Amazingly todays mammoth stage, both in terms of distance and height gain, takes us to Bodmin – into Kernow and hopefully within striking distance of our goal! Yesterdays stage was tough, particularly since we tacked on an extra 12 k and a couple of hills, and it’s left both of us feeling tired and a bit sore – not a promising prospect for the ride ahead. We’re following our normal routine and we just take it as it comes – one mile at a time. Route for today is given below:

Follow Bry’s tweets for the days events – @bryanwilliams66

A blog of some sort, internet and physical fatigue  permitting, later tonight

We arrived tonight at The Rising Sun,Umberleigh in deepest Devon, ahead of schedule and with a thousand miles under our belts. There is also serviceable WiFi so, fingers crossed, there should be a full blog tonight! Todays route, which was just over 70 miles, started in Wells, took us across the Somerset levels past Glastonbury, along the towpath of the Bridgewater and Taunton canal and, after our lunch stop in Taunton, our  route followed the B3227 across ‘the top’ of Devon, through Brampton and South Molton to our night-time stop. Reveille was at the usual time of 08.00, when Mike our temporary travelling companion, appeared to be in in remarkably fine fettle. A good breakfast was enjoyed by all before loading the bikes, posing for the ‘team’ photo and ‘pushing off’. The route to Taunton took us through Glastonbury and Street, on the busy A39, and over the Somerset levels – which had the distinct advantage of being flat for a change. Mike putting a brave face on his obvious disappointment at not being able to put his new-found hill climbing skills to the test! An impromptu stop at Borrow Mump was greatly enhanced  when ‘magic Mike’ produced some Blackheath farmers market flapjack out of his saddlebag! A small detour to look for a coffee shop led to a chance encounter with the Bridgewater & Taunton canal. Now you know what a temptation that would have been for Bryan and, sure enough, we decide to go ‘off piste’ and follow the NCN3 to Taunton. The towpath took us all the way to our lunch stop at Morrisons, where, after refuelling, we said our ‘goodbyes’ to Mike and resumed our route on the B3227. As flat as the morning section had been, so the afternoon was characterised by hills, but not like any we’d encountered thus far. No, these were the  ‘Mother….Theresa’ of hills – long-lived, full of suffering and silent anguish! One in particular, between Wivelscombe and Brampton, seemed utterly endless. On the subsequent down hill, we crossed the county boundary into Devon, which brought on an inexplicable emotional moment  for me – not sure if it was anxiety or anticipation! Anyway, nothing that a good cuppa couldn’t put right and the Toucan Cafe in Brampton was definitely up to the mark with a slab of excellent apricot and almond flapjack thrown in. We pressed on to our original finishing point of South Molton (rather reminiscent of the ‘hill towns’ of County Down) and then, with over 100k under our belts already, we carried on. Are they mad?, I hear you cry …yes, undoubtably but mad with method. The additional miles this evening have put us ahead of schedule and give us a fighting chance of finishing tomorrows mammoth stage in more or less one piece. Cunning hey!

Stats from todays ride are presented below – look on in awe!

Looking through the gate house to Wells cathedral at our hotel, The White Hart

The ‘team’ ready for the off. Notice Mike is already wearing ‘green’ in recognition of his climbing efforts the day before

Burrow Mump

Mike and Bryan trying to avoid going off the edge on the towpath of the Bridgewater & Taunton canal

Bry approaching the summit of ‘Mother Theresa’

