June 15, 2019
Stourport-on-Severn
The day started off with me tackling the replacement of the gear cable on Leigh's bicycle. The videos and instruction manuals from Rohloff are clear and unambiguous so even a fool like me could follow them. The challenge that I did have was that the cable damage was on the high gear cable right up near the twist shifter itself. This meant there was insufficient stiffness in the cable to push it out of the housing. In the end I had to remove the twist shifter from the handlebars and use another piece of cable to push the nipple that secures the cable out of the shifter.
After sortiong out the bicycle we headed up to an EE outlet to top up our mobile data. Then on to Gloucester Cathedral. Building started in the eleventh century hence the Norman arches and only finished in the fifteenth century which resulted in Gothic arches also being incorporated.
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There is a nice feel to Gloucester. I can understand why quite a number of South African rugby players are signed to the local professional team. Their head coach is Johan Ackerman who represented South Africa at rugby and athletics in his younger years and is now one of the more respected coaches in the Premier League.
From Gloucester we struck out on the A38, not too busy and it was great to be able to be cycling on good flat roads and eating up the miles, particularly given our late start today. Of course we ran into another Leigh again.
The next big town was Tewkesbury. If it wasn't so beautiful it would be almost a caricature of an English country town.
After about thrity two kilometers the heavens opened. Thankfully we were passing a pub called the Crown and Rose (one of the many so named). It wasn't the worst time to stop ans enjoy a lunch of hot chips and a small beer so we did. The pub had a very low ceiling - the barman had to crouch because he was too tall to stand up straight behind the bar. A few customers much taller than him had to stoop even lower. The rain lasted long enough for us to finish our small meal and enjoy our drinks before carrying on towards Worcester.
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Worcester seemed a lot busier than Gloucester and we made our way through it as quickly as we could. We had to leave our chosen route which was NCN 45 because the section along the river was completely flooded after all the recent rain. Then it was an ugly slog along the A449 to Stourport-on-Severn. We tried to get off it near Ombersley but ended ploughing through a narrow and rather muddy single track that soon had us back on the busy road again.
The campsite at Stourport-on-Severn, the Lickhill Manor Caravan Park is large and busy but the management, a Welsh couple called Nick and Michelle (not particularly Welsh names) bowled us over with their welcome and hospitality which even included a couple of cold beers on the house.
The sun has shone for most of the afternoon and it is great to be back in our tent without the rain chucking down. Die Kaap is weer Hollands.
Today's ride: 70 km (43 miles)
Total: 1,085 km (674 miles)
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