The September ’21 Grand Tour of mid and north Wales in a motorhome Day 26

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I am not in Maggie’s good books. We are stood on a muddy overgrown track surrounded by tall hedges and thickets of brambles and nettles. The path has been bumpy and very slippery and Mag has come off the bike twice. My intention are good ones. I am trying to navigate a trail on the OS map app that will save us a four-mile detour through lanes to the south. But what is waymarked as a gravel bridleway just clearly isn’t. Stoic as always, Mag, a keen cyclist, has given it a really good effort but I have to admit defeat myself. The path ahead is getting narrower, more slippy, more rutted and more overgrown. I swallow my map reading pride and suggest we turn around!

Views from the muddy path to nowhere!

1.5 kms back on the B4228, 100m down the road from the campsite, we turn left and cycle along the road up to St Briavels, where at the crossroads we turn left and head along the narrow lanes past The Great Hoggins Farm and over the undulating hills to Bream’s Meend.

At Bream’s Eaves we find a hill top café and garden and stop for coffee and cake. The weather is overcast and we have already donned waterproofs but the rain hasn’t come. We strip off over trousers and set off once more.

 

Down through Bream’s Eaves to Parkend, we finally pick up the national cycle network route that follows the disused railway line northwards across the wooded slopes of Bostonbury Hill.

The disused quarries, smelting works and old ironworks are fascinating and simple informative boards give the history of smelting in the area.

Skirting the industrial estates, before we know it, we have arrived in the centre of Coleford.

We are not sure what to make of Coleford. We sit under the trees in the little triangle area where three routes meet at the centre of town. Most of the shops before us are independents selling household goods, fashions and nick knacks. There are a number of closed shops. The old buildings have a faded air about them.

 Out of the town and along the B4028 and then just past the junction with the B4234, we pick up one of the forest cycle tracks southwards along another disused railway line.   A few miles on it joins national cycle route 42 and we continue to follow it south down to Parkend, where we stop to quickly admire the Forest of Dean Railway line station.

Back on the bikes we cycle the roads back to Bream’s Eaves. By now the heavens have opened and we shelter under a large garden bush that overhangs the pavement. Donning waterproofs once more, we continue up the hill to the café where we grab another drink before retracing our route from earlier in the morning back to the farm.

Distance cycled today: 38 miles.