We particularly enjoyed yesterday’s rest day as we met and had lunch with our son -in -law’s mother who lives near Tewkesbury. We also use our rest days to catch up with our laundry chores and stock up with our daytime food. Although we left touristy Tewkesbury in dry weather some light rain was to come later. Several of our well wishers have wished for us to have a tail wind, this was not the case today! Near to Twyning we had to smile when a 7ft tall white rabbit with wise words watched us go by.
Continuing along the lanes through avenues of trees we turned into a very narrow byway where the vigorous summer growth brushed our panniers with hard dry mud under our wheels (very bumpy!) . Next we heard and then saw 2 rather large horses with riders coming towards us. They just managed to squeeeeze past, with us having to push right into the undergrowth for them to do so. A quarter of a mile further on and we were back on tarmac.
We crossed a bridge over the M5 and felt sorry for the queuing and stationary traffic below us.
As we rode into Worcester the route became a mixture of cycle paths and housing estate roads and we were soon cycling along by the River Severn , past the Cathedral and the Worcestershire County Cricket ground (the 2nd County Cricket ground we have seen, the first was Somerset’s in Taunton). The sporting theme continued as we crossed the river where the route took us into Worcester Racecourse, but thankfully not over the jumps!
Just outside the racecourse it had started to rain so it was on with the wet weather gear!
Next was Droitwich Spa, a very pleasant town and then Stourport on Severn (quite unpleasant) apart from other things, the cycle path access points were too tight and too low for Daisy to get through (much lifting, leaning and twisting required!)
Karma was then restored and the final part of today’s ride took us through Burlish Top Nature Reserve a winding path through tranquil woodland and down into Bewdley, our B&B stop for tonight.
Distance cycled today 42 miles
Total hill climbs today 1626 ft
