Saturday, 1 June 2013
I'm going to cycle again
I have decided I'm going to finish the route 45. Not sure when but I will definitely finish it sometime this year. Gloucester to Salisbury.
Wednesday, 11 May 2011
Back in the saddle - Whitchurch to Chester
Yes, at long last, we are back, and what an amazing comeback - 65 miles!!!!!!!!!!! Ok so I can barely stand up this morning and daren't attempt to sit and lord knows how I'm going to play tennis in 2 hours time, but what a great achievement, I'm so glad we've got that northern route finished. We're now determined to finish off that bottom bit from Gloucester to Salisbury.
So according to caloriecounter.com 65 miles divided by 6 and a half hours cycling time = 10 miles per hour = 300 calories per hour burned = 1950 calories burned overall = 1 large portion of chilli con carne, 3 slices of garlic bread, 2 large glasses of wine and 6 squares of cadburys fruit and nut, thats exactly what I tucked into when I got home at 9.30 last night! I have it on good authority Sally's cuisine delight was chips, fried egg and a cocktail of beer and red wine!
And just for the record, my buttocks are still looking very good, the dimples and cellulite have diminished and the legs are toned AND tanned as I'm now in lycra cycling shorts, infact since last blogging I also have myself a new bike - a Claude Butler trail bike with 3 cogs and 24 gears, so you see I'm a real cyclist now!
Anyway onto our journey yesterday. We got a real good start arriving at Whitchurch at 10.10 and were away in the saddle and pedalling by 10.30, that in itself was a record, as we've never been good at early starts.
The first 15 miles, which took us about 1 hour 20 minutes, were fairly easy with gentle rolling terrain. The weather was also being kind to us with a mix of sunshine, cloud and a bit of a cooling breeze. The countryside was looking lush and green, I expect due to the hard winter we've had and the lanes were nice and quiet too with just the odd tractor here and there, no bin men, so all in all very pleasant, but as usual all good things must to come to an end and we spent the next 45 minutes climbing up 2 huge hills at Harthill and Burwardsley - dropped right down to 2 miles per hour and in 'granny' gear, cog one, gear one, it was hard going, but we took our time and I just kept thinking of those hips and thighs. Of course if you go up a hill you have to come back down and it was fantastic cruising down other side clocking up 27 miles per hour, we were nearly speeding!!
We came to the small village of Tattenhall, well worth a visit with a few shops, pubs and eating places and in the area just a couple of miles away I noticed there was and ice cream farm and parlour. At this point I would have loved a big dollup of ice cream, but there was no time for stopping, we were on a mission and Chester was in our sight. Thankfully the last 10 miles were flat and the last 4 into Chester were on the canal tow path. 3 hours exactly to get into the centre of Chester.
Chester is a beautiful walled city. It has everything for everyone, shops, bars, restaurants, cathedral, roman ruins, racecourse.......the list is endless, its one of my favourite places and one I'm very familiar with as in our boating days we used to moor our boat just 30 minutes from the city so Chester was a regular saturday morning visit for us.
So with bikes securely locked up Sally and I went in search of food and drink to a little cafe on one of the upper board walks and were lucky to get a table on the balcony over looking the main street. I went to this cafe about 18 months ago with friends and the weather was different then as it was winter and we had teacakes and hot chocolate, but we were now enjoying egg sandwiches, paninis, latte and earl grey, and taking in the atmosphere, we even ordered a couple of extra latte's to fill our coffee flask up for the return journey.
After a very welcome break we headed back to the tow path as we had'nt quite got to the end of the route, there was another mile to go! The end of the route is marked with a small cast iron figure of a Mercian Warrior, this is because part of the route 45, the 101 miles between Chester and Bewdley is also known as the Mercian Way, so although we'd got to Chester it was important to see the little warrior!
Is'nt he great!!!
Chester from the cafe balcony
Chester Cathedral
A favourite mooring spot of ours when we had a boat
The small village of Tattenhall
The road lift bridge over the canal at Wrenbury, about 5 miles north of Whitchurch, we had to stop here on our journey north as the bridge was up in favour of a passing boat.
