Day 9 Shrewsbury to Monmouth

An early start and a nice enough breakfast saw us leaving Shrewsbury in the frigid air at half eight, the roads pleasantly quiet. We realised today that although the weather would be closing in on us that the lesson from yesterday wasn't to push too quickly and to pace ourselves. It's a marathon, not a sprint or something like that at least...

More rolling hills greeted us as we headed south but these were more obliging than yesterday and were content to loom to port and starboard of the smooth blacktop we were rolling along. Around Church Stretton we saw hills to the East stretching towards the uniformly leaden skies which looked fun to climb. Another day perhaps.

Despite the promised restraint the pace was still fast aided by a light tail wind and we made first Ludlow then Leominster in good time. At the latter we elected to lunch at the unusual location of Aldi where we quickly scoffed a sandwich, a pint of milk and a bag of chocolate buttons each. Not long after leaving the raindrops started falling and although it wasn't heavy rain it's persistence soon had us soaked through. We got our heads down and pushed on towards Hereford, the descent into the town chilled us to the core.

On the outskirts we saw a Halfords and nipped in so I could buy a pair of waterproof gloves. The staff were very kind and took pity on the shivering wretch in front of them and gave me a discount. Thank you very much. Into Hereford we searched for waterproof socks and trousers finding the latter but having to make do with the age old carrier bag over the socks method to obtain a reasonably dry foot.

With wet weather gear secured we scampered to the Weatherspoons pub for warmth and a hot tea but were refused entry to the empty pub with our bikes. Instead we went next door to the warmer, busier and friendlier Hop Pole where many people were watching the football but the staff still made room for our bikes and served us hot tea and cheesy chips. Nom! A very nice welcome indeed.

With feelings returned to fingers and feet we pushed on to Monmouth where the plan was for another brief tea stop then onwards to Chepstow. There were more climbs of increasing steepness as we ploughed on through the rain south with another chilly descent into the town. Despite the new waterproofs we were wet of foot again and our enthusiasm for another twenty miles was waning.
The weatherspoons pub in Monmouth is also a hotel which we hadn't realised when stopping provisionally for a cup of tea. We asked the staff if we could bring the bikes inside and they offered to lock them in the store room whilst we warmed up. Wheeling the bikes around the back we noticed a sign proclaiming rooms for £30 a night on Sundays and thoughts of more progress were cast to the wayside. Cold and wet we'd had enough for today. As a luxury we secured a room each, I've had a ludicrously hot bath, clothes have been washed, shoes are on the radiator and food been devoured. Tomorrow we should be in Somerset!