Day 5 done: Bristol to Clun

As with the navigation handover, today also sees the handover of author duties on the blog. Dicky's sector is done (hence i will be referred to as Andy for the next fee editions).  I write this paragraph to pass the baton on to Mr Richards. Not known for his social networking activity we are hoping Paul pulls through for the silver surfer generation.

Today was the big marathon cycling day, Bristol to Clun and over 90 miles, that's over 20 more than our average. With Andy taking the navigational reins we were confident we were in good hands. That was until we got about 5 miles down the road with Andy congratulating himself on doing such a great  job of getting us out of Bristol to find he had not only taken us down the wrong route but also down a road that was closed off for repairs. We looked at the options of jumping into the field to work around the obstacle but decided against this based on yesterday's experiences and the rather large cows taking too much interest.  However, Ian provided one of his motivational speeches and we were soon off and racing towards the Seven Bridge and into Wales - another major milestone reached. 

Today's cycling was marked by not only the amount of miles covered but also the amount of counties covered, we started in Avon and then flew through Gloucestershire, Herefordshire and finished in Shropshire, while also briefly entering Monmouthshire and completing our first country border crossing into Wales. For the latter, Andy was proudly wearing his Welsh T-shirt, all for charity of course, although it should be noted that Andy is still struggling with the welsh  national anthem, his attempt was the Irish rugby anthem with Wales added instead!

Unfortunately there was little to report on the best place names, other than we seemed to enter a weird Eastend twilight zone halfway through our 5th day. We initially entered Millwall (or Milkwall but close enough), with shellsuits  and fighting dogs followed by Mile End and Walford. We were lucky to get out of there with our shins still in place, but we were soon back to the lovely countryside and the beautiful views of the Wye valley?

Halfway through the day we decided to mark this milestone with a well earned drink in Hereford. Andy's confidence in his navigational skills seem to gain there previous height's at the start of the day and he decided to take us off plan down the Hereford pedestrian only high street. Unfortunately the local constabulary recognised 'people not from these parts' and immediately put pay to our ideas of a quick drink, although more for his 15 min directions to the nearest pub than anything else.  Anyway, with a promise to only drink something refreshing for the ride we made it to the pub for a well earned Cider. Our brief rest went without further issues, although this was interrupted by Ian deciding that the young girls playing hide an seek where just not doing it correctly, subsequently he treated everyone to a master glass of hind and seek skills amassed over 30+ years!  Anyway with the new lesson well an truly imbedded we soon headed off for the final 35 miles. However, at the first cross-roads we met with some stiff comments from the local youths, initially they seemed quite impressed with Andy's shirt, 'king of the mountains' Andy explained, 'more like Noddy' came the response, Ian soon stepped up to defend Andy's honour stiffly explaining Andy was more like Big Ears!

The rest of the day went well and we made it close to our home for day 5, stopping 10 miles out in what can only be described as the perfect pub - next to the river, local beers and bar snacks to keep us going. While the 10 miles seemed to go on forever we finally made it into the lovely town of Clun, not in any small part to Andy's map reading skills.  The day was finished off with special guess appearances from Ian's wife Becs and her sister Emily and we finally got our high carb meal missing from last nights  adventure into fine dinning!

Hair update - Andy and Ian's mops are now only just allowing them to get their helmets on, my attempt at beard to match Ian's is now looking like it will need to be reduced to a goatee and Andy looks like he is trying for a Amish beard!

The beer sampling was surprisingly good after a drop off in the Bristol area. The ride through Herefordshire was marked by discovering the refreshing powers of a cold cider. 
We sampled two over the course of the day. Firstly Sowcrow in Hereford and Weston. Both lovely and cold and solid 7s. 
On the bitter from we had a glut of quality ales. The Clun Slop drop was brewed in the back yard of the pub we had dinner in and went down very easily. We also tried the Butty Bach, Three Tuns and Ludworth. General consensus was that the Butty Bach was the best and goes through as Hereford County Champ and the Clun Slop as Shropshire's representative.  

Stats of the day:
Miles completed - 93
Total miles - 350 (it is growing)
Counties - 5
Countries - 2
Road kill - lots, including a large boar
Falls - zero

Today sees us head up and over the hills of Clun and head north via Oswestry and Wrexham to Chester. Looking forward to seeing some friendly faces tomorrow morning! 
 
TTFN