Whoop for Freedom and Adventure! Every now and then a house with an expression of sleepy surprise would open its eye as he passed, and to the right of him for a mile or so the weltering Thames flashed and glittered. - Uit: The Wheels of Chance: A Bicycling Idyll by H.C. Wells
Yes, there is no more rain left in England! It had rained every day for six months, we heard. And on the day we sailed into Harwich harbour, it was over. A few last showers were squeezed out last Monday, but then it was really all over. Are we lucky! And we wonder whether the route was doable in rain. From London we cycled a lot on towpaths. First along the Thames and later along the Kenneth and Avon Canel. Sometimes unpaved through the mud and sometimes with many bumps and holes. And those holes are often filled with water and sometimes over the entire width of the path and deep. In short, we still get wet, and the bikes and we ourselves are covered in mud every day. Wonderful in this heat!
There is a bicycle network in England, but we have been told that it has been poorly maintained since Brexit, and we noticed that! The road surface ensures that we are very concentrated on the bike to avoid holes and bumps. Another thing that makes cycling here difficult are the many pedestrians, and just as many stray dogs, with whom we share the path. But that's it for the litany, at least it's adventurous and the environment makes up for everything. We enjoy it immensely!
My intention was for this to be another old-fashioned cycling holiday, without a single reference to my work. No Norway, Sweden, pilgrims, Olav for a while... But that didn't quite work out. Besides meeting pilgrims along the way (see photos), we also visited Margo's house. Margo had asked a question in 'my' Facebook group about the Swedish St. Olavsleden, and I let her know that I would answer the question later because I am currently on holiday and cycling through England. “Are you coming through Wiltshire?” Margo asked. Of course. In fact, we’ll pass near her house in Marlborough. And so it was that yesterday we had a delicious lunch at Margo's house, and Margo got all her questions answered. So, if you have any questions about one of Via Gaia's cycling routes, and I happen to be in the area, I will be happy to drop by for personal advice. Even if you live in England and I'm touring ;-).
We are now in Bristol. There was a small hippie-like 'cycling campsite', where we stood in 2017. Unfortunately, the campsite is closed, and because we didn't feel like cycling another 25 km after 85 km, we are now in a hotel.
We also cycled the route between London and Bristol in 2017 (but the other way around), so this time we passed all the beautiful places, except for one: Avebury. Avebury is a Neolithic henge monument containing three stone circles, around the village of Avebury in Wiltshire, in southwest England. One of the best known prehistoric sites in Britain, it contains the largest megalithic stone circle in the world. It is both a tourist attraction and a place of religious importance to contemporary pagans.
From now on it will be new for us! Twenty, or maybe thirty years ago, I read Jamaica Inn by Daphne de Maurier. It's set in Cornwall and ever since I've wanted to go to Cornwall again someday. The wish is now very close. I don't know what the story is about anymore. I only remember the atmosphere and the description of the environment. Heath, hills, cliffs. And dark, cold, rainy... I'm looking forward to it!
For those who suddenly had some doubts about our relationship after the previous newsletter: it was of course meant with a wink. I'm just reporting it anyway, because some worried questions came in. Look, in this photo Remy is filing my thumbnail. A few weeks ago I cut myself so badly that my thumb had to be stitched and I lost part of the nail. There is always a nasty spot on it now and Remy turned out to be better at filing than I am.
Excerpt from The Wheels of Chance: A Bicycling Idyll by H.C. Wells:
There were purple vetches in the hedges, meadowsweet, honeysuckle, belated brambles — but the dog-roses had already gone; there were green and red blackberries, stellarias, and dandelions, and in another place white dead nettles, traveller's-joy, clinging bedstraw, grasses flowering, white campions, and ragged robins.
