Wednesday 9 October 2013

Day 11 - Bridges Youth Hostel Long Mynd to Kilpeck Church

Day 11 - Bridges Youth Hostel Long Mynd to Kilpeck Church

forgot to take photos of Bridges youth hostile as I left (hostile is a little strong just not a place I felt comfortable with)

The sat nav took me down a road that became narrow and headed towards a farm, took some photos of a young calf that was very inquisitive..
Beginning to smell a rat as this road looks to only go back where I started..  As it turned out I had gone on a 4 mile excursions, I had visions of looping the Shropshire hills forever having to stay at the Bridges Youth Hostel night after night unable to escape...  in the end i had to ride straight past the
bridges youth hostel again. please no one look, im invisible no one can see the idiot ride past... especially please god don't let the guy with the maps see me... couldn't bear it.. (funny how even athiests say please god)...

took a photo by wentney church, then some hill shots just after the church, the hills here were killers, not long but just so many up and down switching back and forth.. i just could not haul myself and the bike up all of them and for the first time resorted to walking up them..  My legs were taking a serious battering early on..  At the rate I was going i would make my next stop sometime next month... I WAS SERIOUSLY SLOW...

I came across a delightful store called "Mortimores Country Store", it announced it was run by the community of Wigmore Village.  I went in and a lovely lady who's name I didn't get, (she left before I had a chance to ask)  served me to an ice lol and a bunch of tip tops.   She was replaced by two elderly gentlemen volunteers, both full of beans and mad as a bag of frogs...  The first announced his name as Alvin and said the second gent was called Norman, at which point Norman butted in and said im called "NORMSKI", I hate being called norman...  we took photos shared some water and I was on my way again.   Really wonderful, the local shop was given up by a supermarket chain because it was not profitable so the community came together took it over and staffed it with volunteers.

This place is crawling with pheasants, when they see a bike they don't fly off they run zigzagging down the road doing a road runner impression.. and they are seriously fast, those little buggers can move. eventually they do fly off probably when their legs have given out.. nearly had an accident, one specimen turned and flew at me in a blind panic I ducked and it bounced off my shoulder i stayed on the bike but it crashed into the hedges... you couldn't set that up for a film...

Suddenly I seemed to come out of the Hills and had a massive downhill ending up at a Railway Crossing after the Craven Arms Business Park.  Took photos and moved on into Craven.  This is the worst village I have visited so far by a mile, I tried the garage and 5 cafe's asking if I could charge my phone while I ate, my answers ranged from oohhh no our bos wouldn't like it, to a rude little lady who said no, and when I answered (ok no problem I will have to try somewhere else) she said "suit yourself I don't care"  I replied "your a real bag of charm aren't you" two truckets sniggered one coughing on his coffee lol, the sign outside said ALL ARE WELCOME ha!!

Eventually I did find a lovely little cafe tucked away out of site staffed by two lovely ladys falling over themselves to be nice and finding me a spare plug :-)  I was joined by a mother and daughter who had returned from dog walking in some "smaller fells in the lake", they both were archetypal english ladies of proper breeding.  The daughter in her 40's to 50's was full of Gosh and ohhh how exciting... I wanted to get out my hockey sticks or cricket whites (im not making fun here, they were two genuine lovely ladies who chatted with me).

Eventually I got out onto A roads, for some reason I stopped taking photos, I was seriously behind time,  I had left the YH at 8:00 it was 12:30 and I had only covered 10 miles and i was feeling more like 60 miles already!!  I hit the A roads and pushed on, got to Hereford had a coke from the Co Op and pushed on, witnessed a guy run into the back of a motorbike in Hereford left my details and pushed on.

I wanted to see kilpeck church but I was also meeting friends and family so simply had to move my butt.. head down and i ignored the fatigue arriving near the Kilpeck in around 5:00.  Unfortunately the Kilpeck in and other B&B whose number I had were both very very expensive and not what i wanted or was prepared to pay.  I resorted to knocking a few local doors asking for the location of a "reasonable B&B"  Eventually i came to a house where the guy answered in nothing but a red noel coward dressing gown... I am hoping that he was wearing underwear, he spoke like a retired major, What was he doing in a dressing gown at this time... he was probably parading round in stockings.. each to their own... British Madmen etc..

I eventually found that the big white house at the end of a little lane called Trelough House does B&B but they don't put a sign up.  The were both at work so I sat on their steps to get my breath when they turned up, I got a B&B inc breakfast for £45.00.  Once inside the owners Garry and Lorraine Hesp were probably the nicest most welcoming couple running a B&B ever.  Lorraine showed me my room and shower then insisted on scrubbing the shower and the floor before I used as someone else had been in it?? I looked and it was clean enough to eat out of... I decided to wait as it would make Loraine happy, the sat me down in the lounge with coffee and top quality choclate cookies, so this was what heaven was like...

The washed my clothes for me at no charge and dried, my friends and family turned up, loved the house it was full of wood and lovely old pictures yet modernised without destroying the character, there was a lovely 13 yr old chocolate labrador that ran round with a duck that had a duck squeaker in it, mad as a hatter and adoreable with bundles of energy.

My friends and family arrived we headed to the Killpeck in who had a similarly mad spaniel there who seemed to adopt me, a quick pint and a chocolate pudding and we headed off, not before going to see Kilpeck church at night... Sadly I had to leave in the morning so this would be my only chance, I regret it as aparently it has some of the oldest Saxon carvings etc.. some of them I was told were downright pornographic IN A CHURCH VICAR!!!

it was a very small church from the outside, took photos and then headed back to the B&B saying goodbye to friends and family.

up to bed for a coffee and some more delicious cookies in a jar that was destined for emptying...

update blog and sleep time.




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