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June 28 Wednesday 28º C Bicycle touring England sunny My throat still hurts. It pains me incredibly to swallow (wincing). In the morning, four individual walkers go past our two-person Kelty bicycle touring tent. These British are great walkers. They have wonderfully developed calf muscles to show for it. We pack up our bicycle touring gear and cycle off toward a two-mile suspension bridge that crosses the Severin River. When we arrive at the Severin River, we are happy to discover that bikes have a special lane across. We bravely cycle off, diligently following the marked cycle signs, but, somehow, get lost and end up, of all places, going east on the M4 towards London! The road we want to get back on is fenced off. We hoist our fully loaded touring bicycles over a guardrail and push our bikes down to the road and then lift our bicycles around an end section of a chest-high fence. Somewhere along the way, Sharon gets seriously messed up with stinging nettles. Huge white welts immediately break out on her legs. In Cardiff, across the bridge, we hit a supermarket and lay in the shade eating chocolate ice cream liberally sprinkled with cinnamon. There is a wonderful old castle by the tourist info. Three elderly cyclists on Cannondales arrive. They're inside exploring the cool walls of the castle when we cycle off, heading up a steep path into the hot humid sweaty afternoon. At a gas station in Wales, we stop to fill our camp fuel bottle with gas. The attendant refuses to fill it, stating it is against the law to sell less than two litres, as the pump isn't accurate below that amount. He shows me where it says so right on the pump. I offer to pay for two litres. No, he says, it's against the law. Sharon says if the pump is not accurate for under two litres, it's not accurate for over two litres either. He still says no. That's what I call a Welsh welcome to Wales. Guess the Welsh are just picking up where the Belglums left off? We cycled across the street to a self-serve station. I filled my fuel bottle with less than two litres of petrol and paid for less than two litres of petrol. We cycle off and before long we are lost on country lanes that turn into bushwhacking. We set up our excellent Kelty bicycle touring tent in a forest not far from a busy A road. |
