Shropshire Hills

4th June

43 miles

1034 metres of climbing

Total miles 437

Leominster was a lovely place to stay and it was great too to meet up with Tony Adams from the Spire cycle club and meet Helen from Huddersfield, they are being joined by others for 5 days cycling bonanza in the Herefordshire lanes

We set off North, initially fairly gentle ups and downs. Coffee in Ludlow where we really enjoyed the lovely old half timbered buildings in this ancient town. We felt we didn’t really have time to do the castle justice … another time. Instead we made for a coffee in the Ciccetti bar, a wonderful establishment where Martin succumbed to Cannolo, a crisp Italian pastry filled with a delicious chocolate and pistachio cream while Gayle’s croissant came with alcoholic Calabrese marmalade.

Not all half timbered buildings are black and white

Ludlow high Street

The town gate into Ludlow

We had been under the impression that Shropshire was flat but after Ludlow were swiftly disabused of this as a long steep hill appeared on the satnavs. Beautiful lanes up Corvedale and Westhope took us up 200 metres to Church Stretton, a characterful small town which is not called Little Switzerland for no reason.

Hedgerow flowersk

Caer Caradoc above Church Stretton

Walking the dog in Church Stretton

Bacon butties there on a bench outside HSBC and then unsuspectingly set off again on the planned route, it got steeper and steeper and steeper until eventually ending up on Long Mynd at 325 meters . Beautiful views and we were glad to be up there but next time I will pay more attention to contour lines, even on days I anticipate to be flat ….

On top of Long Mynd

Shropshire lanes

Shropshire hills

Shropshire lanes

After that it was basically downhill through green lanes to Shrewsbury and a cup of tea in Heather and Mike’s lovely garden with their hens scratching and a wren visiting their pond