Friday 10 August 2012

Day 5 – Monmouth to Clun 54 miles.

This is the shortest cycle on the trip and it was probably what we all needed.  Rachel and I started late today as we waited for the bike shop to open in order to buy new cleats.  We were speaking to one of the locals while waiting for the shop to open, and she said she had seen an article in the paper about Chicken, so we went to buy the paper to give to him later.  A half page spread in the Monmouth Gazette!!
We got our cleats and eventually left Monmouth on an undulating road, entering England again after a few miles, it was a beautiful morning, sun out and nice and warm.  The first photo stop today was a quick pose at the sign of the most unusually named Wormelow...those who know me also know my great fear of worms, so I felt I was being brave just touching the sign!
We met the tea stop van just before we entered Hereford for a welcome cuppa and some tangerines and then headed for Hereford.  We caught up With Chicken’s group (Charley, Toshi, Frances and Helen) and continued with them… managing to get pretty lost through the Hereford streets.  However, being the great navigators we all are, we eventually stumbled across the right street and were on our way to lunch.  The day was getting warmer and warmer and much water was being drunk, we were taking our time today and enjoying the beautiful landscape, arriving at our lunch stop at around 1.30.
 At lunch we encountered a lovely chicken, a real one, who was taking great interest in any dropped crumbs.

Lunchtime chicken!


Urgh! Worms!!










After lunch we only had around 20 miles to finish the day, with one very steep hill –in two stages- to contend with.

However, nature interfered.  We stopped in a passing place to let a 4x4 through in the opposite direction and there was a field gate where we stopped, lying on the other side of a gate was a sheep that was fitting and really ill, Helen and I climbed the gate and tried to help, I gave it some water out of a bidon, but it was obviously near  the end of its life  We were all really upset, and found a farmer in a tractor and told him, it wasn’t one of his sheep, but he said he would go and deal with it.  We cycled on towards the hill, all feeling really sad about the sheep. 

The hill arrived, and yes, it was everything it said on the tin, steep as a very steep thing, but we were rewarded at the top with the support van and some lovely views.  After that it was a couple of downhill miles to Clun, where the last obstacle was a forded river crossing.  Most people cycled across successfully, but a couple ended up face down in the river…obviously we shouldn’t laugh, but boy how we did!!

Our Youth Hostel in Clun was beautiful, an old mill with amazing beams and other period features.  I washed Ruby as she was feeling a little neglected and then we went to the pub for some well-earned food and beer.

Clun Youth Hostel - highly recommended by us!


A great day, great weather conditions and beautiful countryside, with a tinge of sadness for helpless sheep.

Roadkill – so much I forgot  to count
Mechanicals – I had a couple of chain drops but Graham looked at my gears at lunchtime and things improved

Ford swims - Sue and Gareth (I think)
Weather – sun!

Chicken feathers – I picked up around 8 feathers in the hotel first thing, and then gave some away on the ride, the Chicken was struggling with the heat and feeling unwell, poor chickadee!


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