Distance- 115km Whitchurch to Hereford Weather- Perfect! No seriously! Scenery- Green, farms and stuff, small towns, no more camp sites, more farms, lots of cars on one road. Hereford is a nice 'historic market town,' (every town in England is a historic market town!)... a bit boring actually. On the day before yesterday we rode a very long way, and then we went up a very big hill because a jolly fat lady said so, when it was getting night, at the end of the day, and then we tried to find a free campsite, but it was getting night and we couldn't see, but we finally found one, in a forest, in the trees, and then we got to sleep, and then I was exhausted and not asleep, and then the owls woke me up, calling to each other, they wouldn't stop making noises, and then I fell back to sleep, but then I woke up again, because I needed to do a pee, so I had to get out of the tent, and then I when I was doing a pee I stepped on a slug and it was gooey, and then... and then when I woke up in the morning I was so damn tired. And then we still had to ride another hundred kilometers to get to Pontypridd in Wales. A real country, with real things, and real people... But no real Government, and funny accents. But it was good. Because then...
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Distance: 130km
Weather- Our best day in the UK yet, warm and sunny!!! Our mission for the day was to navigate through the heavily populated section between Liverpool and Manchester, so as to return to the countryside, somewhere near Wales. It wasn't the funnest' day ever- the roads were busier, there seemed to be more hills, and although the roads were usually very well signed, maybe better than anywhere else in the world we've ever cycled- the pavement almost always marked with the road number we wanted, we often found ourselves bouncing over the roads like ping pong balls from bump to bump. We made it through Preston, Chorley, Wigan, Warrington and almost down to Whitchurch, stopping to camp in a field about 6km from town when we ran out of daylight. Before finding this field, we'd asked at a few farms if we could camp in their fields, as we had stumbled into a part of England without camping sites... we hadn't seen any signs all day, whereas every other day we see them every 5-10km. We had expected to easily find a campsite but rode the last 40km increasingly worried about where to stay. And when our requests were denied we became even more worried. I wasn't feeling well (a little sooky actually...) so our pace was slower than it should have been. Since we didn't quite make it to town, we dined on our emergency packets of 2-minute noodles for dinner. But at least we had them! And plenty of water. The field was full of plants that made our legs itch, so before falling to sleep in our grassy field we scratched and itched, hobbled and crouched, and hopped and scrambled in our little tent. Sam took the low side and slept a little uncomfortably in a ditch, but we were safe and dry, and dreamt of the green greeniness of Wales, a real country we'll enter tomorrow... Distance- 17km
After last nights strange encounter with a caravan park surrounded by quick sand- 'aye, don't you watch the news, an asian family died jus out ere wodda bin four a fiv year ago!', and our struggles riding through the hilly lakes district, we decided to have a bit of a day off. Last night, as it was getting dark we saw a sign that said 'camping 3/4 mile away.' And when we finally got to the supposed 'camp site' it was too late to turn back and look for somewhere else. It turned out to be a camping experience like no other. We wont easily forget the open fires that burnt well into the night and the broken down shower block from hell. But at least we were so exhausted that every time we were woken up during the night we easily fell back to sleep. So this morning, after being unable to find internet for a couple of days we rode into Lancaster and spent time relaxing in the sun, updating this blog feasting on cheap food to recharge and working out how we'll get to Cardiff. Around 5pm we left, after a nice chat with some friendly people, and began cycling towards Preston. We didn't get far. Its amazing how many friendly waves we get here from cyclists, almost everyone says hello, quite the contrast to the uber cool cyclists in Italy and France. |
AuthorSam and Shanna Evans are from Melbourne, Australia Archives
September 2012
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