Amazingly enough, in spite of last nights cider I woke up clear headed and ready to go. As can be seen from one of the photos, Boik & Bev were there to wave me off and for the first half mile it was a nice fast downhill run. Unfortunately the next 15 miles were repeatedly up and down (including a climb over Wenlock Edge) as I went across the grain of the landscape. The countryside was archetypically English - green fields, lush woodlands, verdant hedges and birdsong everywhere. Lunch was a welcome break and was spent sitting in the sun in the garden of a restaurant in Tenbury Wells. On the way out of the village it seemed like two pubs were competing for 'Half-timbered pub leaning at the craziest angle' of the year - they were quaintly all over the place, unfortunately neither Jan nor myself managed to take a picture to prove it, so you'll just have to take my word or it. The route continued its up and down attitude all the way to Bromyard where I took the photo of the wall plaque and the carved wooden tower. Mind you, I wouldn't have seen either of them if I hadn't taken a wrong turning (which meant I had another steep hill to climb). The nest stretch was a little easier and took me to Ledbury which is situated at the southern end of the Malvern Hills. I popped into a greengocers there and had him cut a lovely big orange into two for me - delicious! After that I just had to plough on to Newent and then find the B&B Jan had booked for us, just short of Gloucester. At that point my phone rang and so it was that I was having a chat with my mother-in-law whilst waving to Jan when she took a picture of me - she admonished me for riding no-hands, I must admit I hadn't realised I was doing it!
As usual Jan has come up trumps - tonights B&B is new and has a health club in the grounds so I've been for a swim and relaxed my muscles in a hot tub. We'll shortly go back to Newent to find somewhere for tea and then we'll spend the rest of the evening doing some detailed planning for the Devon and Cornwall sections of the journey.
TTFN, Bob & Jan.
Whoops forgot to include anoraks corner:
Accumulated mileage : 731 miles
Todays mileage : 61.5 miles
Todays average : 12.5 mph
Todays maximum : 37.1 mph
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