Our return journey from Chester to Whitchurch was equally as good as our outward bound one, making good time, the only difference being the earlier cooling breeze had turned into fairly gusty head winds. It just meant we had to padal a bit harder!!!!!
Here goes, onto tennis now!!
So according to caloriecounter.com 65 miles divided by 6 and a half hours cycling time = 10 miles per hour = 300 calories per hour burned = 1950 calories burned overall = 1 large portion of chilli con carne, 3 slices of garlic bread, 2 large glasses of wine and 6 squares of cadburys fruit and nut, thats exactly what I tucked into when I got home at 9.30 last night! I have it on good authority Sally's cuisine delight was chips, fried egg and a cocktail of beer and red wine!
And just for the record, my buttocks are still looking very good, the dimples and cellulite have diminished and the legs are toned AND tanned as I'm now in lycra cycling shorts, infact since last blogging I also have myself a new bike - a Claude Butler trail bike with 3 cogs and 24 gears, so you see I'm a real cyclist now!
Anyway onto our journey yesterday. We got a real good start arriving at Whitchurch at 10.10 and were away in the saddle and pedalling by 10.30, that in itself was a record, as we've never been good at early starts.
The first 15 miles, which took us about 1 hour 20 minutes, were fairly easy with gentle rolling terrain. The weather was also being kind to us with a mix of sunshine, cloud and a bit of a cooling breeze. The countryside was looking lush and green, I expect due to the hard winter we've had and the lanes were nice and quiet too with just the odd tractor here and there, no bin men, so all in all very pleasant, but as usual all good things must to come to an end and we spent the next 45 minutes climbing up 2 huge hills at Harthill and Burwardsley - dropped right down to 2 miles per hour and in 'granny' gear, cog one, gear one, it was hard going, but we took our time and I just kept thinking of those hips and thighs. Of course if you go up a hill you have to come back down and it was fantastic cruising down other side clocking up 27 miles per hour, we were nearly speeding!!
We came to the small village of Tattenhall, well worth a visit with a few shops, pubs and eating places and in the area just a couple of miles away I noticed there was and ice cream farm and parlour. At this point I would have loved a big dollup of ice cream, but there was no time for stopping, we were on a mission and Chester was in our sight. Thankfully the last 10 miles were flat and the last 4 into Chester were on the canal tow path. 3 hours exactly to get into the centre of Chester.
Chester is a beautiful walled city. It has everything for everyone, shops, bars, restaurants, cathedral, roman ruins, racecourse.......the list is endless, its one of my favourite places and one I'm very familiar with as in our boating days we used to moor our boat just 30 minutes from the city so Chester was a regular saturday morning visit for us.
So with bikes securely locked up Sally and I went in search of food and drink to a little cafe on one of the upper board walks and were lucky to get a table on the balcony over looking the main street. I went to this cafe about 18 months ago with friends and the weather was different then as it was winter and we had teacakes and hot chocolate, but we were now enjoying egg sandwiches, paninis, latte and earl grey, and taking in the atmosphere, we even ordered a couple of extra latte's to fill our coffee flask up for the return journey.
After a very welcome break we headed back to the tow path as we had'nt quite got to the end of the route, there was another mile to go! The end of the route is marked with a small cast iron figure of a Mercian Warrior, this is because part of the route 45, the 101 miles between Chester and Bewdley is also known as the Mercian Way, so although we'd got to Chester it was important to see the little warrior!
Chester from the cafe balcony
Chester Cathedral
A favourite mooring spot of ours when we had a boat
The small village of Tattenhall
The road lift bridge over the canal at Wrenbury, about 5 miles north of Whitchurch, we had to stop here on our journey north as the bridge was up in favour of a passing boat.
Our return journey from Chester to Whitchurch was equally as good as our outward bound one, making good time, the only difference being the earlier cooling breeze had turned into fairly gusty head winds. It just meant we had to padal a bit harder!!!!!
