Chester to Shrewsbury

Thursday 7th April 2011

44.97 Miles 3hr 42mins 12.08mph Average Speed 630.55 Total Miles

After a good night sleep and a cooked breakfast, Dad cleaned and re oiled the bikes as they were squeaking a bit from all the rain. Speaking of which it was spitting as we left despite the weather report telling us it was sunny outside. Just as I was about to leave I was resetting the Speedo for the day when I realised it had managed to change itself into kmh from mph and it was now in German rather than English. It took me a good 5 mins to change it back and I have no idea how it happened!

Today was a relatively easy day with no wind which was long overdue and a complete pleasure. We Googled our way through Chester and onto the small lane out of the town toward Farndon and the rest of the navigation for the day was easy. It was basically small lanes and small villages all day, all signposted and fairly flat.

We had one hill that we can remember, it had a short sharp steep descent where we were thrown in the wrong gear into a short sharp steep ascent of which we struggled to ride as our legs were burning badly and Dad sounded like a steam train! We all made it to the top after breaking through the pain barrier! Arriving in Ellesmere we had done 25 miles where we found a lovely pub in the high street. It was very trendy with chandeliers and comfy sofas and we found it tough to leave.

While we took our lunch break the sun came out so we removed a few layers and after a short while of riding we were down to t shirts! We never thought we would see the day, a few days ago this would have never have been imaginable. It was lovely to ride with the sun beating down although with sun come bugs flying in your face and mouth and intense nasty smells from the farms and their fields! We made our way through the country, village after village with long boats on tiny canals. One chap was drying out his laundry on the back of his motor boat as he passed underneath the bridge we were stood on.

We arrived in Shrewsbury at 3.30pm and the town was very similar to Chester. We rested in the hotel for an hour or so then went for a walk into the high street to The Square where we found an Italian restaurant for dinner. We gazed at all the Tudor style buildings on our way down to the edge of the river Severn which surrounds the town. It was lovely to have an easy sunny day and in bed early for rest and beauty sleep.

Just a few things I would like to mention, I thought it was great that the little old man working in his garage the other day gave us directions by the pubs in each village. He said, pass the sitting goose then pass the saddle then the next town you need to turn left but there’s no pub there! I nearly ran over a black chicken the other day, I thought it was a black sack caught against a fence then it ran across the road in front of me and I’m sure its wing touched my front wheel and scared the living daylights out of me!

We have seen black and white cows, sheep and their lambs, hairy cows with horns, lamas, pheasants, eagles, herons, jumping salmon etc all of which have been alive. We have also seen deer, badgers, hedgehogs, squirrels and fox’s etc all of which were road kill! We also heard but did not see a woody woodpecker this afternoon.