The Wessex Tour – sort of! Day six

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Cycling the Strawberry line

We have not got further than 100m from the campsite entrance when Mag pulls over with a flat tyre! What is it with Mag and flat tyres? We’ve had the bikes two years and this is her fourth flat tyre? FOUR in two years! Is this some sort of record?

We return back to the campsite to dig out the large bike pump. It seems the tyre has deflated but there is no evidence of any puncture. After cycling around the site several times, the front tyre seems to be holding.

I’m taking the blame on this one. It is my job to look after the bikes and I failed to notice the slightly flattened tyre when I took the bikes off the rack earlier. I also failed to notice that the little metal ring on the valve had worked loose as well. Ho Hum! Lesson learned. Check the bikes before we depart on a ride.

We are following the Strawberry line (National cycle route 26) from Cheddar to Yatton and back and whilst there is no rain or wind, the temperature is bone chilling. Coupled with the windchill factor as we speed along through the cold air and for the first time, I find myself struggling on a bike ride.

The ‘Strawberry Line’ opened in 1869 and linked the communities of Yatton – Cheddar – Wells. For nearly a century, several trains a day linked these village and town communities, until the line was closed as part o the ‘Beeching cuts’ in 1963.

Now it is a recreational trail thanks to The Cheddar Valley Railway walking society and North Somerset Council. They acquired the track bed and created the trail which crosses the low-lying levels, moors and foot slopes of the Mendips.

You can download useful leaflets etc here https://www.thestrawberryline.org.uk/reports/StrawberryLineHeritageTrailLeaflet.pdf  and https://www.thestrawberryline.org.uk/reports/Strawberry%20Line%202015_Web.pdf

It seems funny but this is the first year where I have noticed that I suffer from the cold. I have always been a ‘cold climate’ kind of guy. I love winter sports. The deeper the snow and the colder the temperature the better for me. But this year? It must be an age thing!

As we progress along the line, my teeth are beginning to chatter! And that is despite wearing a woolly hat, cycle helmet, padded jacket, gortex overcoat, windproof gloves, thermal leggings and windproof walking trousers! (I also have a thermal top, a sports top and a fleece under the jackets. I’m like Michelin man and I’m still cold!!!!)

Autumn leaves are falling, making the gravel track treacherous in places. Maybe it is the cold but for the first time I am finding a cycle ride boring. That is very unusual for me. The geographer/geologist/environmentalist within always finds something to marvel at.

Perhaps it’s because I’m hedged in most of the way and any quick views are across a flat featureless plain. The ride is feeling indeterminable and I’m beginning to get hypothermia. I know this because I am unforgivably irritable with Mag and I am struggling to map read properly. Meanwhile, she is thoroughly enjoying the bike ride, which doesn’t help my deepening despondent mood.

We don’t find any cafes open at Winscombe or Sandford and I ignore Mag’s suggestion that we deviate at Congresbury to find one. I am head down ‘lets get to the end of this’ mode.  Against my stupidity and sheer bloody mindedness, Maggie demonstrates extraordinary forbearance and patience!

On the outskirts of Clevedon, (what happened to stopping at Yatton?), I give up. I am so cold I cannot think straight and Mag gets ‘insistent’. She puts her foot down, making me stop on the forecourt of a BP garage to grab a warm bacon and sausage slice and a cup of hot chocolate. We stand there like lemons outside the shop doors munching away. I’m feeling stupid and somewhat humble and rightly so!

Warm food and drink! So restorative. As an ex-mountaineer with some high qualifications in the sport, I should know better. I know I haven’t been mountaineering now for decades but even so. I’m a sailor as well. I should have known better. I mentally chastise myself several times and apologise to my tolerant wife, who just beams at me. She knows she won the moral victory but she is too good natured to gloat. She knows I’m beating myself up anyway. No need to stomp on a guy when he is already down is there?  

The ride back proves better. The rising wind is from behind us and I have an extra hat on and two pairs of gloves. My insides are warmed up. I am re-fuelled and so my despondency lifts. The scenery appears more attractive and interesting. I even stop to admire the old buildings in Axbridge. On the way back across the levels we stop to appreciate the busy swans and ducks in drainage ditches, motionless herons in fields and the stupendous views across the Somerset levels towards the River Parrett. Passing the home of Thatcher’s cider at Sandford, with all their orchards and huge buildings full of pressing equipment and vats proves fascinating. The sweet smell of apples in the air is quite nice as well!

It is a suitably humbled and chastened man who locks the bikes onto the rack this evening!

Distance cycled: approximately 38 miles  

Useful websites: https://cheddarvillage.co.uk/    

https://axbridge-tc.gov.uk/visit-axbridge/    https://www.thestrawberryline.org.uk/index.php?section=visit

Useful information: there is a café at Yatton Railway station where you can also hire bikes as well.