Day 3

My oh my What. A. Day.

The comfort of our own bed was too much! Slept in, left 2hours after we'd planned.

A slow, slow SLOW Journey through avonmouth to the Severn bridge left us even later than anticipated! Luckily the worlds biggest tea cakes are served at Tintern Abbey, our first cake stop. The sun came out at this point and the paracetamol kicked in, my earlier strapped knee no longer made me cringe with each pedal stroke... For the time being.

Once past Tintern the pace picked up a little but the sometimes steep undulation of the welsh hills avoiding the a49 felt like hard work with 2 long days under the belt and the sun beating down on us but we soldiered on, our spirits lifted by the good weather.

We stopped at an asda for lunch thinking that would make a cheap quick alternative to a cafe... It would have done if I hadn't had thrown all of our cash and bank cards in the bin along with the Sarnie rubbish... Booooo!!!! I didn't notice until we reached our hotel. doh!!
Some very lucky tramps somewhere near Hereford today!!

Further along the route and back on the a49 for a stretch. The a49 is a busy road and just minutes after I'd commented upon how courteous the lorry and majority of car drivers were some total TOOL tried to kill us both by overtaking in a chicane, you know the kind, the ones with bollards. Just as I was about the throw a loud curse his way the fool mounted the kerb of the chicane, bounced off the bollard and smashed his wing mirror off which then, now in a million pieces, bounced all over the road. Whilst avoiding having our legs shredded by flying glass the driver then overtook us (going down hill at around 35mph) only to pull in abruptly in front of us forcing us to slam on our brakes. I can only imagine he wanted to examine the damage he's done to his car. Near miss number 1 for today at least.

Today was a constant stop start battle and just to make sure we knew what sort of day this was, as we hit a lovely long downhill stretch I heard an almighty pop and Gareth shouting 'puncture'! At 35mph that was hairy. 40minutes to sort the ripped tyre and replace the inner tube. Whilst waiting I was bitten by an army of red ants... On my bottom!!!

Wheel fixed the last 30miles were long and when we overtook a group of LEJOG'ers having a BBQ by the side of the road it became increasingly difficult to keep spirits up but we continue to support each other and are in the process of writing the Debbie and Gareth LEJOG song. Gareth has promised to perform this upon request when we get home.

A 6mile down hill stretch into Shrewsbury took us to our hotel for an ice bath, shortly followed by burger king. Sleep time now!!

Stats

1 puncture, 105 miles, 14mph ave, 4500ft climb


Food diary

Gareth & debbie

Porridge cake sandwiches and burger king, banana, more cake.