UNITED KINGDOM TRAVELS, JULY AND AUGUST 2002

BAMPTON TO GLOCESTER
   
Our routes just keep getting better and better.  The ride from Bampton took us out on little tiny roads.  No traffic, in spite of it being Sunday.  Don is finally getting more adept on his GPS, and I always have my great paper maps, just in case.  Using the two tools together, we worked out a wonderful route into the Cotswolds.  The map did show a nasty hill at the end of the day, but I decided I would get myself mentally prepared for it, and then I would just do it!
 
After about an hour and a half of cycling quiet little country lanes, we came down a hill and into a tourist town!  We were not expecting it, so it was a shock to see the huge buses, and hundreds of people and cars up and down the river.  Bibury is a very pretty little town, with a nice river running through it, and lots of huge trout in the river.  But, it is no prettier or nicer that many of the other towns we passed through that day.  We stopped for lunch at an inn outside of town, and then struck out again, with no regrets in saying goodbye to all of those people.

From Bibury we went through Foss Cross, North Cerney, Woodmancote, and Slutswell.  I just love these town names.  I voted to ride the extra mile to Goosey, just to say I had been there, but Don wanted to continue on course.  Each town we pass through has about 20 quaint stone cottages, covered in climbing roses, with yards full of colorful flowers.  I had to stop often to admire the many beautiful gardens. 

Much of our ride was over rolling Costwold hills, along narrow lanes lined with hedgerows and wildflowers.  Sometimes we would pass under an arch of trees reaching arms across the road, making a lacy, green tunnel for us to pedal through.  We pedaled on past Sparrowthorn, High Cross, Highgate Farm, Watercombe, up a steep hill to Brimpsfield, and then arrived at the dreaded town of Birdlip.  We were hot, and my face was a red tomato.  We were out of water after another day of English sunshine.  (Everyone tells us constantly that this is abnormal weather, but I know that it is just Don’s influence. He had the same impact to the weather in Scotland when we were there.  He has weather powers!)

Now was the time of reckoning!!!  Time for that big, big hill into Gloucester.  We telephoned Kate and Simon, our next pair of Maverick TV people, and alerted them that we would be arriving in Abbeymead in about an hour.  We got a friendly Birdlipian to fill our water bottles, and chatted about the ride, and the upcoming hill.  We joked about it being all down hill into Gloucester.  Then we were off.

It was all down hill to Gloucester!!  I had read the arrows on the map wrong.  I thought the arrows pointed up hills, but instead they point downhill.  We coasted out of the high green meadows and shady bowers of trees, and into the edge of Gloucester in 35 seconds!  All of that worrying, stewing and fretting for nothing.  So, we parked our bikes and lay down in the grass by the side of the road, and napped while we waited for our TV crew.
pictures and text Copyright 2002
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