Day Three - Nailsworth to Ellesmere

What an incentive to get on my bike even though I am really hurting after the 2 days I just did.  I am going back Home for the night to see my precious !!  So I was up at 5 am !! Started out at 6:45 AM.

The last 2 days have taught me that I really need to get a good start in the morning as time passes so fast and I get panicked about finishing early enough to get all the things done to close off that day and prep for the next.  This is turning into a military operation I did not foresee.  I reckon I need a good 8 hours sleep plus the 3 it takes to get all the things done like eating, showering, washing clothes, getting them on the way to dry and prepping bike for next day.  I really did not want to do anything in the mornings except get up, breakfast, brush teeth, get dressed and start cycling.

This trip gave me loads of opportunities to re-think my life and break myself down to the bare bones and rebuild myself. The latter part of the week will show you in a lot more detail what I mean by this. Bare with me or stop reading it. This has been the most epic adventure of my life so far and as I sit here recalling each day please remember I know the ending and the journey I made to it so it might not all make sense just yet.  It reminds me now of my favourite story The Lord of the Rings. Here is a line that came back to me time and time again....

“It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end… because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing… this shadow. Even darkness must pass.” 
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Two Towers

So today was going to be a fairly easy one compared to the two last days. It proved, thank you person up there on the cloud looking down on me, to be exactly that.

One more big city to get through was Gloucester which again proved to jinx me as I took so many wrong turns.  I was after the A40 to get me in the direction of Highnam which headed north then towards Newent and Leominster.  A place I had heard of as it was virtually in Shropshire !!  Woohoo.  I felt like Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee on the way back to the Shire !!  There really is no place like home.

A quote came into my head from the book....

“Do you remember the Shire, Mr. Frodo? It'll be spring soon. And the orchards will be in blossom. And the birds will be nesting in the hazel thicket. And they'll be sowing the summer barley in the lower fields... and eating the first of the strawberries with cream. Do you remember the taste of strawberries?” 
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

One landmark that i was looking forward to which does not look much to you is this junction in Newent, deep in the Forest of Dean area.  Lovely part of the country.

The reason is that this is the exact point that me and my mate Clayton Perdell rode through on our side to side bike ride. We rode from St Davids in West Wales to Lowestoft in East England in 2013.
That day we did 132 miles all the way from Abergavenny to Bedford !!
So if you believe in buried treasure there is a cross on the map which goes right over the left hand lane of this road just outside Newent.  Happy digging treasure hunters.

Is it just me or is this terrain starting to remind me of home....

Hello Herefordshire, neighbours to my shire.  Lovely to meet you xx

I got a bit excited at this sign.  I danced around it a bit and made a fool of myself.  Woohoo nearly home.  I forgot to add another 17 miles on to my house. So 56 miles to go !!!

Now even more excited & more dancing around a signpost....

A little shortcut through the gorgeous town of Shrewsbury.  This is Fish Street and Grope Lane (I know, what fantastic names for streets) This was used as the set for Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol, the best version with George C Scott.  The house on the left was Bob Cratchits House in the film.

So I got home to Ellesmere, to my family. I won't go into any more detail but lets just say I was "very very very happy"

Stats: 108 miles ridden, just under 4,000 feet climbed. 6279 calories burned.  Time riding was 7 hours at an average of 15.5 miles per hour.  Quite impressed with that speed given the way I felt.

Another from Lord of The Rings...

“But Sam turned to Bywater, and so came back up the Hill, as day was ending once more. And he went on, and there was yellow light, and fire within; and the evening meal was ready, and he was expected. And Rose drew him in, and set him in his chair, and put little Elanor upon his lap.
He drew a deep breath. ‘Well, I’m back,’ he said” 
― J.R.R. Tolkien