(14 and) 15 October 2025 (cloudy and cool) 108km

Ju here. We stayed an extra day with our Tahlia and Duncan as we have plenty of time to get to Heathrow in time for our flight. And who doesn't love getting pampered by loved ones?

Cycled away into a very cold morning, with a plethora of cycle lanes to choose from. Perusing Mapy (our mapping app), I had seen a tempting cycle trail which looked to be heading in our direction, only it was a bit of a pfaff to get to. But with memories of the beautiful Wirral Way fresh in our minds, we decided it would be worth it.

So we had to do a lot of stopping and checking of the map to negotiate our way past such inconvenient obstacles like railway lines, rivers and motorways. This is always quite time consuming.

Anyway, we finally get to this rail trail and it starts beautifully and we're patting ourselves on the back with persevering half the morning to find it. The beautiful surface lasted about half a kilometre and then it became quite bumpy. Still, it was beside the river, traffic free and surrounded by trees with their autumnal colours, so we continued along, relishing being able to cycle side by side and chat without the noise of traffic to contend with.

The track got rockier and harder on the buttocks, so we were constantly shifting in our seats to try and find a comfier position. We had to go slow as the rough ground was trying to shake all our luggage off our bikes.

After a few kms we were consulting the map to see when we could get off this darn path. Apparently there was another path running parallel to this one. When we got a gap in the trees we searched for it. There was nothing but grass and we wondered what the hell was wrong with our Mapy app which is usually so reliable.

We were stuck with this path for eight miles, or 12 km for those not still in the dark ages. We were both incredibly frustrated at the lack of progress we were making when we had confidently booked a hotel room for the night 80km away.

By the time we reached the end of the rail trail, we'd been going two hours and still had 70 kms to ride to reach our hotel in Alcester.  We were stopping every five minutes to check directions as we couldn't afford to make any more mistakes. But every time we stop of course costs us more time.

To make matters worse, last night when I checked the metres gained for the days ride, it was less than 200m of total elevation gained. But with each turn we seemed to face yet another hill. It was definitely more than 200 metres. But this was far different from the original route due to unexpected obstacles or non existent tracks. Sometimes we were quite glad of the hills however, just to get the blood pumping as the temperature didn't get any warmer throughout the day.

Just as we seemed to be gaining some momentum, it was ripped away from us with another non existent track, or a bumpy track which we knew would slow us down further. One such example came when we rode down a sealed lane, which turned to gravel, then to dirt, then to grass and a locked gate. 

As Pete was expressing his frustration and disappointment, a guy popped his head around the corner of a hut and asked if we needed any help. 'Have you got a gun?' ran through my mind.

He informed us that the only way we could get through that way was to haul the bikes over the gates, push them about a km across a field and then haul them over the other locked gate at the other end. That wasn't happening, so we backtracked....again! We had a couple more similar instances which had me checking and rechecking that the Mapy app was set to cycling and not walking. It was indeed set to cycling, and road cycling at that. Over to Pete.

Eventually we reached the village of Kinver. Here, we found a lovely little cafe, down a pretty mews and enjoyed our lunch. They even had gluten free options. Of course they charged through the nose for it. Ju asked for another piece of toast and a piece of gf caramel slice and was charged £5.50 or $13NZ. But we were past caring at this stage.

Outside, as we were leaving, we got talking to a lady called Jill, a former cyclist, who sadly was on a walker now. She was very interested in where we had come from and where we were going.  Pushed on as by now it was 3pm. With 55km done, we realized we still had 45 kms to go. 

The photo taking had long ago dried up as we did our best to pick the quietest routes without having more kms added to the day's total.  This took away a lot of enjoyment and we vowed to never book a place again and put ourselves under such pressure. We saw so many other accommodation options as we cycled, but this had already been booked and paid for, so we had to get to Alcester.

We ended up cycling in the dark for the last hour through unlit forests and the occasional village, hoping like hell we didn't hit a pothole as our front lights did little to illuminate our path.

Finally, at 7.15pm, we arrived at The Alcester Inn, (not the place pictured above), having covered 108km and 900 metres of elevation. We were knackered. Last orders for meals were 8pm, so before we showered, we went to the bar and enjoyed two delicious meals.

Julia had Chilli con carne (you'd have thought she would have had enough of that on this trip) and I had Hunters chicken wrapped in bacon, with a cheese sauce, chips and salad.

Pinot Gris for Ju, Pint of Guinness for me.

The barmaid was a lovely lady and we followed the meal with showers, before succumbing to a deep sleep.  Longest mileage of the entire tour and we wait until the final days.