Thursday June 27th - . Sunny in the morning, cool 10°C to 19ºC, rain and cold after 2pm, 9ºC
Rolling Hereford countryside
There's a few hills this way
Coffee in Hoarwithy on Wye
The beautiful Wye River
More Herefordshire countryside
My view for most of the day
Ian's view when he wants a photo
Which way now
Hand drawn ferry across the Wye
All aboard the hand drawn ferry
The beautiful Wye River
For all the Ross's of this world
Bridge on the River Wye
Swans on the River Wye
Quiet C road along the Wye
Tea break and rain over Wye River
9ºC and I'm freezing
Rain at Wimbledon, play suspended
Warm at last and time to blog
Another unexpectedly amazing day. No ancestors today, just a great bike trip along the beautiful Wye River to Whitchurch, across the Wye River on one of only two hand drawn ferries in England and back to Hereford. It started out sunny and cool but by 2pm on our way back to Hereford, the cold rain set in and the temperature dropped to 9ºC. We returned to our new room No 10 at Somerville House, having decided to stay the full 5 days at the one place, and needing to shift rooms as the 12 room B and B was full and needed a reshuffle to accommodate us for an extra 2 nights.
A room shuffle this morning. We decide to stay the full 5 nights at Somerville House and do loops out into the countryside instead of just 2 nights her at the beginning and end and do a large circuit around Hereford finding B and B's along the way. So we need to change rooms in this really nice B and B called Somerville house, to make the jigsaw work. It's a bit of a pain packing up and leaving our luggage in the lounge room, especially since we have a whole food larder in 3 bags plus wine to shift. But when we return to a much bigger room after a cold afternoon in the rain, it was worth it.
We were up early to pack and down to breakfast at 7.30. Bacon and eggs again, but so much better than the continental breakfast of bred and jam. We've decided to do a loop around the Wye River to the south, at the suggestion of the shop assistant at Trekkit, the local hiking store, who wanted to buy my valuable antique Ordinance Survey map from 1980. We loaded up one of Ian's panniers with lunch - corned beef tomatoes and cheese instead of the dried ham, and picked some quiet C roads out of Hereford to travel on the western side of the River Wye.
It's a mess getting out of Hereford with busy morning traffic, and we travel through the little villages of Hampton Bishop on the B 4224 and turn off at Mordiford to the C roads along the beautiful Wye River. Through Ballingham and on to the pretty Hoarwithy right on the River Wye, where we stop for a coffee by the mill stream. The day has warmed up, the English roses are in full bloom everywhere, and there's walkers out trekking through the public footpaths which are in abundance in this neck of the woods.
It's very hilly, up and down, and it's a good thing I don't have a full load on the bike. I need to walk up many of the steep hills. At 1pm we arrive in the village of Whitchurch and cross the main Highway to follow a small road that leads to a ferry across the Wye - something we were unaware of. Down a little lane to a flat open loop of the river with lots of campers and day trippers and on to a little sets of steps leading to a ferry. It's a hand drawn ferry from Symonds Yat West to Symonds Yat East and has been in use for hundreds of years linking the two sides across the River Wye. There's no time table, the ferry just comes and goes whenever the ferry puller sees a passenger. £3.60 for two people with two bikes, and we are on the other side with hundreds of people sitting around bars just lolling.
There's a bikeway along the River called the Peregrine Way to Monmouth and we follow that down the River Wye for a k or so, before turning back. We've already done 40k and the weather is supposed to turn nasty later on this afternoon. Need to keep moving. Back through the tourists having lunch by the Wye and on to Goodrich. The weather is starting to close in and we're starving. There's a seat by the road where we stop to have lunch, and then on to Ross on Wye. A quick twist through the centre of town and we are out on the Brampton Road, off the main highway, and winding our way along this narrow road by the river. It's misty rain and picturesque and the quaint narrow road passes through many three-house hamlets along the river and passes by a suspension bridge between Hole-in-the-Wall and Foy.
It's cold and getting colder and the misty rain has turned to heavier rain. It's 3pm and we have 20k to go but we need a cup of tea to warm me up. Under a broad tree overlooking the Wye. we stop to boil the Jetboil and warm up my hands. I put my Aldi jacket on underneath my rain jacket - that makes 4 layers and we put the foot down and pedal fast up and down hills until we reach the B4224 near Mediford, where we join the peak hour traffic into Hereford.
Faster and faster and colder and colder, we pedal up the highway, finally turning into Somerville house. My hands are so cold can't unclip my helmet nor unzip my rainjacket. I leave Ian to put the bikes in the garage while I make B line for the fire in the lounge. And there I stayed for 30 minutes getting my fingers back to normal. Into our new room, and it's bigger than last nights and we've been upgraded. We would have been happy for someone else to have been upgraded to save the hassle of packing this morning, but now we're here it's really nice, with a view out to the garden.
Most of Wimbledon has been washed out but the Djokovic and Reynolds match is undercover and still going. Time to wash our wet and muddy clothes and Bill, our host, offers us the use of the dryer. Yes please. He also offers us the dining room for our dinner. It's too wet and cold to cycle or walk back to town for a restaurant meal. And so we have a candle lit picnic in the breakfast room.
Back to the tennis, Djokovic has won. We devour a large hunk of Aldi Hazelnut chocolate then off to bed.
Picnic by candlelight