Childhood Memories

Bristol-Monmouth-Gloucester-Bristol

Its becoming a bit of a struggle now, finding new routes not the actual cycle itself! Then I thought why not visit the big country Wales, well I posted a comment on Facebook before last Tuesday's big cycle asking where to go? and only one person replied, stating 'Across the old Severn Bridge then up the river past Tintern Abbey towards Monmouth'. As I ignored the comment and went to Burnham I thought it would only be polite to go this week.

Then it clicked, why couldn't I re-live my childhood. Anyone who didn't know (which is probably most people) my primary school in its last year visited the Wye Valley, Monmouthshire. So I set off at 9.30am after the usual rituals, however I forgot I had run out of Ribena, so this time my drinks bottle was filled with Orange Squash. I took my usual route to work and then half a dozen more miles to the Severn Bridge. This is where my first bit of fun began. Right by the end of this entry you will know enough about me to go on Mastermind and have me as your specialist subject. As you now know I am massively afraid of heights, luckily it wasn't too windy but it still required me to recite the Arsenal 97-98 Double Winning team.

After that ordeal I had crossed borders into another country, Wales. The signposts are all in Welsh and English, so it always makes me chuckle as I feel I am on holiday. It was then I spied a potential guard for my Bike Polo, a For Sale post from Moon & Co, it was even in the shape of my wheels it seemed perfect, the only issue I had would be transporting it home.

I cycled along the A4166 towards my first tourist attraction of note, Tintern Abbey and Tintern Railwaay Station the route took me down a winding road like on an Alps stage of the Tour de France. It was amazing, I was picking up some pace, although it was at this stage I was hit by a fly which really hurt. I arrived at the Abbey took a picture, when I saw a mother and son and thought they could take my picture. This is the only downfall of cycling alone you get lots of pictures of nice scenery and none with you in. They took my pic, I asked them where they were cycling and they said Bristol and wanted to know where a good cycling shop was. So I let them know and advised of the impending hill category 1 climb.

I then went past taking the second photo of my school album, the Tintern Railway station, I was thinking of stopping for a cup of tea and cake but didn't want to ruin my appetite for my ready-made pasta. It then started raining hard, perfect timing to cycle past a sign stating 'Road liable to flooding'. I carried along the same road hoping the weather would get a bit better, who was I kidding? this was Wales, it always rains. This was a really picturesque route alongside the River Wye just shame the weather was out to see its fully beauty.

Next stop was Monmouth Lidl to pick up a few provisions. If you haven't shopped there before it is hilarious there are snide brands that look like the real deal but aren't. So I bought some chocolate which was called Landt to place in my bag and a bottle of water and on to the rest of my journey. It was then I saw signs for 3rd and 4th historic landmarks, Bibling bridge and Symonds Yat. This took me along a muddy path for 2 miles.The next 'Louis fact' is my Bike, trusty steed is what is called a Hybrid, where it is not a road bike and not a mountain bike so it didn't really handle the bumps and I could really feel it. I went passed the bridge and it reminded me of when 18 years ago I had to cross the bridge with a teacher and the 5 other kids who were scared. There was no time to reminisce, on and up to Symonds Yat Rock which I remembered was a spectacular view.

I thought it was now time to crack open the lunch, eating in the picnic area I was cursing that I hadn't brought hand gel with but I did have a fork thank goodness. I then spotted the way to the view point (across a bridge) I was too nervous to make it so I bought a post card of the view. It looked better anyway because in the picture it was brilliant sunshine.


From here I made my way on, I had ticked all the Woodlands Primary School boxes. I thought against turning round and looping my journey because of the massive climb but also because I had already seen that part of the countryside. So I carried on up towards Gloucester where I had another slab of chocolate and met a lovely dog which I would have given some chocolate but I didn't know if I may require it further along the journey. This was at a place called Longhope which was funny because there was no hope of me cycling the hill so I got off the Bike and walked the hill for 2 minutes.

I then continued to cycle on to Gloucester where I went into the centre at about 3.15to have a look around and to find out if there was any other routes back to Bristol apart from the A38. After visiting the Tourist Information centre (unhelpful) and the local bike shop, who told me Bristol wasn't as far away as it actually was. I decided to take the A38 into Bristol and this was about 16.15 by now. I had under 2.5hours to cycle about 36 miles to get to Ashton Gate to meet my friends to collect tickets for the England Under 21 game.

This brought me back to another childhood memory that an easy way of me to achieve the unachievable is to think there is football at the end. My parents would always say think Football related, it was an easy way of getting me to do my homework. Always no Football till it is done, which worked until I got old enough to think for myself and I didn't let them know I had homework. It would get to Sunday evening I would then remember I had homework and asked my Mum for help, right in the middle of HeartBeat where she would reluctantly help as she didn't really want to miss it. If only we had ITV2,3,4 2+1.3+1,4+1 back in the day.

Anyway I met my friends outside the stadium at 18.45, dumped my Bike at a friends house and back to watch the football. I was still in my cycling leotard with a t-shirt over the top I got a few strange looks that night.

95 Miles what a day and I did sleep well that night.

Louis