Day 66 - Weston-Super-Mare to Bath

After sleeping on the floor on the air bed last night, I had some sort of sleep! The hotel floor was filthy dirty but I managed some sleep.

I was awake well before the normal waking time of 5.30 am and managed to doze until about 6.00am.

We were up, packed and ready for breakfast at 8.00 am in the dining room. The breakfast consisted of cereal and milk followed by eggs, bacon, hash brown, sausage and cooked tomatoes which was very good! I had a cup of tea rather than the coffee that was in the percolator.

After a bigger than normal breakfast we were off on the bikes at 8.45am…. Probably the latest start time of the rides so far. I was the navigator for the day and as usual finding the direction to go outside the hotel was a slight issue…. After sorting this out we were on our way.

The weather was almost perfect for riding! There was light cloud cover, virtually no wind and the temperature was around 20 degrees.

The ride from WSM to Bath is through lovely countryside in Somerset and passes close by some of the outer suburbs of Bristol. I think that the country houses we saw today were some of the best I have seen on this trip. Somerset is a county worth considering another visit in the future.

The ride was essentially through back lanes which seem to go everywhere. We met a local who said people often get lost in the laneways as the roads go in all directions and the hedgerows make it impossible to see over them to see the general landscape.

The road surfaces were varied with some roads in terrible shape with potholes and others in excellent condition.

We had a coffee stop at a place called Chew Valley Lake which is one of Bristol’s water reservoirs and is used for recreational activities activity’s such as sailing…. But not swimming! The cafe served reasonable coffee. Chris and I recognised this lake from the Lands End to John O’Groats ride where we also rode alongside the lake all those years ago!

After coffee it was on to Bath but we had to navigate a few hills through the undulating countryside. There was one occasion where the gradient registered 18 % on the Garmin. This was for about 100 metres so was handled with some kind of special effort…. But I got there!

There were 3 designated climbs which were quite ok for me. I am feeling much stronger on clumps and 5-8% gradients seem fine but obviously requires a bit of effort!

The last part of the ride into Bath was along the Bath- Bristol rail trail which was terrific as we made very good time on excellent riding surfaces. Near the end we stopped at a cafe for lunch which was full of other cyclists enjoying lunch. Finding a spot to store our bikes was interesting!

The lunch for me was a lovely smoked salmon baguette and a lime and soda drink. After this it was on for the final few kms to our accommodation at St Christopher Hostel in Bath. It is familiar accommodation as we were here a couple of days ago. Fortunately this time we are in a 6 bed dorm and each of us have a bottom bunk.

The ride today was our second last for this trip and was nearly 60 kms and we climbed 575 metres

The photos today are;

The route

A vineyard on one of the farms

One of the houses alongside the road

The cafe where we had lunch

Home for the night at St Christopher’s