Lands End to Timperley, Tewkesbury to Ironbridge

Tewkesbury promised a luxury night at a real campsite - hot showers, nice flat grass, drinking water that didn't need filtering...sheer heaven.

Well it would have been had the campsite been open, the campsite staff were adamant that I couldn't camp. This was serious, I was really quite knackered  - and cold. I'd been running on empty for the last few miles and I needed food inside me.

I must have looked as exhausted as I felt, eventually the campsite staff took pity on me and allowed me to camp. Facilities were limited but a loo, washroom (with oodles of hot water) were made available - and the grass was smooth. I'm extremely grateful to the staff, they'll never know - one condition of staying was that I needed to be away very early next morning, and I was.

First stop was Wetherspoon's for a decent breakfast with oodles of Lavazza filter coffee. Suitably refueled, and with a route in mind, I pedalled off towards the dark and dismal badlands of The North.

My plan was to keep to quiet lanes as much as possible but sections of major roads were quite unavoidable. Target destination for the day was Ironbridge YHA, although if I didn't get that far I had a couple of quiet campsites in mind - campsites that I knew were open ☺

Highlights of the day's ride: the English countryside, the quite lanes, sunshine, exploring Worcester, Kidderminster and Bridgnorth, glorious views of the Malverns...and much more.

The not-so-good bits: the strong and cold breeze, some damned big hills (that always seemed to be UPHILL), bits of unpleasantly busy main road.