Day 5 - Hereford to Shifnal ~ Erwan Rides Land's End to John o' Groats!

Thursday, September 11, 2014

Day 5 - Hereford to Shifnal

Day 5 of Land's End to John o' Groats!

A 'short' recovery ride today of relatively flat 60 miles to Shifnal in Shropshire. Today I've been riding with Jack from Las Vegas - ex-racer, now seasoned bicycle tourist. He's been on over 30 cycle tours, and counting! This is his second attempt at LEJOG after an unfortunate accident that forced him to abandon it in 2008 relatively early in the tour (in fact, it was where we made that crossing on the ferry..)

Lovely stop in Ludlow, one of the most beautiful towns I've seen so far in England. They also happened to be having their weekly produce market on, which gave a lively feel to the town centre.

Bob had a puncture today as we left Ludlow on a good distance of gravel. Most of us have come to expect a puncture at some point by now, instead of dreading it. Just a case of dealing with it and moving on!

I learned the hard way a few days ago that I should always carry spares on me. Thankfully I was saved a while later by one of the other cyclists, Barney, who was fortunately much more prepared than I was.

We have once again crossed the Severn River, this time over Ironbridge (now a UNESCO World Heritage Site). A few pictures later and we were off to continue our journey to Shifnal - soon discovering that we were the first ones in! It's far from a race but at the same time I feel like we've done well today. It's definitely the earliest I've arrived at our stop - about a quarter past 4 in the afternoon.

Looking at the map today we've certainly already covered quite a fair bit of the UK and it amazes me just how far we've come. I've finally created a Strava account so do follow me at http://www.strava.com/athletes/1262243 if you'd like to see our rides as we go along.

Let's see what tomorrow brings us :D