Tuesday 9th July: Day 10, Hereford to Rooks Ridge, 89 miles

I'm blessed with another sunny morning and it looks set to continue for the rest of the week. 24C today. I'm having extra porridge this morning as after yesterday I want to try to get well beyond Bristol, hopefully near Cheddar. Trouble with this campsite is that it's right next to the A49 to Hereford and all I can hear is the drone of traffic (especially the lorries) so not exactly hurrying to leave.

Successfully found a quiet back route into Hereford and although I wanted to see the town I pressed on and promised myself lunch and a drink in Monmouth.

The A466 forms a straight line from Hereford to the Severn Bridge at Chepstow and is obviously traffic heavy so I took the A465 SW to Abergavenny which was fast and quiet, then the B4347 at Pontrilas which closely follows the English / Welsh border all the way to Monmouth. This turned out to be a great choice: following the valley edge up small hills, sharp down sections - hitting another 40 mph and fast flats, arriving in Monmouth for a deserved slap up lunch. Well, tuna & sweet corn baguette from Greggs to eat by the river and washed down with something suitable from the Gatehouse behind me.

From here I opted to stay on the B4293 to Chepstow immediately cursing my decision as I zig zagged up a hill for 3 miles. Of course the upside of this is always the downside - if you know what I mean, highest gear, head down, watch out for the drains & potholes and go for it! All the way to the Severn Bridge and a huge landmark in more ways than one.

Then on to Bristol where I got lost in the city centre for the umpteenth time. It should have been quite simple. A38 in, A38 out but it seems none of the signs in the centre have any road numbers on, just local names. It took a while to get out even with Google maps.

Lost in Bristol again.

Once back on the A38 the cycling was good and eventually a brilliant down hill saw me hit the highest speed of the trip so far; 44 mph,  and then kept on going as far as I could before it got too late.

I found Acacia campsite through ukcampsites.co.uk just a few miles down the road and was a friendly (when confronted with an oily sweaty cyclist at 9pm) relaxing stop with good facilities.