we found the Pub was not serving meals so we ended up having lunch at the Table at Eaton restaurant.
We had a lovely lunch David having the blackpudding with rarebit and Catriona had grilled salmon with steamed vegies. We finished off sharing a pavlova covered in cream and fresh fruit. Yum.
We set off again heading for Chester along National cycle route 45. We took a wrong turn and ended up on the A534 but managed to find our way again. We were cycling past many hedges and Catriona noticed there were a few ripe blackberries so we stopped to pick some. We met up with the Shropshire Union Canal
and ended up cycling on the tow path to Christleton where we spent the night at Birch Bank Farm. We ended up having ridden 46 miles. We managed to get the tent up between downpours and ate our dinner in the tent.

7th We woke to a beautiful sunny day. Packed up the tent and had breakfast (which included the blackberries we picked yesterday) on the picnic table and wrote up the previous days blog entry.
We had a short ride in to Chester and we had no idea what to expect other than it started its life as a Roman fortress. Chester is lovely, full of black and white tudor buildings and shops called the Rows.
We walked up to the cathedral and had a look around, the gargoyles and other carvings were very unusual.
We walked around the wall that dated from the 15th century where King Charles I had watched his troops be defeated.
After lunch at a pub on the canal, we headed off to have a look at the Roman ampitheatre then we set off on the train for Liverpool. We had to fire up the PC to have a look at the google map I had saved with directions to the hostel. When we booked in and settled into our room then charged up the PC and connected it to the wifi after a few problems. Spent the evening in after having walked to the local supermarket for supplies.