17th September 2018
Today was a joy. .
Good weather (again!) tail winds and not a lot of climbing. The route took us along quiet lanes from Tewkesbury towards Worcester and from there on canal paths and cycleways to Kidderminster. The canal path was truly gorgeous, the surface was good for 90% of the way and we saw wildlife in abundance. Canal boats were slowly passing by and we went through dozens of locks.
We managed to ride 53 miles. We covered the first 20 or so in just over an hour. Bear in mind that we left Tewkesbury at 9.30am and arrived at our hotel here in Himley at 6.10pm. Much of the rest of the way we were on the canals or cycle tracks which are such slow going.
We stopped of at Frankie and Benny's for a coffee and our server, Joey, was just lovely. He was interested in what we were doing and why, and gave us a generous donation for the appeal. It is that sort of kindness that gives us such a boost and spurs us on.
Take a look at the route today and you can see that we were actually cycling for 4.40 hrs. (The GPS only records the time on the bikes, not the time when we are stopped or are walking/pushing the bikes. We only stopped twice, once for 30min for lunch and once for 15min for coffee. So that was over 4 hours lost because of the stop/start nature of the canals.
None of the hills were bad, but it is interesting to see the long slow climb up the river on the canal paths. Each lock you come to you have to push the bikes up very steep ramps to get up to the next level of the canal. (See the right third of the image) Each 'peak' you can see is where you have to dismount to get up to the locks. You can see from this just how slow the canal paths are, even those with sound surfaces. When the paths deteriorate into stone chippings of mud tracks we can go no faster than about 4-5 mph. The bad news is the route for the next 3/4 days is mainly on canal paths!
Our accomodation tonight is at Hinley House Hotel a large and comfortable hotel with friendly staff.
The song in my head all day has been "It's a long way to Tipperary" The song in your head at any one time really does give you an indication of your subconcious thinking. I can't quite believe how long we have been cycling for and yet are not even half way there yet!!
Day’s Mileage: 53.02m Total mileage to date: 378.27m
Day’s climbing: 1,378ft Total climbing to date 18,070ft
Tomorrow, Storm Helene is forecast here!!!
xx
Annette & Bob