Day 12: Crofton to Bath, UK: Ding, ding, Avon Calling

May 31, 2012

At 6:15 we folded our tent and joined Peter and Eileen Devenish in the kitchen of the farm house for breakfast. Of course we got to chat, and we found that they too had retired from farming the 500 acres of mixed grains. However they went into B&B and horse boarding.

Full English breakfast includes fries tomatoes, beans, sausage, one egg, toast, and sometimes cereal

On leaving the farm, we began to pass though a series of small villages. Just a couple of km apart, they scrolled past quite continuously. They had names like Easton Royal, Milton Lilbourne,Little Salisbury, Great Salisbury, and Pewsey.

Noble statue of King Alfred at the centre of town

We were especially attracted by the "lardy cakes" on the sign. Later in the day, we saw other vendors of this raisin studded sticky sweetbread.

As also described later, we find the British (unlike the Canadian health inspectors) are not hung up n unnecessary refrigeration. a milk truck (itself a novelty) went by, with the milk in the open.

Unique open milk truck, has no refrigeration

We are pon our way to see Stonehenge and other stone circles and ancient artifacts. But one popped up on the horizon quite suddenly. A quick internet check shows there are a few of these around, and they are probably bronze age. Spooky.

We suddenly spotted a white horse on a hillside

Instead of following the NCN route as it dipsy doodled around, we had taken some B roads. They provided an excellent tour of small villages. But in due course we returned to the canal path.

We return to the canal - now part of the Avon system

Along the canal we encountered our first fellow long distance cyclist, Simon. Though we spoke for a while, we clearly have a lot more to learn about this interesting man. I spotted him and his unique bike here on Youtube.

We popped off the canal and checked out the town of Devizes:

In the town of Devizes, we find a large market. Here Dodie, the former market baker compares notes

Crowds attracted by great strawberries and cheese

With our colourful bikes, we became minor celebrities

Lunch, including Port Salut cheese for 33p

Back on the canal, our first stretch was a long downhill, marked by a long string of continuous locks.

Caen Hill lock series at Devizes. There are 16 locks, one after another.

At the bottom we ran into Linda and Gerald, and their canal boat. For them, this is a six month vacation. Retired, they are canal boating, as we are cycling. We were able to learn a bit about the boats. The maximum lengtrh is 72 feet (dictated by the locks). Theirs is 60 feet. A good boat like this is worth 80,000 pounds!

Since first seeing a canal boat on a Morse episode, we now distinguish different qualities and shapes of them. Some are beautifully maintained touring boats and some are often derelict permanent live ins. It's just like RV's in the US and Canada.

One thing, there are hundreds and hundreds of boats in the canal. Here at a marina is a cluster of them.

Although going was pretty good on the B roads and along the canal, we were still cycling long hours and were nowhere near our goal, Bath. To keep our strength up, we stopped for a meal. Here is what we got:

Bangers and mash (right) at Bradford on Avon

We carried on along the Avon and the Avon canal, perversely pedalling along fairly smoothly but not drawing near to Bath all that fast.

It began to get dark, and we put on our flashers. The meal we had had helped a lot in keeping going, but Dodie, battered by the previous falls, was now cycling too far, too late, too soon in our tour. When we did get to Bath, just at dark, we were injected from the canal to a cityscape in which we had no idea where to go. The first hotel wanted 169 pounds for a night. Even battered and tired, that's too much. The next one was 89 pounds ($142), a huge amount by US standards. We took it, and got to hump all our bags up five flights of stairs to a small room. The man at reception helped, in a rather Fawlty Towers way, I felt.

I am glad I got Dodie into a bed, because the falls, the distance on rough paths, and the dark really are a bit much. The dressing on the elbow did not really work, and it was oozing a lot. That lead to some painful attempts at cleansing with water. Then lying with a towel to protect the bed sheets. There are a lot of other bruises and scrapes to cope with as well. I think all will be ok, but some recuperation now is in order.

Unfortunately, check out is 10 a.m. (it's now 1 a.m.) There may in fact be no vacancy here tomorrow. So we may be humping our stuff back down the five flights and be back on the street. We'll get it figured out, of course.

Today's ride: 70 km (43 miles)
Total: 302 km (188 miles)

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	0
Comment on this entry	Comment	0