Once upon a time there was a lovely perfectly fine English summers day,
But it was only once,
And a very very long time ago.

And it was not today. We got a good drenching with some localized heavy rains today – enough to squelch in the shoes. The rides destination was Rochester via a lot of every pretty country.
In the rain I made yet another wrong turn and spent a little more time in Wales visiting the very picturesque town of Monmouth. Had a coffee and an ATM stop and then began a long ascent back to Coleford where I had gone ” off Piste” Played catch up for the remainder of the day. At days end I had done about 20 Miles more than I could have but I had fun.

After retracing my steps I found that I still had a long long way to go and it was nearly 1 pm . I had a lovely lunch at this old ( 17 century ) pub. Helen the quintessential buxom barmaid gave me a half and a great lunch of bacon and eggs.

This amazing group of thatched buildings at Forthampton

We now start to see some of these Tudor style buildings as we glide through the narrow villages with the wind pushing us on

As I cycled into Worcester David K spotted me and yelled out so he was able to guide me directly to the place of rectification – a special place that assists people who may be in need of some rehydration.Can you see David ? Thoroughly rectified now!
actually the rectification was some process in the manufacture of Gin

David and Judith are the only couple on this trip. Both USA citizens but they work offshore. Judith is an attorney and David a Physicist / engineer . He works in an interesting field that makes him a modern day pirate hunter. Spent time in Indonesia in the Straits of Malacca – an ancient and still today modern day haunt of pirates. David if involved with some sophisticated data collections technologies that monitors what goes on in these straits.
They are keen walkers and have been doing a lot of hikes as part of a big OE