Day 4 - 20th July 2002

Today was a long awaited "easy day" with no fixed objective other than arriving in Shrewsbury in 3 days. Consequently we were slow to get up at the hostel and the 10am leaving time found us outside in the garden with a lot of packing to do. After getting organized and breakfasting on what food we had (mainly that old standby the Snickers Bar) we headed off to try our luck once again in the back roads of Somerset, aiming to avoid Taunton and find our way to Bridgewater. Today by dint of daylight, better signage and some serious study by Tim of the local OS map in the Youth Hostel we successfully zig-zagged our way past farms and villages, "enjoyed" a few climbs and made it out to North Petherton on the A38.

In Bridgewater we stopped at a Safeway (we always seemed to find Safeways whenever we needed a supermarket) for food but couldn't find anywhere more pleasant for a picnic than a park bench outside the Police Station. By this time the breeze was pretty stiff too but we could lie on a patch of grass and enjoy some still warm sunshine. Mark and Tracy went to check out the local tourist information while the rest of us relaxed, and relaxed, and relaxed. We were seriously wondering where they had got too when eventually they came back to say that there was no accomodation near Bristol (due to a big music festival) but that they'd found a place in Weston-Super-Mare, a reasonable 15 miles away.

The final stretch completed an easy and pleasant day and we found the guest house had a convenient gated garden for the bikes, so we took our time relaxing and showering before collecting our massive pile of laundry and heading into town. At the laundrette we were busy filling machines when the manager came in to tell us we were too late for the last wash! Luckily we were only just too late and he relented so we put in our money and headed for the pub. The men were soon back doing laundry and the manger proved fun to talk to as we got everything dried and packed. Mike went off on his own while the rest of us checked out this seaside resort town, but we were all back home at a reasonable hour.

Unfortunately we took our time here, knowing we were close to our destination and underestimating the trouble we'd have finding our way through the back roads of Somerset. By the time we'd been confused by the signing for a number of villages, Tim had succumbed to the first flat of the trip, and we'd finally been given good directions it was 10pm and getting dark. We finally found our way in very dark conditions by luck and a failing torch, but not before doing a couple of extra mile circuit of Crowcombe Heathfield.