LEJOG Day 9 - Bristol to Gloucester

New shirts!

Grey and looming storm today

The hills now are in the far distance, mostly

Went through some lovely villages

No tea for us

Peter, the Fish, was selling fish from the back of this on the square

Another lovely church

Little cottage on the canal

Canal bridge

Field next to the River Severn, w/ Wales in the distance

What our room looks like at night!

‘Rooms’ at our B&B last night! Our we’re inside the building not on top!

Tea stop

Okay, no cafes, we’ll settle for a pub!

Another pub stop, first cuppa of the trip

Clock shop Gloucester

Gloucester Quays

Brew pub, check out those lights!

Quayside for dinner

Had a great evening with Julie!

Thank you all for your comments and messages, they are such a treat to read!

Big news today, we’ve changed our shirts!  And it rained.

Yesterday marked the quarter way point, we have completed 25% of the route!  We are in Avon County this morning and almost out of the Southwest.  We will be in Gloucestershire this afternoon.  Today also marks the end of Section 2 as tonight’s stop in Gloucester is our next rest stop - woohoo!  This also means in terms of Sections we are a third of the way - counting those good things over this morning’s coffee.  We have 47 supposedly flatter miles today 🤞, it will be cooler (so excited, different shirts!), maybe a bit of rain.

Thought we were going to have to find a GP for Steve yesterday.  Bug bites never agree with him and this neck bite was vicious.  You have to watch out for insect neck bites due to swelling in the throat, but that’s usually in the first couple of hours. This swelling occurred over the next day and headed down to the collarbone.  Went to the pharmacy and got some antihistamines (which were not taken with the beer) and they seem to have brought the swelling down a bit.  Keeping a close eye on that!

Also on the aches and pain front, different sore muscles today - sore pushing muscles!   Even my hands ache!  Hopefully all this is making us fitter! 

Hilly and slow getting out of Bristol.  We’d go back to the Old Town, but by train.  Minimal canals and fairly small hills (once we got out of Bristol.  The route was pretty flat today, which was great after the highest, longest and steepest days this week -Steve’s sister Julie suggested the title for today, the nicest!  We’ll take it!  

The roads were mostly actual roads - a huge plus!  After we left Bristol, they were mostly quiet single lane roads, often with only passing points.  As it’s been for most of the trip, really out in the deep country.  We must have seen hundreds of farms so far, some small villages and not a single cycling cafe.  The lanes are narrow, lined by hedgerows with periodic glimpses into the distance via a gate onto a field.  The blackberries continue, now looking like clusters of grapes draped over the hedgerows.  Mostly we’re the only ones on the road and the only noise is the sound of the bike, or us chattering. We went for miles down the lanes and the most we saw was the occasional tractor and a woman walking her dog. Riding along the canals was kept to a minimum today.

There’s certainly been a change in perspective since we started, different to be thinking, ‘Yay, we only have 23 miles to go!’  And it’s amazing how much energy you have when you’re ‘almost there’!

Getting into Gloucester was a cakewalk compared to Bristol.  The town is set next to a canal and has a lovely quayside section with (brew) pubs and restaurants.  We met up with Julie tonight for dinner as she happened to be in Gloucester for work, how cool is that?!  Went to a Greek place right on the water, food was good, watched a rainstorm, had a great catch up.  

Tomorrow is a rest day, looking forward to it!9