Views from the B3227, looking north across Exmoor

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Todays route took us from just outside Newport to Chepstow, across the Severn bridge, into Bristol and down to Wells, a distance of about 58 miles with some pretty big hills involved. We met up with Bry’s friends David & Rosemary for lunch and were joined by Mike who had kindly come all the way from London to ride a few miles with us. The day started well with a hearty breakfast, at the New Inn, and a reasonably prompt departure. Unusually for us the first leg into Chepstow was nearly all downhill so we made good progress on this 14 mile section, including comfortably completing the final hill up to the roundabout on the outskirts of the town. It was here that we were faced with our first navigational dilemma of the day – should we go right, following the GPS and the road signs saying Bristol or should we follow our instincts and go straight ahead into the town – you won’t be surprised to know that we chose the latter! We proceeded to descend down the other side of the steep hill we’d just climbed, into Chepstow, around the one-way system and taking in many of the lesser known sites along the way. Having tracked down a local and asked their advice as to the best way to get to the bridge, we were somewhat disheartened to learn that we had to go back up the big hill to the roundabout and follow the signs for Bristol! We picked up the excellent cycle path which took us down to and then over the Severn bridge. Having arrived on English soil we set about trying to find the cycle path which would take us to Bristol, for our imminent lunch-time rendezvous. Clearly looking lost, we were approached by a father a son on mountain bikes, who turned out to be local ‘sustrans cycle path’ rangers. They accompanied us through the the labyrinth of paths in that area and deposited us at the foot of the lane which would take us directly to the suburb of Bristol we required to be in for lunch. Thanks guys, your help was very much appreciated and you are both excellent ambassadors for your local area. We reasonably quickly found David & Rosemary at the White Lion, but Mike was missing – later to be found up the road at the White Hart. Not sure which GPS system was to blame for that one! A good lunch was had whilst dodging the hail stones and then the three of us departed on our afternoon adventure. Across the Downs, with their magnificent Georgian merchants houses, to the suspension bridge high above the Avon gorge, built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel – a masterpiece of civil engineering. Then down through Ashton park and more torrential hail storms before our afternoon tea stop at the Moondance cafe, in Chew Magna. Better Bakewell tart would be hard to imagine! We departed the cafe in bright evening sunshine on the remaining 14 mile section to the cathedral city of Wells. Our route taking us passed Chew Reservoir and up over the Mendip Hills. Finishing the day on such a steep and sustained climb certainly created an appetite and a thirst, both handsomely sated by the Ancient Gatehouse restaurant, with it’s magnificent views across the close to the cathedral itself. A great end to a memorable day!

Some of the lesser known aspects of Chepstow as seen on our ‘diversion’!

Back to Blighty.

One of our Sustrans Ranger chaperones

Lunchtime rendezvous with David and Rosemary

Isambard’s bridge over the Avon ( in the lovely city of Bristol – OK Debs?)

A nice house in Ashton Park, just before the hail storm

Two GPS are better than one….or are they?

On route, with Mike, for Wells

and the the Baby-eating Bishop of Bath & Well’s little pad!

Stats for the ride:

A few miles down the road from here is Chepstow and the English border. It’s also a location for people doing one of the more traditional End2End routes, with which we will be reunited shortly, after our ten day scenic diversion! Today we cross the Severn and the Avon, meet up with a friend of Bryan’s for coffee, visit a few old familiar family haunts and gain the pleasure of Mike’s company as he shares a few miles with us, on the final stage of our odyssey. Todays route is given below:

Looks decidedly arduous to me!

Following on from yesterdays ‘A Comedy of Errors’, todays offering focuses on Cardiff, which was just over half way on our journey of 96k – but more of that in a moment. The day started rather leisurely because it was raining when we got up. By the time we’d messed about, had breakfast and packed, it was about 10.00 before we set off. Not sure what is it about our over-night stops but they all seem to require a massive uphill effort immediately on departure – today was no exception! Once we were clear of the A48  and on the minor road to Llantwit Major, things got considerably easier, with the skies lightening and the modest breeze on our backs, we soon made it to our coffee stop. Amazingly, when we were looking to ask someone which road to take out of the town, we bumped into an E2E veteran! He helpfully put us on the right road and advised us on the best way to circumnavigate Cardiff. Entering Barry we suffered only our second puncture of the trip – this time it was in the rear tyre and nowhere near a cafe – bad call Bry! We were quickly back on the road, only to be brought to another abrupt holt by Bry’s chain coming off – luckily this time we were within spitting distance of a McDonalds, which doubled as a wash-room and lunch stop. The afternoon began with a pleasant meander through the lovely coastal town of Penarth (Yvonne, our corporate sponsor, if you are reading this, I’m not just saying this because you live there…!) which is also the beginning of the Cardiff Bay Barrage, once you find it! What a great way to see the city – almost on a par with entering Venice from the outer islands. No, hang on, I think I might have got a bit carried away there – but anyway it was very nice! Now this is where the ‘Tale of Two Cities’ comes in, because as pleasant as the entry into the city was, the exit was utterly horrible! Badly signed, appalling road surfaces, speeding traffic, no cycle paths and endless! Eventually, after miles of this stuff ,we did run out of industrial estates and landfill sites and found a B road that took us through miles of quiet cow pastures and into Newport where we were once again reunited with the infamous NCN ‘4’. A handy cash machine at a 24 hour Tesco on the edge of town and a couple of miles along the road and we arrived at tonights stop, the New Inn at Langstone, great value but lousy internet! So if you don’t get any pics with tonights blog you can amuse yourselves by looking at yesterdays, which I’ve now managed to load. Happy viewing.

