Friday June 20, 2014

Our longest day to date cycling in England.  We had a short day yesterday and we felt we needed to make up some distance due to our meanderings in Cornwall, Devon and Somerset.  We took the A49 all the way, there was no headwind today and it was a head down and go kind of day. Again, for the most part on the A49, there was a shoulder.  Although, we did stop in Church Stretton for lunch.  We popped into the Outdoor Store and chatted to the owner, who had “done” LeJog in May this year.  He had a medal to prove it.  However, he had only cycled from Lands End to Church Stretton, his friends had carried on and completed the ride and got him a medal.  He couldn’t afford to take the time away from his store to do the whole ride.

We decided to cycle through Shrewsbury to our campsite as I didn\’t want to go on the A5 – a very busy dual carriageway (think Highway 11) with little in the way of a shoulder.

We booked into the most expensive camp site to date 26 pounds per night and we are staying two nights – a rest day tomorrow.  The site is lovely, the facilities are clean but there are no picnic tables in the camping area.  There are two picnic tables near the office and facility block so that is where we had dinner and will have breakfast tomorrow. The site is located close to a ParknRide bus station which will take us into downtown Shrewsbury for 2.50. There is also a supermarket within walking distance as well.

Because of our alfresco dining we actually got to chat to some fellow campers, usually they are locked away in their own camper or caravan and we don’t get to chat to them like we did in NZ or Australia.

As we were having dinner there was a fella walking his miniature dachshund – it had very short legs, I commented on his little dog and the owner indicated that he was a bit timid.  After he had passed Ralf said “I would be timid too if my willy was that close to the ground”  I almost choked on my glass of wine.