Day 4 - Cheddar to Leominster

We left cheddar this morning in blazing sunshine and quickly sweated off all our suncream with a sharp climb to Shipham. 

Progress was good through Bristol, if a little tedious as we ploughed along the A4.  We then dodged death battling with hgvs on a busy roundabout heading into Avonmouth, we all got through though and are still baffled by their lack of lane discipline! Just before heading over the bridge we said goodbye to Mrs Thompson and hello to Mr thompson as the van drivers changed over.

The Severn crossing was really quite exciting,  whoever heard of a bike lane on a motorway? It was jolly though and the bridge didn't fall down, an added bonus.  Before long we were at Tintern abbey for our lunch break, a lovely setting. I had a mini breakdown over lost sandwiches but all was resolved and we merrily chomped away before setting off on what I had been told was a flat afternoon.....

The afternoon was far from flat and really quite eventful. I can't entirely remember the order of things but we saw an articulated lorry stuck in a village which will keep the locals talking for years, we were tempted to stay and watch the recovery but decided there were still many miles to cover.  We then had a steep descent followed by our first puncture of the trip, on the tandem, where else?! Expertly controlled from 40 mph to a neat stop and a speedy inner tube change over.

We then had a horrendous finish to the day where the roads just seemed to go on and on, each time we reached a settlement we were hopeful it was Leominster, but alas it wasn't, until it was.

So here we are, 8 very tired and very full cyclists!