Day 49 - Bridgwater to Weston-Super-Mare - ride total 3,653 k, 22,812 m

We planned ahead last night and bought a yoghurt+granola pottle from the Supermarket last night and this along with a banana and my self made cup of tea was my two pound breakfast.

We saw the most well designed high voltage electricity towers I've ever seen today. These towers were not only structural and practical and then they had design elements that made them visually appealing objects. Check out the pics and see if you agree with me. 

We were underway by 7:30 a.m. which was plenty early enough as we only had 42 km's to ride today. Our ride took us through some lovely Somerset countryside but not a lot of towns selling coffee. At about the 18 km mark at Mark I saw four women standing on the corner talking so I rode over to them to ask about coffee Cafe's - one thing lead to another and before too long we were right into a much bigger conversation than simply where is the cafe! They had just finished their 5  km run and three of them were retired and one still working they shared. They started running during the Covid lockdown they said (all socially distanced) and have kept up with it.

They told us of the "Frankie Howard" tea rooms in Loxton, just opposite the garage. Well we saw the 2.25 mile sign pointing to Loxton but not the next one (if there was) pointing from our trail to the town. Sailing right on past and after a bit thinking this is a really long 3.5 km caused me to stop and check how we were progressing. Once the satellite took hold I could see we missed the turn off and were now over a km further along our trail and only 8-9 km from our destination. As I was not leading today I called ahead and told the Boys' and it was decided to carry on.

We carried on up a "Steep and nasty hill" (that's Aussie speak for a wee hill - well something that is only 100 metres and spread over a couple of km's doesn't count as a "Steep and nasty" hill - I mean it's only like riding up to Gerry's at Mt Pleasant and only one third of the Sign of the Kiwi. Anyhow if the Aussies want to call it a Steep and nasty hill I'm happy to let them however I'm not buying into tat definition.

I will say though that after that wee hill we did have a lovely ride down the hill into Weston-Super-Mare and soon were pedaling along the promenade. When I say the tide was "out", I ean it was way-out, I'm picking it may have been 1.5 km out across the sand and mud flats. A couple of women we spoke to were telling us this has some of the largest variation between High and Low tides in the world.

As we only had the 42 km's to ride and didn't have a coffee stop en-route we found ourselves at the end of the ride by 10:30 a.m. that's probably a first for us to finish so early. We found the  Hotel - right on the waterfront and they let us park our bikes and gear there while we wandered back alng the promenade and out on to the Pier where they had a very large amusment complex. It was noisy and busy with a big crowd of holidaymakers all trying to win big and maybe get to go home with that big stuffed toy nobody wants two weeks on! From what I could see and make of it was that it is the training ground for the gamblers of tomorrow - the patrons were mostly kids an families all playing a game of chance with the hope of winning big. To me it appeared no different to a Casino except here it is legal to take money from minors!

We rode slowly along the beachfront taking in all that Weston-Super-Mare had to offer and we tended to feel that it has a more relaxed and less dated feel here than the likes of the Brighton beach side of the country.

The day was perfect for riding, and ideal temperature and no wind through wonderful English countryside.