It is early afternoon and after only forty miles of cycling I am home. It feels strange knowing that my journey is not yet complete while being back in familiar domestic comfort and I keep having to remind myself I will be continuing my ride in the morning.
Today’s itinerary: leave Gloucester, head for Tetbury and coffee with friends Ian and Alex, then to the village of Sherston, familiar from my local cycling, to meet neighbours Sue and Mark and then together we will cycle back to Corsham. I left Gloucester and headed south towards Stroud. I knew it lay on the other side of a hill but I had not registered the climb involved: just over three miles of moderately steep uphill before I peaked for the two miles downhill on the opposite side. It was slow going. I dropped into Stroud and picked up a section of National Cycle route 45, a route that takes you from Chester to Salisbury. Here and now it provided me a few short miles of relatively flat, old rail line through shady woodland on a path lined with the colours and scent of flowering wild garlic.
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| Route 45 |
The region between Gloucester and Tetbury is a lot more hilly than I realised. Not only was there my climb to reach Stroud but other shorter climbs followed. There were a couple of longer ones too and my cycling computer was keen to reinforce the theme: ‘head to Dudbridge Hill’, ‘head to Tetbury Hill’. It was a theme I would have preferred to avoid and it took me two and a half hours to do the twenty miles to Tetbury and my quick coffee stop.
After Tetbury it was another thirty minutes through familiar Wiltshire lanes to Sherston, a regular destination on my local rides when home. Sue and Mark were waiting in the Angel cafe and after more coffee we started the cycle home on a route I knew well. Although these lanes were easy riding there is something about being in company and riding familiar roads that eats into the miles more quickly. Knowing what is around the next corner helps too, nothing comes as a dispiriting shock and even the steepest of hills you can prepare your mind for and cycle confidently in the knowledge they have been done before. There were no steep hills on the miles to Corsham but I did note that on the few gentle ones I was far slower than I would normally be and in gears I would not normally have needed: I am guessing it is a measure of the cumulative tiredness my body is experiencing after ten days and over seven hundred miles on the go.
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| Heading Home |
I arrived home at two thinking of a whole afternoon and evening that now stretched out before me. I had a number of jobs to do - catching up with my blog, tinkering with my bike, washing clothes and other JOGLE related activities - and, while I acknowledge that I did not approach them with a sense of zeal and focus, they somehow managed to fill the remainder of the day. I suppose on a positive note it kept my mind on the ride while here at home, preventing me from slipping too far into a relaxed domesticity which would make heading off again tomorrow even more of a jolt.
Are you finished?!
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