Best laid plans etc.! Despite arranging with the hotel reception for me to be able to access my bike at 0700, lo and behold, there was nobody at reception…absolute Marie Celeste. I rang the hotel’s number and some bloke answered and said he’d be down in a minute. Cue the next 20 mins of not being able to find the key to unlock the room where my bike was etc…in the end I think he climbed in through an open window and opened it from the inside! Points for ingenuity/burglary.
The Marie Celeste. Crew MIA!
But prior to that, Alpen plus da Pops is the business.
Away and straight into the vertical as advertised.
Today’s climbing was gonna be at the start and end of the day, but it was the middle 50 miles that concerned me, really: trying to get from The Severn Bridge down to Bridgwater in the quickest, shortest and least stressful manner possible. And on two wheels! But before that…
Going up!
Photo of the tour already!
The other, less selective bridge…
Some breeze aloft!
Back to the land of roundabout decorators…
I’d be happy never to cycle the transition 50 miles again…grim surfaces, fast roads, blah-blah-blah. Although one funny arose: I ignore ‘Road Closed’ signs as a rule, as there’s always a gap to get through. So I trundle on down this country road and come to a bridge over a train line…the only scenario that might scupper me is if Network Rail are replacing the thing. Of course they are!
Zero chance!
I might have spied this if I hadn’t have been looking at the traffic. Fair dos though…
So I’m wondering if I can sling my bike over and somehow make it across the gap, when a Police car arrives. PC thought the same as me- there’s usually a way across, right? His accent was right outta ‘Hot Fuzz’ too, hah-hah! Fair play- he was almost game for trying to see if we could manhandle the bike and panniers across somehow, but that was Mission Impossible…cue backtrack and a bonus mile or two.
You don’t need a weatherman etc…scenic too, hah-hah!
Proper soaking, but it then behaved sorta.
The Irish have some belting place names, but this is right up there!
So we come to the final fun bit…the gradients got up to a barely doable 16% but it was worth it…The Quantocks are ace! Downhills too…
Fair play- they are.
Looks okay? Did not stay that way…mercy!
Loadsa livestock giving it the big ‘I am’. In this case, good call!
Reassuring.
From there it was more up-and-down, albeit less violent…and Porlock was a very welcome sight. More specifically, The Castle Inn! A massive upgrade on last night’s acco, no doubt. Today was another tricky day, and it looks like tomorrow is gonna be a little more of the same. Bueno!
Carry on, follow that Ambulance!
Blue Bay train station: welcome to 1954.
We’re all fans, right?
Quite pleased to see this.
Tonight’s host.
Rehydration protocol.
Defected to The Ship Inn…not hungry any more!
All this and Palace win convincingly at Villa! I couldn’t watch any of it as the nearest pub with Sky Sports is about 8 miles away in Minehead, hah-hah! Big day today, more incoming tomorrow so here’s today’s tune…
A thing of beauty…speaking of which, if you wanna throw Cure Lekaemia a little…that would be wonderful!
