I had a leisurely breakfast because it was a fairly cold morning and I didn’t want to be rushed at all. It was very quiet at the campground – not many people around, but I had a good chat to the old guy running it. He’s 84 years old and doing very well.
Because I went off course by five kms yesterday to get to the campground I had a different route to get back to the eurovelo from yesterday. I have to say that from the bit I’ve seen, the roads and bike routes here, are a long way behind Europe.
Last night, Timo had told me about a nice pub and campground near Cirencester and I worked out that was about 80 kilometres away so I thought why not. Why not do that today so I don’t have to cook dinner.
Apparently they have nice food so that’s what I did. As I was working all of that out, the Sun came out everything looked pretty good.
The first 15kms took me to Hungerford and it was just beautiful English countryside and blue skies all the way. I stopped in Hungerford and had some coffee and toast and while I was in there the clouds came over and all of a sudden, it looked terrible again.
That’s how it looked when I came out of the cafe, and it continued to change over the next couple of hours. I guess it’s really just the season where the weather doesn’t know what it wants to do and changes a few times a day. I’ve just got to get used to that and not let it bother me.
The next town was Swindon, and I got the best falafel roll I’ve ever had, rode to the edge of town and ate it. The fun started after that. At least it wasn’t on an empty stomach. Workers had closed the bike path out of town for upgrades, but there wasn’t a really obvious alternative or signed diversion. So,I tried a few options, but the closures extended a long way. I ended up getting lost on forest paths and only rejoined the correct route about an hour afterwards.
The rest was uneventful as I approached Sappington. I didn’t realise that the pub / campground was at the bottom of a steep hill. I ever want to ride down a steep hill unless I’m sure it’s where I want to go, so I checked – it was correct – then realised that tomorrow morning would be difficult. But that’s tomorrow, I had a downhill to enjoy ,
The pub is really nice, the camping area is really nice and the couple who run the pub, Rita and Brian, are just great. With a simple campground, sometimes the facilities are run down, but here, the shower was hot and the rest was spectacularly clean. It’s clear that they look after this place and care about it.
I had lasagne with a pint of Wadworth 6X. It’s been forty years since I had one of those. And it was superb. I was also warned that deer might come through the area in the middle of the night, but I had no idea what to expect.
