BISHOPS LEDEARD to KNOWLE: A Perfect Example of How One Can Never Tell How It Will All Work Out.
Miles: 47.5
Average Speed:
Hours: 9.30 am - 6 pm
Feet Up:
Feet Down:
The original title for this post was going to be "God bless the Somerset Levels" but events during the day took over, as you will see.
Well, the blister about which I have been joking is no longer a joke, and treatment for it in the form of blister bandaids became crucial. So we waited around til the pharmacy was open at 9 am. Of course, when I limped down there, I was told that the pharmacy "had not been open on Saturdays for years". Just to finish that thread off, I got the required bandaids at a town along the way.
After the usual full brekky, we set off along an A road in a pretty dense fog. We had our yellow wind jackets on, along with our flashing rear lights. Actually, it was not as bad as anticipated. The A roads often have a fairly wide area on the side on which we can ride, and also in general we have found drivers to be extremely careful and courteous.
The blessed thing was that the terrain was such that we could stay on our bikes and not have to walk and push them up a huge hill around every second corner.
It was a glorious day, weather wise. Across mellow, rolling countryside, across canals and drainage ditches, which could be very large, and lunch at a lovely Pub along the way.
Lunch Stop
All of this at quite high elevation, until as we rode out of a village, suddenly there below us were the Somerset Levels, and blissfully level they were .
Eventually, after riding along the side of a picturesque broad valley we descended into Cheddar, and what a change. It sits at the bottom of the spectacular Cheddar Gorge, and is completely overrun with tourists and the accompanying commercialism. This was a beautiful Autumn Saturday and the tourists were out in full force. We did not see one sign advertising cheddar cheese - do they still make it here?
We did indeed partake of this connercialism however, enough to have a lovely tea and ice cream event before tackling the gorge.
Delicious!!!!
We managed to ride all but about a third of the gorge. It was very crowded with walkers, bikers, rock climbers etc for at least 50% of the way . It is very beautiful.
Just as we were leaving one rest stop, out of the woods trudged two amazing looking people who at first, in the distance, looked to me like the lion out of the Wizard of Oz.. Eventually I could see that they had overalls on, were wearing helmets, carrying lanterns, ropes etc, and were covered head to toe in red clay. Several more emerged, and they turned out to be menbers of the Cheddar Caving Group. We had a great chat about each other's activities, each agreeing that we would stick to our own.
On across the fertile park-like top of the Mendip hills, with a spectacular descent down a very narrow lane into the Chew valley .
About five o'clock we found a pub - full. We tried several more pubs and B and Bs - all full. We kept getting the message that there was a wedding nearby, and all rooms were booked, and that rooms in the area are scarce anyway. We valiantly biked on, mentally devising worst case plans, when we came upon the Pony and Trap pub. In I went. Very nice looking place, on a lonely country lane, but no accomodation, only a restaurant. The staff were most helpful, making recommendations, starting to phone around. There was a lone man sitting at the bar watching all of this, and he eventually began chatting, making the usual assumption that we are "ockers", (Australians that is, for those of you who are not initiated!!) and began making accomodation suggestions also.
Eventually when I went outside to consult with JST , the man followed, introduced himself as Roy, and said that his wife Rachel is a Kiwi, and he would take us home for the night. Only thing would be that we should have dinner at the pub, which he said was very nice and he would arrange a table for us. After some discussion about what a surprise this would be for Rachel and some demurring from us, off we went. We biked around the road, he descended through his fields on his farm bike parked right beside the pub.
What wonderful hosts.
Rachel, who turns out not to have been born in NZ but has strong family history there, is an international dressage rider, breeder of horses, etc. She was totally gracious about the surprise!
John, Rachel and Roy
It turns out that the Pony and Trap is one of only about a dozen country pubs in Britain with a Michelin star, so our "tariff " for the night was to take then to dinner for a fabulous meal and great company - getting there and back across the fields.
It is hard to see, but this was our visit to the barn to move horses and wrap their feet after dinner. I will try to get a better version of this up later
A truly amazing adventure, with wonderful, generous people.
Thanks, Rachel and Roy.
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