Got up fairly early and cooked breakfast, was away from the site by 8:30. I had a plan to cycle as much down the Mercian Way (NCN45) as possible.

I think I assumed that as it followed a river and a railway line it would be flat, while this was true on the disused line, once from Bridgenorth the Severn Valley Steam Railway uses the line and the the cycleways has some short but tough climbs, and some excellent descents. The day started in Shrewsbury, a very good looking town with some good public art. The Darwin arch was particularly impressive, called Quantum Leap and erected in 2009 for Darwin’s Bicentennial – he was born in Shrewsbury in 1709.

I ignored the cycleway to get to Iron Bridge and headed out on th B road. That is until I came to a cross road, with big signs for the car drivers “Warning Nation Cycle Network crossing”, which made me feel guilty for not using it. So I headed from the relatively flat roads, to a serious work out in the hills – including going up one step climbs unnecessarily when a sign was missing.

The descent into Coalbrookdale was interesting, with a big Power Station (disused I think) deep in the valley, none of the chimneys would appear to be tall enough, I can only imagine the pollution.

There’s also a museum, looks interesting, somewhere to go back to. Iron Bridge is just down the road. The bridge is most impressive, the first iron bridge to be built, in 1781.

Then onto Bridgenorth, along miles of easy disused railway, another nice town with lots of classic buildings and lots going on and the start of the Severn Valley Railway. I heard it all day, with the steam whistle, and puffs of smoke, but the only time I saw it, it was a big Diesel engine. The classic blue ones with a yellow front. Too far away for a photo.

Some interesting trails led to Bewdley, including a long length of “boardwalk” obviously constructed on the rail embankment to avoid going on private land – was quite an impressive switch back single track.

I stayed in Bewdley many years ago when I was on site in Birmingham (the Resident Engineer would only stay in hotels in the CAMRA book – ahh those were the days!). I can’t remember the town too much, as I was only there in the evenings, but the hotel we stayed in, the Black Boy Inn, has changed its name (not necessarily suprisingly) to the Bewdley Inn. The pub now appears to be the headquarters for Brexit, and the drunks in the garden were challenging anyone who passed by on their allegiance. The mixture of right-wing nationalism, football and drink – just like the bad old days, and very worrying!

I’ve not seen the news for two weeks, but hope that common sense prevails. Anyway, back onto more pleasant things, I cycled into Stourton bought my tea from co-op (just wish I’d brought my card!). Then about 8 km through the smallest lanes yet to Holt Heath, the site I had identified appeared to be all static caravans with no sign of a tent field. I could have gone into the “club house” to find out more, but decided on another site down the road. It’s Saturday night, it’s attached to a pub, everyone is playing loud music and I’ve inadvertently pitched my tent on the popular cut through to the Off Licence –  is not the best site I’ve been to, but that’s the luck of the draw.