Here goes, onto tennis now!!
Tuesday, 9 November 2010
Leg 10 Ebreywood to Prees Green
I'm going off Shropshire - Fast!! The lack of cottage style tea rooms and cosy country pubs just doesn't agree with me, you know I'm not just doing this for the cycling, theres got to be something to look forward to after doing 15 miles up and down and in the cold. Of course we could have made our own 'latte' at any time if we'd only got a portable gas burner, saucepan and some instant coffee with us, as there was an abundance of milk on last weeks journey - dairy farms - one after another, after another, after another . . . . . And the smell was with us all day too! Infact one village we went through was called 'Fauls', appropriate, I thought!
With all good intentions of setting out earlier than usual, again it was 10.45am before we were in the saddle and on the road.
The first few miles were great - FLAT !! But sonehow, I just knew we were heading for that woodland hill, its autumn colours of which I'd been admiring for the last 5 miles. Our journey took us through Shawbury (RAF) and Moreton Corbet where we came upon the ruins of Moreton Corbet Castle, built around 1200.
The castle is an English Heritage property and a grade 1 listed building. The ruins are from 2 different eras, a medieval stronghold and an Elizabethan era manor house. Definately worth a photo stop and next door is the lovely saxon church.
After 2 hours of cycling and not a clue as to where we were (we dont take maps with us as we feel its more fun just following the signs, something we may reconsider) and not even a whiff of coffee we decided to detour a little and head for the main road (A49) , thinking we're bound to find a little chef at least. The question was " how long do we go before we give up on our latte quest".
The only place we had passed was 'Micks Mill', a veg and animal feed store! ah well bananas all round!
As luck would have it, Mick, who's real name is Belinda (dont ask) and her colleagues were taking a tea break and when we told them our story and how long we had been travelling (they were impressed) they took pity upon us and we were invited to join their tea break! Within a couple of minutes we were both enjoying a piping hot mug of tea and free! Infact Mick offered us use of her car park next week for the start of our next leg, great stuff.
We clocked up 30 miles round trip today and apart from the hill over Hawkstone the going was fairly easy and the sign posts were excellent, but on our return journey it did start raining, the first so far.
I have calculated we are now only 40 miles from Chester so it is our aim to get this part of the route finished in 2 more trips out, assuming we can get an early start tomorrow!!
With all good intentions of setting out earlier than usual, again it was 10.45am before we were in the saddle and on the road.
The first few miles were great - FLAT !! But sonehow, I just knew we were heading for that woodland hill, its autumn colours of which I'd been admiring for the last 5 miles. Our journey took us through Shawbury (RAF) and Moreton Corbet where we came upon the ruins of Moreton Corbet Castle, built around 1200.
It was'nt long before we were going up, passing by the West Midlands Shooting ground at Hodnet, which I might add sounded very active, so we increased our speed just in case! We continued on through Hawkstone, another publess/tearoomless pretty little hamlet with lots of lovely cottages but no latte!
After 2 hours of cycling and not a clue as to where we were (we dont take maps with us as we feel its more fun just following the signs, something we may reconsider) and not even a whiff of coffee we decided to detour a little and head for the main road (A49) , thinking we're bound to find a little chef at least. The question was " how long do we go before we give up on our latte quest".
The only place we had passed was 'Micks Mill', a veg and animal feed store! ah well bananas all round!
As luck would have it, Mick, who's real name is Belinda (dont ask) and her colleagues were taking a tea break and when we told them our story and how long we had been travelling (they were impressed) they took pity upon us and we were invited to join their tea break! Within a couple of minutes we were both enjoying a piping hot mug of tea and free! Infact Mick offered us use of her car park next week for the start of our next leg, great stuff.
We clocked up 30 miles round trip today and apart from the hill over Hawkstone the going was fairly easy and the sign posts were excellent, but on our return journey it did start raining, the first so far.
