Cycling to the top, with stops for cake - Part 2

This is part two of the day by day account of our trip from Lands End to John O'Groats.

Day 5: Jun 17th
Holmen Clavel to Priddy (Mendip Hills)

to priddy in the mendip hills. 77 k waited out the rain with 90 mins in wells. flat roads of somerset lovely. camping in the clouds tonight.

Ah down hills and flats! Bum complains of injustice today, but the riding is easy – we don't pass a major town all morning and soon finish most of our supplies and two pork pies brought at a village butchers.

Stop for coffee at a silver trailer home cafe, which sits behind a forest park visitors hall due to be completed in 2010. Rain starts and we go inside and chat with the cashier about one of her regulars who is doing LEJOG in a week. Nice rolling countryside through marshes in the afternoon – flat for miles either side of peat ditches and swans floating in canals. There is a little rain, but it doesn't settle in until Wells where we stop for a late lunch anyway. We wait it out for 90 minutes and as it looks like it will clear we climb the short but steep hill past cheesy Wookey Hole and into the Mendips in low cloud (not too bad a climb either) then book in at a campsite. Its then that it starts pouring with rain. Small arguments about sorting out the tent in the rain ensues but the downpour stops before dinner – gourmet style pasta and local bacon and cider and nice changing weather on the hills. Another cyclist is camping beside us and tells us he's done a 16k walk today. We think he's keener than us.

Snack patrol: proper somerset pork pie. can't remember which village butcher we brought it from but eaten outside the church at muchelney.

Day 6: Jun 18th
Priddy to Llanthony via Bristol / Severn Bridge, 122km

Long downhill from Priddy down past Chew Lake, then seems like forever picking through Bristol before the Severn Bridge which is 4 miles with a sharp wind threatening to throw us off– great views but hard cycling. We see a couple of cyclists we'd seen in Launceton and Padstow as we're heading into Chepstow. They stop and chat – and we're not surprised that they're doing the same trip. We're fed and stocked up on food by 3.30 and head into the Welsh hills. Its immediately stunning – lush green, great cycling even though we've a long way to go into the evening, and the hills aren't helping. A lady stands at the end of her drive watching us cycle past her up one of the first hills out of Chepstow – I smile and say we're nearly there, she laughs at me and says there's another hill the same to follow.
It may be slow going but its beautiful out here. We finally arrive in Llanthony at just after 8pm, which means a very long day of cycling. Our campsite is a field with one other tent in it – hills crowd around us and its not raining! £3 per person, bargain. Hopefully full rest day tomorrow.

Wales! 122 k the day before yesterday with 50 done before we crossed the severn bridge into wales. finally at llanthony at 8pm but glorious hills

Day 7: June 19th
Llanthony – Break day

Quiet birthday filled with chores – cleaned bikes, clothes. Treats in the way of cake and beer, pub dinner at the Priory, music. Climbed hill in the afternoon. Wish it was slightly warmer for swimming. Sat in fast changing weather and read and ate.

yesterday: rest day in llanthony. thought we might have campsite to ourselves but it filled up after noon. hill walk in pm but mostly chores and not moving!

Day 8: June 20th
Llanthony to Bishops Castle

llanthony to bishops castle: 94k. over the black mountains to hay on wye is the most stunning route ever cycled. pm back in england farmland again

Early morning bacon sandwiches then a climb out of the valley to the ridge top where sheep are roaming free and it felt incredibly wild and like we had somehow climbed to the top of the world. Stunning views – well worth the climb, and a gorgeous descent – I took it slowly as I wanted it to last forever.

Stopped at Hay-on-Wye for charity cake sale cups of tea and muffins (using first cake vouchers provided by Justin!) The ladies running the tea shop asked how long we had been riding and we had to admit, just a hour or so, and mostly downhill. I felt it wasn't right to leave Hay-on-Wye without spending some time in the bookstores, but we had to barreled out of town and head on our way.

A cloudy afternoon and pedaling into the wind through big industrial farmland, no towns through the greater part of the day. Ate a quick lunch on the edge of a driveway of a farmhouse as nowhere particularly nice to stop.

It took a long time to get to Bishops Castle and its small town civilisation and then it was slightly disheartening that we had to leave immediately to find a campsite. Now we're on the top of a hill with beautiful views of other hills on all sides and at least half a dozen cars with paragliding equipment on top. Had a BBQ with wild boar burgers and sausages. Mist clouded over the hills (one of which we'll climb tomorrow).

Snack patrol: hay on wye charity cakesale - what were we thinking? should have brought a whole teacake instead of two slices.