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Published: August 3rd 2006
Putting the bikes together
at Heathrow's terminal 4 carpark just after 5.30amTo get our heads and bodies fit for cycling through Cuba and South America, we have cycled up part of the Fosse Way in England. It's an ancient Roman road that runs between Ilchester (near Exeter) and Lincoln, and is Britain's straightest road.
To start, however, we had to get out of Heathrow, and what more appropriate way of beginning a year's cycling trip than by riding away from the one of the world's busiest airports into London's morning peak-hour traffic.
We joined the Fosse Way at Bath, enjoying a flat stretch along a canal towpath past The George, where we had to pause for a thirst-quenching ale. A very steep climb took us out of the Avon Valley from the village of Batheaston, where we had stayed with Dave's friend Sian.
Parts of the Fosse Way are not navigable on laden touring bicycles, and parts of it are seriously trafficked primary roads. We avoided these, and kept to the many parts that are quiet, country roads edged by hedgerows full of birds and butterflies, and drystone walls. The byways took us through picturesque villages of stone houses with tiled roofs (in the south) giving way to thatch
Ready to roll
leaving Heathrow (as we headed north).
Travelling by bike is so satisfying because of unexpected delights. For example, we happened to wind up outside the Malmesbury abbey for lunch one day. As it turns out, Malmesbury is the oldest parish in England (or so the cheery volunteer in the abbey said). The abbey has been around since the late 7th century and, apart from a couple of hundred years from the time when Henry VIII dissolved Catholic churches and abbeys, has been used for religious purposes. Its tower, which was used to store gunpowder during the civil war, now houses two beautiful illuminated Bibles that were drawn by the Benedictine monks who lived here when the abbey was a major centre of European scholarship and learning.
We followed the Fosse Way up through Cirencester, the second most important centre in Roman Britain, the old market towns of North Leach and Stow-on-the-Wold.
From there we rode bicycles rather than cockhorses to Banbury cross, where we stayed with a fair lady and her gallant gent (Chris and Dave, Claire's family) at the nearby village of Chacombe. The views from the walls of Warwick Castle give an indication of the pretty countryside
here.
After a rest day it was back in the saddle and up the Fosse Way riding through Dave's stamping ground when he was a uni student at Leicester, to Nottingham, his home town. We are spending time now visiting family and friends of Dave's around Nottingham and Manchester before flying to Cuba.
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Tot: 0.091s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 7; qc: 26; dbt: 0.0653s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Alan
non-member comment
Well done!
You made it!!! It's actually happening, fantastic. stay in touch alan