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Mosaics under one of the bridges over the Bristol to Bath Rail Trail What a day, it had everything!
Including a complimentary breakfast which meant there were no excuses for not being fully carbo loaded before we started out. It took 5kms of suburban roads, and a number of hills before we hit the Bristol-Bath Railtrail. What a great way to get to Bath, It's paved the whole way, runs slightly down hill and is lined with foliage the whole way. There were riders, runners and walkers out on it enjoying their Sunday. And it was a cracker of a day too, temperature wise.
We got to Bath at about 10am and started to look around. One of the first things we did was stop to watch a Dutch band play in a square. The band was great, the drawing pin I rode over to get there wasn't. I claim the first real puncture of the trip. Hassles changing the tube due to (i) the leaking valve I had on a tube, and (ii) the MTB tube lent me to begin with, before finally getting the tube changed.
Bath itself has a lot to offer besides the Roman Baths and Aquaducts. The cathedral and churches are amazing, as is the Colosseum
(off houses) and the 100+year old plan trees they surround. And just down the road is the royal crescent, another impressive set of dwellings fronted by a massive grassed park area. Bath was pretty packed, and not surprisingly so, it would be a great place to spend a number of days to explore.
If the trip to Bath was impressive, leaving was even more so. Were were on Bike Route 24 and it kept us on paved bike trails lush with foliage but most amazing was the two tunnels that took us through the surrounding hills. One of the tunnels took almost 6 minutes to ride through!
We had 50kms to ride after Bath, a big day. The trail certainly helped, but there was some monster hills as well. Hauling 30+ kgs of bike and panniers up 14% gradients was not fun. I guess this is the "We'll train when we get there bit".
I had set the route to Warminster, our stop for the night. We were making steady progress but we tire towards the end of the day. With about 14miles to go we passed through the town of Frome. As we came to a
road crossing there was a walker also waiting to cross. A conversation ensued. (Saint) Miles was going for a walk on a Sunday, he was a cyclist too. He asked where we were going and we told him the name of the pub we are staying at and he said he knew it well and we didnt have far to go. Now this made me question why I thought we still had 25kms to go. As it turns out, there are to George Inns in Warminster and we were heading to the wrong one. The one we wanted was only 12kms away. St Miles was thanked profusely and we set off on our way. Unfortunately there was another massive climb before the 5kms downhill to Longbridge Devrill in the shire of Warminster. Still not used to how the Poms classify places. Jeff checked later and we could have taken an even shorter route.
The George Inn is great. We have a large room which is very well equipped and and a great price. The fact I lost the room key about 5 minutes after it was given to me did hold us up getting in the room for about
10 minutes, but that's another story.
Still haven't worked out were tomorrow is taking us. That's the dinner discssion.
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