Details of the route were as follows:

‘..the rain has stopped, I guess we’d better get off’

Only the second puncture of the whole trip, and not a cafe in sight, but yes, Bryan did get to use his ‘magic tool’ again!

Proof for Yvonne that we did visit her beloved town..

The beginning of the Cardiff Bay Barrage, looking towards the capital.

The view the other way, across the Severn to the coast of Devon (we’ll be there soon enough!)

The Norwegian church and some funny statue

Now you don’t get to see many of these…the transporter bridge at Newport. They never really caught on did they!

The birding today was interesting but unexciting – no new species added to the existing 110 for the trip.

The day started badly when our pre-arranged 8 o’clock breakfast was only an ingredient in the cupboard for mein host! Anyway, within half an hour we were ‘cooking on gas’ – well we weren’t, but she was! In the event, a super breakfast was produced and our very kind hostess, on hearing of our charitable endeavours, made a cash donation to the cause. So we left the Drovers Arms in high spirits – only to have them dampened almost immediately by the usual problem of which road out of town to take? We toured Carmarthen examining in detail each road sign before deciding on our exit strategy which, in the event  like on so many previous occasions, turned out to be up a bloody great hill! We valiantly  struggled to the the top of the hill, immediately stripped off a couple of layers, and carried on our way. Several miles up the road, having already taken a wrong turning Bry discovered he’d lost his mitt ( one mitt mind – he was wearing the other one!) and his watch. He sets off to retrace his steps – whilst I sensibly wait for him. Twenty minutes later he reappears, triumphant, having found his mitt in the hedge and his watch in the road. We then descend down to the coast to the village of Ferryside and follow the National Cycle Network route 4 to Kidwelly. By this time  it was clear that our planned rendezvous for lunch with a friend and former colleague in Swansea was beginning to look decidedly dodgy. We ploughed on, still following the ‘4’, across a disused airfield, around the estuary,  through miles of pine woods before emerging onto the coastal path. It was after noon by this stage and a 0ne o’clock lunch in Sainsbury’s, 13 miles away, was hastily put back by an hour. We thrashed on, mile after mile, with the Gower peninsular and Rhossili Down, a familiar landscape from former family holidays, in the background. Following the ‘4’ was proving to be difficult and at one particularly tricky junction I completely mis-judged the route, came to a grinding halt, couldn’t get my feet out of the clips, wobbled and then went crashing to the ground – to the obvious amazement of a nearby party of cyclists from Swansea. Bruised and grazed but nothing broken we continued on our way. A long leafy run in to Swansea bay and then along the water front to our two o’clock lunch appointment. By this time we’d clocked up over 45 miles  and our end was no where near in sight yet. A much deserved lunch and catch-up chat and we were on our way again. The ‘4’ now follows a route that was difficult to follow and even more difficult to describe. It turned out to be a tour of most of the back-alleys and railway sidings of the greater Port Talbot area. The path continued relentless on in the general direction of Porthcawl, with the notable cultural highlight being the abbey at Margam. Six miles from our destination roadside signs kept appearing saying ‘Road ahead closed’ – we both concluded that this couldn’t possibly be the case and we carried on! When we got to the spot and found the road was indeed closed we briefly considered the possibility of cycling back up hill for two miles before investigating alternative means through the fenced off obstacle! As the actions which now followed were, we were later informed by the security guard, captured on cctv I won’t go into too much detail – suffice it to say that we were invited to leave the site via a couple of locked gates, a herd of cows and several farmers fields!  The last few miles seemed to fly by before we reached the sanctuary of our nights lodgings! What in theory should have been a relatively easy and straightforward day turned out to be anything but!

