Day 3 was my expected: “make it or break it” day. Legs started achy, but that melted after a few miles. For the first time in the trip we managed to keep a good schedule of eating every 2hrs/20miles or so. The first stop was White Swan just before Cheddar Gorge. Great back bacon sandwich, with crackling rind, result! Later on was an okay tuna Mayo baguette at the Black Horse way before the bridge. Then a great coronation chicken at the Filling Place in Tintern (just past the Abby). Definitely going to plot some routes past the Filling Place in the future. If you’re in the area, look out for the red awning and bike logo on the railing). Even met an old couple who live down the road from me there (very small world).

Outside of the love for food, the day started really well. Lots of chain gang riding in the first 40. Followed by quite a bit of downhill canary riding after Chepstow, before long stints at the front to get us into Hereford. Body was feeling strong at the start and once in Wales, but had a lull in the middle.

The B&B at the end didn’t start off great; straight off a main road and nothing to lock our bikes to in the garden shed, but it picked up. Met a mate (and his wife) from work who lives in the area, plus girlfriend surprised me by popping over post work. That and great food made for a pretty good end to a long day.

Now you’ll note that the GPX track is messed up, so from this day onward I’ll be keeping track of all of the Garmin issues I faced with the Edge 810 (v3.60):

  • Garmin crashes: 2 (with 1/3 of the gpx/sensor data lost).
  • LiveTrack connection issues: 8

Still debating whether to fill in the gap with James’s gpx file, but this is going to be a painful manual exercise in futility.

A nice church on a hill

Stealing James's soul as he snaps the orchard

The M5 intruding on the countryside

Old bridge in sight

Tintagel Abbey from the roadside

Tintagel Abbey from a different viewpoint

The Filling Station