It was raining in the morning when I woke up. This wasn't a complete surprise as it had been raining the evening before. I bundled up my backpack and handlebar bag inside plastic, put on my rain coat and took off.

This was the day I turned east. Up to this point, I had been going west and then north. To get back to Cambridge, I had to travel east and south. I was still moving north, but had decided to start east.

It was clear from the map that I had a bit of hard riding in front of me. Guarding the way north and east was the Wenlock Edge. A long, thin line of hills that I had to get over. The deserted road attacked the hill and went staight up. I ground away in the lowest gear, in the rain. I quickly discovered, after coasting on a long downhill, that there was more climbing to do. I spent about a half hour getting over the Wenlock Edge. At one point, I was completely out of breath, grinding away in my lowest low gear, getting rained on. I was focussed!

On the other side, I returned to the gently rolling hills I was accustomed to. I stopped at a pub (after waiting 10 minutes for it to open at noon), had some lemon tea, and a bit of observing small-town England at the pub on Sunday. When I remounted the bike, it had stopped raining.

About 10 miles later (northeast) I crossed the River Severn for the second time. Here is the view of the bridge and looking in both directions.

Note the huge bump in the previous photo. I would later come to know it as The Wrekin. I wondered where this was shown on my map as I wanted to make sure I steered clear of it. It wasn't high enough to make my map, where the first elevation noted was over 1000 feet. The road I had planned to take looked like it went over the Wrekin's flank, so I kept heading north to bypass it entirely. This meant going through the heart of Telford, a sprawling city whose industrial outskirts I managed to get lost in.

I had wanted to stay somewhere northeast of Telford, but had no clear destination in mind. I was headed for Ashbourne the following day so I wanted to find a place that had easy access for routes there. As I rode away from Telford, I met up with an older woman riding on the B5062 rather slowly. We got to talking when I pulled even with her and I found out that she was training for a church fundraiser. I asked about places to stay and she took me to a pub that was clearly closed. She was from Newport, so after she understood what I was trying to do, she suggested I stay in downtown Newport. She rode with me to a B&B on the main drag and waited while I got a room. It was very nice of her to take the time to do that. The odometer read over 48 miles when I got off in Newport.

The room was small but comfortable and the bathroom had a large bathtub that I soaked in for about half an hour. I walked around the cozy town and eventually got take-out Chinese food that I ate in my room while watching the Commonwealth Games.

Monday, August 5: Newport to Ashbourne
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