The grim statistics of todays ride are presented below:

Birding highlight from today, and yes the were a few, included Reed Warbler Lesser Whitethroat, Jay and Little Egret.

…AND NOW WITH PHOTOS!

Lost already…and we’re not even out of Carmarthen!

View from the National Cycle Network route 4, looking down hill towards Carmarthen. It was on this verge that Bryan disgarded his mitt and watch.

Fabulous view up the estuary towards Ferryside

Kidwelly castle from the church yard – brought back happy memories of past family holidays, as did views of Rhossili Down where Joseph ran away, and the ‘pitch & putt’ on Swansea sea front where Daniel almost scored a hole in one!

We encounter all manner of obstacles on the ‘4’!

…and another one – what do they think we are, trick cyclists?

View along Port Talbot beach

One of the less scenic bits of the ‘4’!

Nw this was a nice surprise, Margam Abbey, nestling on the wooded hillside above the former steel works.

And finally…five miles before the finish, a slight diversion following an alleged Health & Safety incident!

Caught myself thinking, whilst starring in the shaving mirror, that working was easier than this – but don’t worry, I quickly came to my senses! Woke this morning to another sunny day and a promising forecast. Todays 100k ride is almost entirely on cycle paths, to avoid main roads and some of the less scenic aspects of this otherwise delightful country. A day of visiting old family holiday haunts and seeing old friends. The route is given below:

On the outline itinerary todays ride looked a breeze – two minutes from our digs to the ferry, all morning on the boat, off at one o’clock and a gentle ride through the West Wales countryside to Carmarthen and our over-night accommodation. Now that was something to look forward to, particularly as the weather in Wales promised to be significantly better than it had been in Ireland. Well you know what thought did don’t you – it turned out to be one of our most challenging days of the whole trip, with 46 miles covered and nearly 3,500ft total ascent in half a day! The crossing went to schedule with the sea being flat calm for the entire trip. A slight hiccough at Fishguard when we were required to produce our passports but we were soon on our way up an enormous hill which is the exit route from the harbour. Once on the right road the going was initially easy – picturesque country lanes, stunning scenery, an abundance of wild flowers and warm sun on our backs – and then the hills began! Their pattern becoming wearily familiar – a long steady incline, down through the gears, grind away in bottom until over the crest, followed by a helter-skelter descent round a couple of bends, over a stone bridge and around the next bend the hill began again! We did this for twenty odd miles, at one point in the company of a load of fellow cyclists participating in a 50 sportive, before stopping in the town of Narberth for a much needed cuppa and cake. The very nice couple running the cafe were interested in what we were up to and when we came to pay the guy gave us a donation (thanks mate)! We set off on the second half refreshed but with ever increasing aching legs. The pattern of the first half was to be repeated for most of the remaining 25 miles. At one point I was in bottom gear and out of the saddle to maintain forward momentum – I wish I hadn’t bothered! At Red Roses, where we turned on to the A477, we encountered the ‘Carten contingent’ – hundreds of mad riders cycling from Cardiff to Tenby! Well done you guys, it puts our efforts for the day into perspective. The final dozen or so miles were on the busy A40 dual-carridgeway into Carmarthen, where we arrived at the Drovers Arms at 17.50.

Leaving Ireland on the Rosslare ferry

Bry catching up on his beauty sleep

Approaching the Welsh coast, with the Bishops & Clerks Isles in the background

Enjoying a change of scenery and some warm weather for a change

Views over the  West Wales countryside

A poor picture of a magnificent orchid – Early Purple, to my untutored eye?

Check-point on the Carten route, at the summit of a sustained climb

Todays stats – usual error factors included!

A better day on the birding front. Plenty of sea birds from the ferry, including Fulmar which was new for the trip. But perhaps the greatest surprise was a singing male Redstart in the wood yard where we stopped for a break after the first big hill.

