Day 4: Clevedon to Bredenbury (89 miles)

Today was our longest ride yet – it was meant to be 87 miles but ended up being 89 after what appeared to be a road on the map was actually this mud pit:

As usual we came across some real surprises. One house had an impressive collection of Gromit statues in various guises- the Queen, Statue of Liberty etc – in the front garden. And the village of Rockhampton had an Olympics themed scarecrow trail. Unfortunately by the time we decided to stop for a picture we were on the outskirts where this Paralympic scene was deemed appropriate:

Strangely the village of Hill was, in Chris’s words, as ‘flat as a pancake’ and should have been called S bend. Straight after that was Ham, which Chris said smelled of ‘Rotten bottom’.

We said goodbye to Somerset, ticked off Gloucestershire and struggled up through Herefordshire. If you believe this sign, we may also have been to Wales:

We were excited to tick off the 25% mark about 16 miles in to the day. Was it somewhere memorable? Yes…an industrial wasteland on the outskirts of Bristol where we cycled past burnt out cars and sofas and went on an obstacle filled path, namely tree roots and a copious quantity of mud.

We met our arch-nemesis, the inappropriate canal path at Slimbridge. It was meant to be an easy and flat six mile ride to our lunch spot at Gloucester. But after struggling for three miles on gravel and grass channels we persuaded Liz to let us go on a road instead, bliss!

This is what Chris thought of the canal path:

Support driver two (Jane) was waiting for us at the pub. It was 2.30pm by the time we got there, and as you can see, she was quite peckish:

We have little memory of the route from Gloucester to Ledbury, other than it was a bit hilly and we were keen to make some progress.

After a pit stop in a supermarket car park, the last push was 15 miles (turned into 17) of hills to Liz’s parents (Jane and David) farm in Bredenbury. It was hard work but the thought of a warm welcome…and Bake Off kept us going.

It was great to finally arrive into the farmyard at about 6.30pm. It’s the longest day’s cycling I’ve ever done and the biggest shock is that I managed it having forgotten to have my morning banana!