Day 4 - Mark to Ross-On-Wye

Our first relatively  straightforward day!

Up for breakfast at 8 and off by 9.  The b&b was the cheapest we have stayed at - and we were given a discount to add to the cause.

The weather was dry when we set off and stayed that way for a couple of hours as we meandered cross country towards the Severn Bridge.  The forecast had threatened lots of heavy showers.  In the event we only had a couple which weren't very long lasting. 

Today's route was fairly straightforward.  We had a moment of doubt when we realised that our path across the River Avon seemed to be along the M5 on the Avon Bridge - if we weren't able to use that bridge the trek back inland to The Clifton Suspension Bridge would be a few extra miles.  As it turned out we didn't need to worry. Although we had to follow a winding route to get onto it all was fine.  It was raining at this point and there was a lot of spray off the traffic.

The section from here up to the Severn Bridge was a mixture of back and main roads.  The A403 was certainly less than fun until we eventually picked up the no 4 cycle route. We also had a bit of to'ing and fro'ing getting onto the Severn Bridge - we had been advised to cross on the East side, although as it turned out it was easy to get across on the other side so we should have just .

The big bonus was lunch at an old school friend's parents, John and Frieda in Chepstow, just a few hundred yards from the end of the bridge.  I haven't seen them for about 30 years since they left Edinburgh, although Ken and I meet up for a beer about once a year, which is really rubbish considering we both live in Edinburgh :-).  We were made really welcome and we had lots of conversation on a variety of topics including family history.  Frieda comes from Caithness and I have ancestors from that part of the world.  We left Chepstow well stuffed after the best lunch we've eaten by far.