"Taking it easy?"

These immortal words were spoken to us at our brief stop in Wales, 12 miles before today's endpoint. It doesn’t feel like we are taking it easy. This guy was travelling with his friend for 3 days carrying little to no luggage, while said friend did his own LEJOG trip. I suppose he thinks 50miles a day is a ride in the park! I can assure you that it isn’t. We are feeling the effects of our 250 miles. Our legs have become to know and resent the sight of a new hill, giving a little groan as they effort up the steep sections. But up the steep sections we do go. After a little warm up on flat-ish ground we met an almighty hill. It had everything. It was steep. It was long. It was beautiful. At this point I should note that I regard each hill with a certain fondness, once I have made it over the brow. As such, I do not yet have a fondness for any of Scotland. Will claims that this was no Devon or Cornwall affair, but maybe I have gone gradient blind from hours on the bike.

We were suitably rewarded at the top with a fantastic view, of blue skies filled with chartered flights of budget airlines settling into Bristol airport. Descending towards the city we picked up some speed, and brake pads from Halfords. We did not venture into Bristol but just brushed by on our way up to Avonmouth. This section was flatter with water never far from sight, though none could be found in our bottles. Eventually we made it to the Severn bridges. Doing our little bridge weave, we went under one then over one and into Wales.

Lucky for our egos, we didn’t just see downtalkers in Chepstow. Within moments of getting off the bridge we ran into Robin and Donald travelling at just our kind of speed. Coincidentally we had met them back on day 2 in Okehampton. Their route took them to near Wellington, and then Cheddar the following night. Sound familiar? Well, it seems like we have ourselves a pair of shadows, also taking it easy.