I have calculated we are now only 40 miles from Chester so it is our aim to get this part of the route finished in 2 more trips out, assuming we can get an early start tomorrow!!
Thursday, 14 October 2010
Leg 9 - Little Wenlock to Ebreywood, Shropshire. "All around the Wrekin".
I now know where the expression ' all around the Wrekin ' comes from. Despite cycling 35 miles yesterday all we did was go from south east to north west of the Wrekin and back again, hence the saying 'all around the Wrekin', not to mention up and down too! A gruelling ride which most definately deserved the 3 glasses of red I consumed last night!
We have now decided to try and complete the northern stretch of the route 45 up to Chester and we are giving ourselves 6 more legs in which to do it and hopfully will have it finished by christmas.
Our starting points are now well over an hours drive away, but still we seem to be struggling in getting a good early start and yesterday, by the time we got into the saddle and started pedalling it was 11.15am, simply not good enough, we had to cut short our lunch and latte!
It was a chilly misty morning and for the first 2 miles it was all downhill, which is not good in cold weather and by the time we got to the bottom our fingers were numb! We did stop after about a mile as the above shot caught my eye. The Wrekin in the back ground. When we came back up here four and a half hours later the cows had gone and in their place in the far corner of the field were a couple of deer.
We continued on, up and down and up and down and for the first time enjoying the 'ups' more so than the 'downs' , as they enabled us to get a sweat on and get warm! About 4 miles later we came to the lovely little Shropshire village of Eyton On Severn, although we did'nt see the Severn we did admire and get a shot of the church.
Oh, and equally beautiful and well preserved sign posts!
We carried on for about a further 4 miles reaching Ebreywood when we did a time check and realised we had been cycling for almost 2 hours and Sally was getting latte withdrawel symptoms and with no coffee shop or pub in sight we decided it was time to turn round. The only pub we had passed was one at Atcham so thats where we headed. However when we reached the junction Sally suggested we should try Attingham Park, in search of a traditional national trust style tea rooms, but we were initially disappointed when we were told we would have to pay the entrance fee of £9.50 each to get in, even just to use the tea rooms!
So I decided to use pleading tactics and asked them to take pity on 2 cyclists who had just cycled about 25 miles and by now had got very sore arses, were walking oddly and were desperate for a caffeine fix! Instantly we were let in - free! But I must confess, their decision was nothing to do with my superb pleading tactics, but simply that cyclists were free, apparently some old historic rule. Anyway a few minutes later Sally was enjoying her latte and me my earl grey and we were both tucking into a yummy sandwich.
We have now decided to try and complete the northern stretch of the route 45 up to Chester and we are giving ourselves 6 more legs in which to do it and hopfully will have it finished by christmas.
Our starting points are now well over an hours drive away, but still we seem to be struggling in getting a good early start and yesterday, by the time we got into the saddle and started pedalling it was 11.15am, simply not good enough, we had to cut short our lunch and latte!
We continued on, up and down and up and down and for the first time enjoying the 'ups' more so than the 'downs' , as they enabled us to get a sweat on and get warm! About 4 miles later we came to the lovely little Shropshire village of Eyton On Severn, although we did'nt see the Severn we did admire and get a shot of the church.
By the time we left Eyton the sun had started burning through the mist and we were beginning to thaw out, well at least I was, Sally needs it to be in excess of 30 c before her hands get luke warm!
Next stop were the ruins of the roman city of Wroxter, apparently the forth largest in the uk!
We had a photo break here and also took off a layer as, by now, it had turned into a glorious day. The sky was deep blue and the sun bright and shining down, lighting up all those autumn colours. It was a glow all around of reds, golds, yellows and greens, absolutely stunning. They are the days i call ' feel good to be alive' days.
Just after Wroxeter route 45 goes along a mile stretch of the B4380 a very busy road and with no pavement west bound, however there is a pavement on the opposite side, so on our return journey we used it. We crossed over the road and took a left turn just before the River Severn at Atcham and cycled along the walled grounds of Attingham Park (national trust) and headed up to Upton Magna, a very picturesque Shropshire hamlet with beautiful cottages.
