Diary - Day 7

From Much Wenlock we headed through Shifnal and spent some time on the A5, or Watling street as it was once known. Far too busy for my liking and straight roads are not the best for cycling, but sometimes an injection of pace is useful. We left the A5 for Penkridge along some abysmal roads, in fact the whole morning was riddled by poorly maintained roads, and then headed across Cannock Chase where the weather improved a little from it's pretty dismal start. Through Rugeley and we rolled into Quartz brewery at King's Bromley at around 1:30pm. It was quite warm and just needed the sky to clear a bit to really heat up.

Scott Barnett met us and made us pretty welcome at the brewery. He was quite 'liberal' with the tasters and we certainly found ourselves refreshed, then tired and dozy. The brewery itself has a very modern outlook focusing on the younger drinkers rather than getting stuck into weird tasting beers with silly names. More on that at the Quartz brewery page.

So we headed into Uttoxeter feeling the effects of a few pints in the afternoon along with the closeness of the day, which increased in the afternoon as we headed north. Soon enough we were in the peak district, which turned out to be one of my favourite places on the trip (partly due to the fact that we could see it as fog and rain held off for a while).

That is a photo of the road between Mayfield and Mapleton, just to the West of Ashbourne. It looked better than that at the time. Below is a photo of an all too common problem.

Yep, Sam's constant need to urinate slowed us down a bit throughout the trip. On the plus side it did serve as an opportunity for me to get the camera out and take photos of the scenery.

We rolled into a campsite at Tissington with some pretty decent views, paid £15 for the spot which is a bit more than it should be, basically it was a bit of grass and a crap shower, then cycled to the pub on the main road just outside the village. We were pretty impressed with Tissington - a very well kept place with a real rustic charm. However it was getting dark and a well-kept pub with food and beer based charms was preferable. Being gluttonous and hungry we both went for the mixed grill option and a few pints. This explains why we went over budget on most days.

With very few miles to do the next day and full stomachs we rode back to the campsite feeling pretty happy with things generally.

Day 7 review

Mileage: 70 ish
Breweries: 1
Pints drunk: Quite a few......