Day 5 - 21st July 2002

Not as pleasant as the rest of the trip this morning with a lot of cloud, but for once we got on the road by 9.30am. The first part of the day was pleasantly flat for once and we were soon approaching Bristol where we decided to go for the steep climb up to the Clifton Suspension Bridge (designed in the 1840's by one of the UK's greatest engineers Isembard Kingdom Brunel): well worth the effort for a great view and an easy ride afterwards.

By this time the day was getting warm again, good for the crowds flooding across the bridge for the festival. We found a quick route through Clifton and soon picked up bike route 4 that would bring us by back roads to the original Severn Bridge, another fine example of the suspension bridge art. We also enjoyed good views of the new Second Severn Crossing and across to Wales.

We decide to stop in Chepstow for food and to check with tourist information, but after progressing carefully down some very steep streets we decided we could do without the info if it involved dropping all the way to the river so we climbed back to a pub and found food.

Steep downhill in Chepstow

The ride out of Chepstow took us past the local racecourse before we found our way into the beautiful Wye Valley. We were strung out at this point (as there was only one road) so we missed the chance to stop at Tintern Abbey but we all enjoyed a fairly flat ride towards Monmouth.

In Monmouth it didn't take us long to find accomodation, the Kings Head hotel in the main square was newly renovated and good value. The only problem was lack of bike accomodation so we found an out of the way corridor for them. It took some effort moving them through narrow corridors and using the tiny lift. We showered and changed before walking down the main street to look at the town, and check out the food possibilities. Although small there was a good choice of fast food so after a pint in a pub near the Monnow Bridge we split up and bought our choice. All in all one of our favorite towns of the trip.