Friday 21st September 2012 – Day 40
Lavernock – Severn Bridge (Travelodge)
48.08 miles
1255 feet climbed
2014 calories burnt
Cumulative miles cycled round the coast = 2,585.86 miles
Please remember that Kirsty Medlock and her Dad, Stephen cycled the 4,000 miles round the coast of Britain to raise £10,000 for Clifton’s Children Society (CCS) Adoption, the agency that facilitated an adoption for family friends. Please follow this link to donate as much as you can http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/cycling4adoption
Many, many thanks in advance!
Diary – Day 40
We had an incredibly peaceful nights sleep in our lay-by; no one else came to park up so we were left undisturbed. Although we woke early yesterday, I think the 86 miles we cycled took its toll and we only got going by around 9:00am. As I was to have a job interview at 5:00pm today, Pat had helped me book a Travelodge so I could have some space to conduct it in. This also meant we had to ensure we were at the hotel, just the other side of the M48 Severn Bridge by no later than 3:00pm so I could have preparation time.
Dad and I followed the route I had plotted on my Garmin through Cardiff and into Newport. It was a pretty non-descript route, following an arterial road into and through Cardiff. For once, the journey through the city was without incident. It’s usually pretty difficult to get through inner city roads, as you’re navigating on such a small screen with so many roads, plus the traffic is heavier and you have to be hyper aware of all that’s round you. On top of that you’re cycling roads that you have never cycled on, so you’re not familiar with the lanes and one-way systems – but Dad actually said how smooth I’d managed to get us through!
Unfortunately, as we were just out of Cardiff, cycling through an industrial area there were lots of aggressive men in white vans. It amazes me how brutal they can be with their driving around a female cyclist; I mean really… what can I do to hurt them? Possibly scratch their precious van? I would love to make them cycle whilst I drove like a maniac near them, that would soon make them realise just how unnerving and scary it is in the conditions they make me cycle in.
When we got to Newport we found the NCN Route 4 and followed that around the coast to cross the M48 Severn Bridge. There is no way of crossing the M4, no cycle routes or anything, so if you are planning to do the coast, you’ll have an extra 10-miles to do just to get in/out of Wales!
Mum managed to get in a great position to take photographs as we cycled across the Severn Bridge in to England. Then when Dad and I hit the ‘Welcome to England’ sign, we stopped to take a couple of snaps to document this momentous occasion. Once we’d taken the photographs, we got on our way to head round the corner to the Travelodge. Dad realised he had a darn puncture – probably from the shrubbery that was around when we were taking the photographs. Luckily, we had finished cycling for the day and we were only around the corner so he just cycled on the flat.
We arrived at the Travelodge around 1:30pm and by the time I’d had lunch and got my stuff ready I was in the room prepping for my interview around 2:30pm. All went well with the phone interview; we’ll have to see how it goes (fingers crossed).
Unfortunately we had some news from my brother that he was in hospital, so we held off cooking anything to hear what may happen. In the end we found out that he was being kept in over night for observation so we had BURGER KING, as we had no food and it was the only ‘restaurant’ (in the loosest of terms) we could find.
Tomorrow I’m up early as I have a radio interview at 7:40am, and then we’re off to Portishead to meet with the wonderful people at CCS around 11:00am! Sorry for the short entry tonight everyone – as you can imagine, it’s been a rather tough day! Peace out!
roundtheedge 