Day 18 Caldicot to Hereford

2022 08 18 Day 18 Caldicot to Hereford

Weather:  Cloudy with H23 L 14 Humidity 90% 

65% chance of rain.

Depart: Lychgate BnB 

Destination: Warmshowers host Hereford

Planned distance: 53.7 mi 85.9 km

Planned ascent: 3,383

Planned descent: 3,189

Route: https://www.cycling4charity.org.uk/august-18

For the actual ride pls see Ralph’s ride in the Strava section.

Good morning/ good day.

Just before 9 we said goodbye to Janice, our hostess and headed out to the Welsh countryside on A38.   A quiet road with rolling hills.

The first thing I noticed were the very high, large straw bale stacks. It intrigued me that Welsh farmers consistently stacked straw bales REALLY high. If you have the equipment to do that… why not put them on a trailer and bring them “home”?  Maybe they just access them from the fields all winter.. but that must be a challenge when the fields are wet and muddy. This picture only shows mini stacks compared to others.

So far the Welsh hills have been like the Welsh Ponies.  Just the right size.  The countryside is being harvested but some of the roses are blooming beautifully.  Some flowers have been parched. The rain the last two days must have helped.

We rolled into, Usk  which is a Welsh town with a name I can spell, unlike most on the signposts or the words on the traffic signs. There has been a fortress in USK since 55 AD. The Normans built a castle here after the Conquest. Lots of history.

We were pedally along a huge high stone wall.  I thought it was a castle. Ralph correctly identified it as USK penitentiary.  Built in 1842.  Modeled after Pentonville prison in England. Still in use and a scary looking place.

A better photo with some interesting history is one of the church tower.  When we were in Caldicot last night, Kay walked us past the church, through the graveyard. Their church tower has four equal sides and no widened “corners”.

She explained that it was probably a protestant church built after the Reformation.  Earlier Catholic churches may have one corner enlarged. This added space was used to hide the priest and the precious church items when under attack during the Reformation.

Ralph looked at the church in USK and wondered if this was a good example of what Kay was talking about.  The “bulge” would have been added maybe a century after the original church was built.

The town is full of flowers, cafes on the main street, a Coop grocery store, plenty of restaurants, pubs and BnBs. It would be a lovely place to stay for a cycling holiday.

On to a cafe, the Coop for lunch groceries, then a tour of the town as we re-united with Garmin and dutifully did what we were told to get back on the route and on our way.

Ralph caught sight of a windmill not far out of town.

Interesting modern appendages added to it.

Not far along I stopped to chat with Roger at his farm. They used to milk 400 cows with 4 robots. The milking herd has been sold but they are raising 150 heifers now. I could easily have spent a few hours with Roger learning about his life on a Welsh farm.  I estimate he is 80. The homes on the property, the gardens, the grass on the side of the road - everything was manicured and in beautiful condition. 

Some of the dairy barns are pictured below.  Who would have thought a state of the art operation was taking place behind centuries old stone walls?

I understand some Welsh now. ARAF means slow…It is written all over their pavement going into town.

A car came up beside me and Verity, whose son had open kidney surgery at age 2, stopped to chat. She had met Ralph up the road and wanted to thank me as well for our fundraising.

Our happy times pedalling up small pony hills on NCN 53 came to an end. At the top of “the” hill that could be described as a Scottish Clydesdale not a Welsh pony, there was a place by a fence that looked like a good place for “lunch”.  As we ate,  a car pulled into the home across the road and the couple very helpfully offered us anything we needed.  Ralph got his bottles filled up and had an interesting discussion with Peter. Peter is a teacher who worked locally for decades and has recently branched out to international schools, most recently in Kuwait and Morocco.  Everyone has an interesting story. 

Here is a view of the hills we were winding our way through.  I was in Abergavenny-Llanddewi Rhydderch when I snapped this picture. Easy for someone to say… not me!

Apparently this one is Skirrid/Ysgyryd Fawr,

We crossed a little river, saying goodbye to Wales for this trip, and entered Herefordshire in England again.

The sign post has a mixed message.. at least for theives.

Remarkably I saw very few Hereford cattle. This field of bullocks was just at the Wales side of the little “border bridge” over the Monnow. There was one Hereford mixed in with the Angus. Later I saw one Hereford cow! 

The River Monnow was also the spot for our first bike repair. The bracket for my pannier snapped one of the spot welds.  Nothing that duct tape and some zip ties couldn’t fix.

We continued on NCN route 46 until Hereford  where we wiggled across this gorgeous little bridge, over the River Wye and on to meet our Warmshowers host Sean and his son Alex. 

River Wye:

We couldn’t have had a warmer welcome. We were treated to tea and cake on arrival, hot showers and an absolutely delicious lasagna supper, complete with lemon cheesecake with icecream! Thank you so much Sean! 

We talked about the Hereford Cathedral which houses the Mappa Mundi .

As I keep ending these blogs… a lovely end to another beautiful cycling day. We decided we had to at least cycle around the Hereford Cathedral Close tomorrow to see this historic piece.

Safe travels

Lorraine Hereford