We carried on for about a further 4 miles reaching Ebreywood when we did a time check and realised we had been cycling for almost 2 hours and Sally was getting latte withdrawel symptoms and with no coffee shop or pub in sight we decided it was time to turn round. The only pub we had passed was one at Atcham so thats where we headed. However when we reached the junction Sally suggested we should try Attingham Park, in search of a traditional national trust style tea rooms, but we were initially disappointed when we were told we would have to pay the entrance fee of £9.50 each to get in, even just to use the tea rooms!
So I decided to use pleading tactics and asked them to take pity on 2 cyclists who had just cycled about 25 miles and by now had got very sore arses, were walking oddly and were desperate for a caffeine fix! Instantly we were let in - free! But I must confess, their decision was nothing to do with my superb pleading tactics, but simply that cyclists were free, apparently some old historic rule. Anyway a few minutes later Sally was enjoying her latte and me my earl grey and we were both tucking into a yummy sandwich.
Attingham Park
An hour later I regreted eating that huge cheese, pickle and tomato sandwich as I struggled getting back up that 2 mile hill!! And as usual without fail along came the damn refuse collector!!
We made it up the hill and, I hasten to add, without getting out of the saddle!!!!!
Todays ride, for me, was undoubtably the best. The weather was perfect, the views stunning and the autumnal colours spectacular. We both could have cycled until we lost light.
Saturday, 18 September 2010
Martine and Sally do Route 45: Cycle Route 45 Chester to Salisbury - Tewksbury to...
Martine and Sally do Route 45: Cycle Route 45 Chester to Salisbury - Tewksbury to...: "Route 45 is a national cycle route which runs from Chester to Salisbury and is approximately 200 miles long. Sally and I have made it our m..."
Thursday, 16 September 2010
Leg 8 Tewksbury to Gloucester
So we set out yesterday from a place called Lower Lode (not sure if I've spelled that right) , near Forthampton and south west of Tewksbury and west of the river Severn en route to Gloucester.
We arrived there by car at 11am. Now I have told sally that we really must try and set out earlier in future as our start times, for some reason, are getting later and with the autumn and winter getting ever closer we need to make use of the daylight if we are to get this mission completed.
Unfortunately when arriving at Lower Lode there was not a 'route 45' sign post in sight and equipped with only an A3 copy of the navigator map, which was far too big to cycle with, I began making a note of all local villages between Lower Lode and Gloucester and with that we set off and took our chance!
After about a mile and a half we realised we should not have panicked as we spotted our first route 45 sign post at chaceley.
The route took us through Tirley, Hasfield, Ashleworth and Maisemore before picking up a designated cycle path and old railway on into gloucester docks.
The terrain was fairly easy, but although seemed flat there was an amount of resistance for the first 6 miles. There was one steep incline somewhere between Ashleworth and Maisemore and as ever when it comes to these steep inclines we end up with traffic behind us
How come we can cycle for miles without seeing a vehicle, but then its bloody sods law whenever we start going up something that resembles mount everest, out the blue traffic appears.
Mr and Mrs Pensioner in their little polo give us a bit of space and overtake us, but white van man or more recently the refuse collectors insist on sitting behind us. Now I ask myself, is that because they are considering our health and safety or is it because they are nothing but outright perverts as they want to gloat at our struggles and in paticular our arses, as, at this point, we are out of the saddle wriggling from side to side puffing and panting!
Anyway 13 and a half miles later we made Gloucester docks.
We decided to head straight for the information center in the town to seek out information for our next leg.
They were very useful at Gloucester Information Center and provided us with OS Tour 8 The Cotswolds and Gloucestershire, which we really should have had before we set out, ah well never mind.
