Day 5 - Hereford to Shrewsbury

What an odd day it was today, I suppose it was because it didn't start as we had planned. We were a bit stuck for breakfast today as the pub next door didn't serve breakfast until 7.30am. Ordinarily that would be early, but for us it way too late! We wanted to have left by 7am as we knew what terrain we had ahead of us.

So with a cup of tea and a snack bar we set off looking for food which today came in the form of a selection of stuff from a 24h Asda.  No sooner had we got our breakfast and started tucking in did we attract the attention of a rufty tufty motor biker. This guy wanted to know where we were headed. Oh boy could this guy talk. Used to do this in days gone by so he did. Couldn't have a carbon bike you know, oh wow, that's and old bike you got there with all the bits, and you got the weather for it, had a bunch of end to enders last year but it was cold and rainy, an alloy bike that's what you want, and on and on. Nice bloke mind.

A quick finish to breakfast and we bid farewell as we headed off into rush hour Hereford style. We were just going over the river when Holly called out she had problems. And she sure did, one of her incredibly long lasting nose bleeds, just like she turned the tap on. I must apologise to the good folk of Hereford who were passing that morning. It must have appeared like we had just been in a major accident with all the blood across the pavement. Not that anyone asked if we were ok of course. The trouble is we were rapidly running out of all things capable of soaking up the blood. I actually said out loud "If I see a police car or ambulance I'm going to have to flag it down". Surely they would have soaky up stuff. So with that I looked into the rush hour traffic jam for an ambulance. Nothing. Pitty really cos they are big things that are easy to spot. We were stopped on the bridge crossing the river at this point so most rush hour traffic was crawling past us.

Just then, the car near us moved forward and right behind it lit up by the morning sun in some God like intervention was an ambulance car. I had to blink a few times and try to read that it did actually say ambulance across the bonnet. Quickly pointing at him I waved him down. Hey presto, an Ambulance! "Where the heck did you spring from? I had just said I think we need an ambulance and here you are!". Turns out this guy was a station inspector come paramedic on his way to visit his next station. Our luck was in and Holly's nose bleed eventually stopped after a half filled bag of blood soaked raggs were taken away. Thank you very much to the Gloucester Ambulance service.

The rest of the day was uneventful by comparison. Except for the 1000ft hill to climb. We were looking for a tea room to rest and re-fuel before the final part of the day. But every village was empty of everything but houses. In desperation we raided our supplies of snacks half way up a hill. Just after, as we were rounding the top of the hill in the heat haze we could see a mirage. A tea room shimmering in the sun. On closer inspection it WAS a tea room. Woohoo!

All refreshed we trudged on with the big climb. The views from the top were amazing. As what the trip down the other side. Another great day.