Land's End to John O'Groats on a Bike Friday Tandem

Day 6 (June 20)

Tintern Abbey at Twilight

The day began with an 800 foot climb into the Mendip Hills, which Lynn found rather hard going so early in the day. From there it was an easy ride into Bristol. There were a few sprinkles, but not enough to force us to put on our rain gear. The wind increased, but luckily was from the south, behind us. We stopped for a coffee and bread pudding/rock cake break in Chew Magna, at a yuppy but nice cafe, listening to a real estate agent trying to sell the delights of the village, obviously now a Bristol commuter town, to a potential customer.

NCN Route 3 into Bristol avoids the main road and is largely on special bike paths. The part on the Bristol to Bath Railway Path was very pleasant, but we found the last section towards the city center quite hard to follow. Once in Bristol, we visited the Sustrans headquarters. The maps of the NCN cycle routes, which are quite expensive to buy in stores or online, are actually given out free there. We found a cycle shop and bought a spare inner tube with Presta valve to replace the one with the Schraeder valve we had bought in Penzance, and a map of the next part of the route (not NCN). We also took the opportunity of having the derailleur adjusted. We bought lunch of bread and cheese from the street market, and ate it at the "Water Features" in Millennium Square. The wind was now quite strong.

The first 5 miles of the route out of Bristol was on a bike path along the A4 paralleling the Avon River. This was very noisy and not very pleasant to cycle on. After that the route meandered through an uninteresting industrial area, to the Severn Road Bridge. The wind was now very strong - a tail wind much of the way making the otherwise tedious ride from Bristol bearable, but blowing so hard transverse to the bridge that it was difficult to keep the tandem upright!

The center of Bristol had seemed hectic and overwhelmed with traffic after our few days riding on back roads between villages and small towns, and after this, and the ride out and across the bridge, we were feeling rather frazzled. So the ride down a long hill on a smooth road through woods into peaceful Tintern and the Wye Valley was a welcome relief. We decided to stay the night at the Anchor Inn adjacent to the Abbey, and spent the evening just enjoying the feeling of being right next to the impressive ruins - as well has having dinner and cider in the bar.

Mileage: 52.1 miles

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Elevation
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Last modified 10 October, 2007