Fine weather this morning, got packed up without breakfast as I thought I could grab something in Worcester. After a short ride into town, I spotted a McDonald’s – while this is normally a cop out, the do have plug sockets and my power supplies were running low. After a quick charge, the route was along the Severn on the opposite side to the main town. The cathedral bells were ringing and lots of sunday morning strollers around.

There was a huge congregation of swans at one point – but I couldn’t see anyone feeding them. After a few miles the route became more complex (it’s always the issue of whether the route I have chosen follows exactly the NCN route – or mine has a more pragmatic approach to roads) especially due to new housing estates and changes to the roads. Eventually I got back on route on the quiet lanes, but soon got carried away and missed a turn. I spent a few hours travelling in the right direction and crossing the correct route every now and again. I came across a lot of interesting buildings, little castles, towers etc, but nothing as strange as this church which seems to have had a Tudor clock tower extension built onto a stone church – I can almost imagine the builder of the day going on about modern construction techniques.

I’ve seen quiet a few birds of prey on my trip, on two occasions swooping down from trees as I’ve passed, but saw one today Sat on a sign, didn’t even move as I passed.

Time was creeping on and I was due to meet my friend Mick in Berkeley (a small ancient town between Gloucester and Bristol), so I got into the B4211 which pretty much took me directly into Gloucester – it was quite busy which helped me keep my speed up, the only problem was that some points of the road were exposed and the headwind was energy sapping. Jumped off the main road onto the cycleways into town, and a couple stopped as I was looking at the signposts – they advised to go direct to the Docks, but there were some gates. I headed that way, as the gates couldn’t be worse than on the Wigan canals, they weren’t or I’m more experienced.

Gloucester docks are really nice, I’ve been there before but (still) not visited the museums which look very interesting, the crowds are all around the shopping outlet.

The chain on the bike had begun to start squeaking a bit – which is no surprise given the miles and weather thrown at it. I briefly toyed with the idea of finding a Halfords and saying I’d only ridden it once, but it was on the outskirts of town in the wrong direction, instead I found the only open local bike shop (or bargain bike warehouse), for chain lube and a free rag – squeaks resolved. I was now pretty much behind time, but the last 30 kilometres only needed me to follow the Gloucester to Sharpness Canal (learning my lessons of being on the correct side!).

As soon as I got on it the rain started, not bad at first but got progressively worse. The path on the canal varied from very fasts motorway, narrow dirt single track and bumpy paths where you couldn’t get any rhythm. The path left the canal in a couple of places, around Silmbridge the Wildfowl sanctuary and the village of Frampton on Severn which was particularly picturesque.

Arrived at the campsite at 5:30 (the allotted time for me to be ready to go) and Mick had just arrived and was waiting outside. The campsite was like a fortress, with a high level of security against travellers. Very friendly campsite guardian chatted to me and Mick, while I pitched the tent in the rain. I grabbed a shower and we headed to the pub for dinner, it was nice to have a long conversation for once. The site had a good washing machine and crucially Mick had brought me washing powder, so after the pub I washed pretty much everything I’d brought with me, and got it all dry – despite it continuing to rain and the campsite getting boggier and boggier. There was a socket in the laundry, and I plugged in my big power pack – unfortunately it didn’t charge overnight (not sure why), leaving me low on battery levels – any why I’m sitting in Taunton Asda typing this!.