Day 9 - Wellington to Western-Super-Mare - Wye?

Distance - 80 miles
Total distance - 746 miles
Maximum speed - 35.0 mph
(Unfortunately other stats were lost today)

Day 9 began with a 6:30am alarm call. We had an early night last, so decided an early start wouldn't hurt us. And it didn't. We were away by 7:45am, after something approaching a breakfast. After a few miles we made it to Hereford. Again we found ourselves on the A49, but a few miles south of Hereford we abandoned our old friend and became acquainted with the A466. This is when the road became pretty...and pretty steep. Initially the road was undulating, but it became increasingly steep, culminating in a huge uphill section. We disagreed on exactly where it ranked with regards our steepest hill, bit I personally think it was the most challenging since day 1. Either way the surrounding views made the climb worthwhile.

With more lovely scenery to be viewed we made our way to Monmouth, in doing so crossing into Wales. Unfortunately there was no sign for us to celebrate our passing into a new country, so we instead took a photo of the England sign behind us. We picked up lunch in Monmouth, which struck me as another lovely yet expensive-to-live town. With lunch bought we continued confidently in the knowledge that it was all downhill through the Wye valley to Chepstow, because Jonny told us so. It wasn't quite. Although we did drop off, there was plenty of uphill to keep us busy. By this time it was very warm, probably the warmest it has been all trip. But the fair weather made the scenery even more special. It was one of my favourite sections of the trip.

After criss-crossing the Welsh-English border a little more we made it to Chepstow. Here Jonny took the lead. Jonny lives in Bristol and did some of his training in the area. To begin he lead us across the older of the two Severn bridges, which shook rather worringly. After crossing back into England we stopped for lunch, before expertly navigating our way around some very busy roads with the use of national cycling routes. After winding through the industrial heart of Avonmouth and collecting plenty of industry in my eyes, we found our way back to some roads. Thereafter we got out heads down and soon chalked up the miles, before making it to Western-Super-Mare, where we had booked a cheap B&B for the night. After showering we went for food. I currently write while sitting on the sea front enjoying a pint of cider.

We made a few more milestones today. We topped 700 miles, but more importantly topped £1000 for Macmillan Cancer Support. We're hugely proud of this and it has made us even more determined to get to the finish line.

And to test us a little more, tomorrow it should rain fairly heavily in the morning, while much of the day will be spent pedalling into a headwind. It wouldn't be fun without a test.