Every morning it’s the same, I wake up expecting to have been transformed by this E2E process into a lean, mean fighting machine – eating up ever-increasing daily mileage, sailing up hills, my bodys intake in perfect harmony with it’s out-goings, skin and muscle toned to perfection. And every morning is the same sense of disappointment! The truth is that my legs, particularly my thighs, ache as much if not more than on our second day, my skin in cracking whereever it’s exposed to fresh air (and there’s been plenty of that), those tiny bites I reported over a week ago have multiplied and each is the size of a 5p piece and I swear I’m putting on weight, despite Bry saying we’re definitely into a ‘fat burning’ regime. If I have lost any weight at all it’s off my frontal lobe! Speaking of Bry he appears to be in remarkably good form – though does say occasionally that his fight is a mental one – ‘wrestling with daemons’ as he describes it. Anyway, with just one week to go,  I’m going to have to rely on that old adage ‘if it’s not hurting it’s not working’ – well it’s bloody hurting, so it’d better start working!

Off to catch a boat….

With the sun shining for the first time since we arrived in Ireland, we soon finished our breakfast and departed from the Woodenbridge hotel, bound for Arklow. With smooth downhill roads, the gentle breeze on our backs soon conveyed us to what should have been our point of departure for todays ride. Navigating our way on minor roads to avoid the motorway, with only the Garmin GPS to assist, proved difficult at times, but using the same principle as before of following the general direction and keeping the sea to our left we headed steadily through the Wicklow and Wexford countryside, towards our destination. I’d been thinking ‘coffee break’ for the previous couple of miles when I noticed my front wheel was feeling decidedly lumpy – well flat actually! This turned out remarkably to be our first puncture of the journey, but like Bry said if you are going to have one, make sure it’s in the front wheel and near to a cafe – and so it was! So whilst Bry set about with the mechanicals, I went inside and secured two pots of coffee. I won’t bore you with the details, but we were making very little progress on replacing the tyre until Bryan produced his ‘magic tool’ – this seemed to fix the problem in no time. Back on the road again we made our way through yet more countryside until an enticing sign for the ‘Trading Post hot deli’ saw us swing into a remote petrol station forecourt, somewhere near the village of Blackwater. Our hunger and thirst thoroughly sated by the gastronomic offerings of this humble yet hospitable abode, we departed for Wexford Town some 18k distant. Wexford has a special place in the hearts of ‘folkies’ – unfortunately the reality is much less alluring. In fact, if it hadn’t have been for the sudden hail storm that struck us just as we were crossing the Wexford harbour bridge, we probably wouldn’t have stopped off at the Potato Market cafe for tea and cakes at all! Sated for the second time in as many hours we made a determined effort to get to our final destination, the Ferryport House Hotel, Rosslare, which we comfortable achieved by  4.30.  We went to the ferry terminal to book tomorrows passage, eat at one of the very few hostelries in the district – an eclectic culinary mix of Irish and Chinese, bought some ‘carry out’ and here we are in the hotel lounge blogging – what more can I say….

Stats from todays route:

The Woodenbridge Hotel,  reputedly Irelands oldest

Call for Puncture Repair Man and his Magic Tool!

The lunch-time stop..

An interesting water mill restoration project, in the heart of the Wexford countryside

…and a very imaginative colour scheme to go with it!

Fishing boat in Wexford harbour….after the hail storm (there was one, honest!)

On a slightly different note, whilst we’re obviously very pleased with the way the financial donations continue to mount up, the ‘pledges’ on TheDoNation appear to have ‘flat-lined’! Can you please help by giving this entirely worthwhile enterprise your support? By making a pledge (actions not money) you can contribute to a more sustainable future for ourselves and generations to come. As an example, we’ve calculated that, had we have done this same journey by car (equivalent perhaps to a family holiday or business trip), we would have produced an extra 624kgs of carbon ( nearly 2/3rds of a tonne)! Even if you pledge to do something, on a much smaller scale, your contribution will make a significant difference. Sign up now!

More blogging tomorrow, as we set sail for country number three…