Day 10 - 28th September

The Indian summer continues, but I am continuing to wear my over-trousers. They aren't very fetching but as the bike and I function as a large fly swatter for several hours a day I would rather look untidy than scrape lots of fly debris off my ordinary trousers - cleaning my helmet is bad enough.

Went across the original Severn Road Bridge - it is now on the M48, the M4 uses the new Severn River Crossing which is a cable-stayed bridge. The original bridge is a suspension bridge, and for a while was the longest in the world. It was a revolutionary design, using a much lighter deck than the Forth Bridge, achieving its stiffness from an aerodynamic box girder construction and inclined rather than vertical hangers. It was a dramatic ride with long hazy views of the estuary and the tide swirling out. I hadn't realised that my route to Weston-Super-Mare also took me underneath the spectacular Clifton suspension bridge, designed by Brunel but built after his death.

Like yesterday the roads were busy at first, but quietened down as I got further along. I diverted off the A roads to go through the Exmoor national park with steep 2nd gear hills and tight bends. Good views of great scenery, but most memorable were the bits of road where the hedges had grown into mature trees which met overhead, so it was like riding through a dappled green tunnel.

Looking down to Minehead

Exmoor

Later on I saw a couple of trikes, the first was black being ridden by an older gentleman dressed in black, no helmet, grey beard and hair tied back in a pony tail. He was followed by his companion, also of a certain age. Her trike was bright pink as were her leathers and she had long white/blonde hair. We passed too quickly for me to see if it was Billy Connelly and Pamela Stephenson - I suspect it wasn't.

I managed to drop the bike twice today. First was while loading up, the pavement I was parked on sloped more than I realised. The second was when pulling over to let someone pass on an Exmoor hill - the front wheel slid sideways on some loose surface as I stopped. In both cases the pannier with my dirty clothes in prevented any serious damage, though the second time my foot was also acting as a shock absorber - also no serious damage.

Arrived in Wadebridge to find a note on the door asking me to ring a mobile number - I was then directed to where my key was hidden so I could let myself in and make myself comfortable. Later on I was able to put my bike in their garage next to their restored 1927 Austin 7 - which has a less powerful engine than my bike.

194.3 miles today in 5 hours 30 minutes. Total distance 1636.8 miles.