I woke up very early on May 10th and was packed up and ready to load my bike when I noticed my rear tire was flat as a pancake. The previous evening, I had accidentally pulled out the core of the valve of the tire while I was checking the pressure so I assumed it had something to do with that. I pumped up the tire again but could tell it was slowly deflating.

The owner of the campsite was very nice and found one of his employees who could take me into Hereford to a bike shop. So I did that and after getting a new valve and waiting 45 minutes to see if the tire went down (it appeared it did not), I left the shop.

Because I had lost another half day of cycling and because today I had to ride just over 50 miles with about 2,500 feet of climbing I decided to to miss out the first part of the day’s ride and take a train from Hereford to Ludlow. My sister Katherine follows my location and noticed that I was at Hereford train station. She asked me if I was cheating!! 😜 I was not. I’m doing this as an old age crisis challenge and not for charity.

Ludlow

I arrived in Ludlow after the short train ride and called the campsite I was planning to stay at. The lovely lady told me not to rush and enjoy the sites if the historic town of Ludlow. She would wait for me and usually left at 7pm, so I assured her I would be there by then!

I spent the afternoon exploring Ludlow. It’s a pity I couldn’t go into the castle but it was closed for a food and wine show. I’d definitely come back here.

The architecture in Ludlow is an interesting mix of medieval, Tudor and Georgian.

The parish church

I got chatting with a couple of custodians of the parish church and they volunteered to take care of my bike while I explored. Very nice of them!

The parish church dates from the 12th-century and has certain unique features such as a huge bell tower & carved Misericords.

The Stained glass windows were also very impressive. The west window features 12 men all with a historical connection to the town.

I went to a local cheese shop, The Mousetrap, and because I was in Shropshire, I decided to buy some local cheese for the trip.

The two cheeses I chose, Wrekin Blue and White Fox were very tasty. The blue was creamy and very strong. The White Fox was like a strong Cheddar but not as strong and had a slight smoky flavor. Both were really good.

Bike shop #2

After collecting my bike from the church, I started the last 24 miles of my journey for the day only to find that my rear tire was going flat again 😱Luckily for me there was a bike shop close by, so I took the bike in fully believing it was a problem with the valve.

They were too busy to help but suggested I take my rear wheel off and they would have a quick look. Promptly I unloaded the gear and tipped my bike upside down to remove the wheel. It turned out to be a thorn in the tire causing a slow leak. I could have avoided both visits to bikes shops today had I just checked for a puncture in the morning, but I was convinced I had damaged the valve at the campground the night before. 😩

Mad dash to the campsite

I had promised the lady at the camp site in Much Wenlock that I would be there well before seven. So now I had to make a mad dash to get there before she left for the day. I also needed to hit the grocery store for dinner. Of course there was always the cheese 😜

I still had 24 miles to ride and by now it was almost 5 o’clock. The landscape was undulating and very beautiful. Despite my time crunch, I did take the time to stop and take a few photographs in the evening light.

Despite the bicycle problems, it was a really great day 😎🚴🏽‍♀️