A lovely sleep in the Weatherspoon’s pub in Tewksbury followed by an American breakfast (bacon, sausage, hash browns, pancakes, maple syrup etc - yum!!).
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| I love pancakes! |
Uncle Andrew left us yesterday and Auntie Natalie joined us today, having driven down from Manchester with the family. Uncle John took their two daughters off for the morning with a plan to meet in Worcester.
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| Auntie Natalie and me stuffing our faces! |
We arrived in Worcester which seemed very pleasant and found and set about finding a cafe called Foley’s, recommended by Jules’ parents. Don’t be put off by the outside (a bright orange box attached to the cricket ground). You go inside and the whole back wall is a panoramic window overlooking the cricket pitch, with a big balcony too. Pity the only thing going on was grass cutting but it was pretty amazing. And the food was great too!
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| Cafe overlooking the cricket pitch |
Mum had driven to meet Uncle John at an ice cream factory and then they all came to meet us. We’d found a Costa in Kidderminster and we’re selling in when John and the girls arrived, closely followed by mum in the campervan. This was the first time we’d seen mum driving it and she already looked like a pro!
Auntie Natalie and family headed off home to Manchester while mum drove to a pub she’d found where we could park overnight. Thankfully it was only a couple of miles away because we had to cycle!
A lovely pasta meal was waiting for us on arrival and our first night in the van and a beer for dad!👍🏼
Day 8: Kidderminster to Stoke-on-Trent - 64.84miles 2589ft climbing
Today was meant to be a relatively straightforward 52 miles to finish in Stoke-on-Trent. We dropped (quite literally, it was a very steep descent!) onto the canal tow path. This was quite pleasant at first but after a few miles became muddy and bumpy and our progress slowed right down. After a few miles it became almost impassible but we were able to ride a lane almost parallel to the canal and then an old railway track cycle path which were much quicker.
We eventually ended up in Wolverhampton. I needed the loo so dad found the nearest toilet which was in a supermarket a couple of miles away and we had another diversion. Following the toilet break (and opportunity to top up the mini-egg supply😁) we hit the road, or more correctly, the canal path again. Wolverhampton seems to be criss-crossed by canals (dad says there are more in neighbouring Birmingham than in Venice. I’ve never been to Venice so I’ll have to believe him!).
We had a couple more diversions this afternoon just to frustrate things. We arranged to meet mum at lunch in Brewood but had to divert off the canal path going directly there due mud onto the road and added our first lot of a extra miles to our day. At least lunch was waiting though! The second came in Stafford which proved quite difficult to cross - google maps apparently doesn’t recognise a road as a one way street if there’s a cycle lane coming the other direction. So dad had to find a route around. Worse came later on though again as we were following a lovely cycle path north of Stafford which we found was closed due a housing estate being built. So we had to back track a couple of miles.
By this stage, mum had the camper in Stoke-on-Trent looking for somewhere we could spend the night. She didn’t have any success but did find the Rose and Crown Pub in Stockton Brook to the east of Stoke where we could park.
This turned out to be a lovely pub bit and extra 7 or 8 miles for us to ride and (thank you once again google maps) took us over a completely unrideable moor. It was fun but by that stage we’d done more than 60miles!
Food was waiting for us when we got to the camper however and a long sleep!
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| Trixie the Camper van also named 'Doris' by my friend Evie! |
A lovely pasta meal was waiting for us on arrival and our first night in the van and a beer for dad!👍🏼
Day 8: Kidderminster to Stoke-on-Trent - 64.84miles 2589ft climbing
Today was meant to be a relatively straightforward 52 miles to finish in Stoke-on-Trent. We dropped (quite literally, it was a very steep descent!) onto the canal tow path. This was quite pleasant at first but after a few miles became muddy and bumpy and our progress slowed right down. After a few miles it became almost impassible but we were able to ride a lane almost parallel to the canal and then an old railway track cycle path which were much quicker.
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| Some of the less muddy Canal path today |
We had a couple more diversions this afternoon just to frustrate things. We arranged to meet mum at lunch in Brewood but had to divert off the canal path going directly there due mud onto the road and added our first lot of a extra miles to our day. At least lunch was waiting though! The second came in Stafford which proved quite difficult to cross - google maps apparently doesn’t recognise a road as a one way street if there’s a cycle lane coming the other direction. So dad had to find a route around. Worse came later on though again as we were following a lovely cycle path north of Stafford which we found was closed due a housing estate being built. So we had to back track a couple of miles.
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| Mud - Cycle path???? |
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| More mud and definitely NOT a cycle path google maps! |
By this stage, mum had the camper in Stoke-on-Trent looking for somewhere we could spend the night. She didn’t have any success but did find the Rose and Crown Pub in Stockton Brook to the east of Stoke where we could park.
This turned out to be a lovely pub bit and extra 7 or 8 miles for us to ride and (thank you once again google maps) took us over a completely unrideable moor. It was fun but by that stage we’d done more than 60miles!
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| More stroking of animals! |
Food was waiting for us when we got to the camper however and a long sleep!
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| Yum! Pasta is my staple diet this trip! |
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