A great day - 90 miles in the time it took to do 75 yesterday. Not only that, but Fiona found us a great bed and breakfast place, so I didn't have to try and find somewhere to stay on a mobile phone with a poor signal and fading battery. That made a big difference at the end of the day.
It felt like coming up out of Monmouth and past Hereford was all uphill. The hills weren't particularly steep, but I seemed to spend a long time in first gear. We reached Ludlow at lunchtime and sat munching our sandwiches watching the ducks swimming about on the river.
Our next big stop was at Much Wenlock, home of the modern Olympic games (http://www.wenlock-olympian-society.org.uk/) (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Much_Wenlock). Just as importantly for us, it's home to an ice cream shop.
We arrived at Tern Hill about 7:30, glad to be stopping.
It was a day of colours- yellow fields of rape, blue blankets of linseed flowers, dark pink plowed earth and green everywhere. Agriculture changed and maize, cabbages and potatoes joined wheat in the crop fields.
Throughout our trip today were had a bird song concert- the cheerful chirp of little birds, the indignant squawk of pheasants, the mellow tones of the cuckoo and many more. It really seemed like it was a concert that went on all day.
Some observations from the day.
Favourite house name: hill top house
Worst house name : high winds
When cycling, never, ever, ever have coffee with breakfast, even if it's Lavazza Italian coffee. I had numerous occasions to regret it in the next few hours.
Every picturesque valley has a row of electricity pylons.
River side towns are picturesque, but there's always climb out of them.
Both bicycles and their riders functioned properly today. There were no problems or accidents and I managed to not fall over, for a change.
Leg index:5: tired
Saddle sore index: 3, rising to 5 later. There was a section of road with poor surface quality that shook me up.
The worst ache is between my shoulder blades, from holding the handle bars all day.
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