We then decided to cycle back down to the docks for a bite to eat and drink and somewhere to peruse over our new map, but was extremely disappointed when we were asked to leave the dock area, which has been developed into a retail outlet shopping area with restaurants and bars, because our bikes were not welcome! The medium sized man, in both height and width, was most unpleasant and unsavoury and as I walked away, most upset, couldnt help but mumble the word 'tosser' underneath my breathe!
We eventually had toasted sandwiches and latte coffee back in town and the man there was very kind to us indeed, even giving us, free of charge, a sachet of tomato ketchup each!
Before saying goodbye to Gloucester and heading back we did check out the start of next weeks ride which will take us down the Gloucester and Sharpness canal to Saul junction following route 41 to Brisol before heading east toward Stroud.
Important notes on todays ride were
1 We missed a sign just north of Maismore as it was hidden by an overgrown tree, so must remember to take pruners with us in future
Highlighs of todys ride
Sally going through yet another red light and then in true kamikaze style she cycled right in fromt of a moving bus!!!!!!!
Hey, what the heck. its all good fun.
We arrived there by car at 11am. Now I have told sally that we really must try and set out earlier in future as our start times, for some reason, are getting later and with the autumn and winter getting ever closer we need to make use of the daylight if we are to get this mission completed.
Unfortunately when arriving at Lower Lode there was not a 'route 45' sign post in sight and equipped with only an A3 copy of the navigator map, which was far too big to cycle with, I began making a note of all local villages between Lower Lode and Gloucester and with that we set off and took our chance!
After about a mile and a half we realised we should not have panicked as we spotted our first route 45 sign post at chaceley.
The route took us through Tirley, Hasfield, Ashleworth and Maisemore before picking up a designated cycle path and old railway on into gloucester docks.
The terrain was fairly easy, but although seemed flat there was an amount of resistance for the first 6 miles. There was one steep incline somewhere between Ashleworth and Maisemore and as ever when it comes to these steep inclines we end up with traffic behind us
How come we can cycle for miles without seeing a vehicle, but then its bloody sods law whenever we start going up something that resembles mount everest, out the blue traffic appears.
Mr and Mrs Pensioner in their little polo give us a bit of space and overtake us, but white van man or more recently the refuse collectors insist on sitting behind us. Now I ask myself, is that because they are considering our health and safety or is it because they are nothing but outright perverts as they want to gloat at our struggles and in paticular our arses, as, at this point, we are out of the saddle wriggling from side to side puffing and panting!
Anyway 13 and a half miles later we made Gloucester docks.
We decided to head straight for the information center in the town to seek out information for our next leg.
They were very useful at Gloucester Information Center and provided us with OS Tour 8 The Cotswolds and Gloucestershire, which we really should have had before we set out, ah well never mind.
We then decided to cycle back down to the docks for a bite to eat and drink and somewhere to peruse over our new map, but was extremely disappointed when we were asked to leave the dock area, which has been developed into a retail outlet shopping area with restaurants and bars, because our bikes were not welcome! The medium sized man, in both height and width, was most unpleasant and unsavoury and as I walked away, most upset, couldnt help but mumble the word 'tosser' underneath my breathe!
We eventually had toasted sandwiches and latte coffee back in town and the man there was very kind to us indeed, even giving us, free of charge, a sachet of tomato ketchup each!
Before saying goodbye to Gloucester and heading back we did check out the start of next weeks ride which will take us down the Gloucester and Sharpness canal to Saul junction following route 41 to Brisol before heading east toward Stroud.
Important notes on todays ride were
1 We missed a sign just north of Maismore as it was hidden by an overgrown tree, so must remember to take pruners with us in future
Highlighs of todys ride
Sally going through yet another red light and then in true kamikaze style she cycled right in fromt of a moving bus!!!!!!!
Hey, what the heck. its all good fun.
Martine and Sally do Route 45: Cycle Route 45 Chester to Salisbury - Tewksbury to...
Martine and Sally do Route 45: Cycle Route 45 Chester to Salisbury - Tewksbury to...: "Route 45 is a national cycle route which runs from Chester to Salisbury and is approximately 200 miles long. Sally and I have made it our m..."
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