LEJOG Blog

We awoke to another fine day - clear skies and some spilt-milk mist clinging to the valley floor below. The Mount is another very fine B & B, and very reasonably priced.

We wanted to buy a replacement spare tyre today, but we drew a blank in Ludlow. Even the well-stocked Pearse Cycles, well out of the town but en route along the Fishmore Road, couldn't supply exactly what we wanted.

Again the day began with climbing as we threaded our way through the end of Wenlock Edge, and again our speed stayed down. It was a very pretty ride - one of the highlights was coming upon a trio of donkeys, one of whom deigned to allow me to stroke his nose. Has anyone ever done LEJOG on a donkey, I wonder?

The downhill run toward Leebotwood was one of the most exhilarating so far. Never so steep that the bike started to run away, and never completely straight, I remarked to Jan that it reminded me of a bobsleigh course.

We arrived at Condover at about 1.20 and sister-in-law Andrea provided us with a good lunch of soup, bread, cheese, fruit cake and apples. An hour later we were on our way, looking for Stan Jones' Bike Shop in Shrewsbury. We found it with no difficulty and they had exactly what we wanted - a Schwalbe Marathon Plus in 26" x 1.75". It seems that the walls of the Schwalbe tyre are much more robust than are those of the Panaracer Pasela. We had a good chat with the salesman - a friendly and knowledgeable guy. I'd rate Stan Jones as "very good" in the Bike Shops' League.

There was a grinding climb out of Shrewsbury which lasted several miles, but eventually we reached the B-road to Wem. We had to be alert here as the Council were clearly intent that everyone should be funnelled along the A49 to Whitchurch, and we nearly missed the turning. However, a look at the map soon put us right and now that the roads were generally flatter we were able to maintain a pretty good turn of speed.

After Whitchurch we were onto the minor roads through Wrenbury, which was a relief after 20 or so busy miles from Shrewsbury, in which quite often a queue of traffic would form behind us as we were grinding up some hill or other at 5 m.p.h.

The last stretch into Nantwich was pretty easy and Jan was able to take a phone call from her sister Helen as we rode along. How nonchalant!

We found the Red Cow, our digs for the night, but were very disappointed to discover that they were not serving food, which I had been led to believe that they would be at the time I made the booking. We had arranged to have a drink with Alan (Alans on ACF) and Marge Smith and we did so, spending a pleasant hour or so in their company, but finally the need for sustenance became a priority so we went to a Chinese restaurant. Very pricey but quite tasty.

During the meal I took the opportunity to phone my sister Tricia and to wish her a happy birthday. I won't say how old she is but I did ask her if she had got her bus pass yet...