Peter Schrammel - Mountains

24. 8. 2019

Peter Schrammel

Weather

cloudless

Interest

****: Following the winding course of the lower Wye Valley; only by canoe is nicer

Route

Hereford,61m - Ballingham, 93m - King`s Caple, 77m - Foy, 45m - Ross on Wye, 52m - Goodrich, 60m - Symonds Yat East, 25m - Monmouth, 27m - Lower Redbrook, 19m - LLandogo, 20m - Tintern, 11m - St Arvans, 147m - Chepstow station, 16m

Elevation gain

+632/-655m

Distance

81km

Timing

5 1/2h (1/2 + 1/2 + 1/2 + 1/2 + 1/2 + 1/3 + 2/3 + 1/3 + 2/3 + 1/4 + 1/2 + 1/4)

Stamina

E: The biggest hill is at the end!

Difficulty

+-++: approaches to the footbridges at Sellack and Foy require some limited mountainbiking skills +-++; otherwise mostly on tarmac of variable quality; the sections on the Wye valley railway track are sometimes quite rough and not suitable for roadbike tyres +; short steep sections up to Ballingham (15%), Carey (15%), Hill of Eaton (25%), longer climbs (10%) to Goodrich and St Arvans

Danger

Visitor frequency

d: cyclists, cars, hikers (especially near Symonds Yat)

Report

I took the first train to Hereford. I had to change trains at Worcester Forgate Street. I finally started toward 9.30am. During leaving the town I noticed that I have little air in my rear wheel. Hence, I stopped and topped it up. I tried to follow the bicycle route 44 that crosses the river via a foot bridge before it partially follows the former railway track southwards. Until Holme Lacy, though, I had to cycle on a relatively busy road. The country road over Ballingham Hill was much quieter. A bunch of more sportive cyclists overtook after Ballingham. After a steep, short hill at Carey the road follows the river, which I crossed at Hoarwithy. Before crossing the old footbridge to Sellack I encounted a couple of horse riders. The river was quite busy with canoes. The church of Sellack on the other side seemingly emerges from a dark green meadow. After traversing the ridge to Foy, there is a second foot bridge to Hole-in-the-Wall. From there the road climbs very steeply up to Brampton Abbots and then falls into Ross-on-Wye. I took a tour through the beautiful town and stopped at the church gardens to have lunch in the sun. After 12.30pm I continued on a side road to Walford, crossed the river and climbed up the hill to Goodrich from where I continued to Symonds Yat East. The approach to this very touristic site beautifully located in the narrow winding valley was significantly busier. Just before arriving at the parking I suddenly had a flat tyre. I stopped in the sun and started changing the inner tube. I put my spare inner tube, but when pumping it up again it was immediately flat again. So I had to take it out again. I checked the tyre, but could not find any problem. I patched both inner tubes and put it back. This time it worked. I continued on the old railway track, now a non-tarmaced cycle path. Clearly, my slick road tyres were not the right equipment here. After a few kilometres I felt that I was losing air again. I pumped it up, but continued to lose it. I was hardly able to enjoy the natural beauty of this river section. After the river bend I replaced the tube again. Now it seemed to work, but I had only one patch left. Just before arriving at the road in Monmouth the front tyre was flat. I patched it and decided to take a detour to Monmouth to buy a repair kit and new inner tubes. On the way into the town there was suddenly a bang again and I was flat again. Now the fun part was over, I had to find a bike shop, otherwise I would be stuck here. I asked a couple of people where the bike shop was, but they said that there used to be one, but not anymore. I already contemplated with trying to take the bus from here, when I finally found someone who pointed me to the right shop. I was finally able to continue on the road to Redbrook. However, half-way to Redbrook I felt again that I am losing air, not as much as before, but still. I topped it up and continued. If it did not get worse I could top it up every 3km and would still reach in time. I crossed the river on the foot bridge next to the old railway bridge at 5.30pm. I had still more than 2h for the last 25km to Chepstow. Should be easy, no? I continued with regularly topping up the air and made quite some good progress, although I had the impression that the intervals are slowly getting shorter. I passed the impressive remains of the Tintern Abbey which is brightly lit by the evening sunlight at 7pm. Now, one last serious hill and I would arrive. So far it went find and I was riding down on the other side past the race course, but at constant danger of having a flat tyre again. The top-up intervals reduced to 500m. Getting across Chepstow turned out to be not that easy due to a dual carriage way separating the centre from the station. It was almost 7.45pm and my train would leave in a couple of minutes. Suddenly, I had a flat tyre again. There was no time to deal with that now. I had to get to the station. So, I continued on the wheel and reached the station in time - just to see that the train was cancelled. Hopes were fading. I should probably start looking for accommodation. Fortunately, there was one last train on the departure board. So, I looked up whether this could help me to get back to Oxford on the day. It seemed to work with changing trains at Severn Tunnel Junction, Bristol Temple Meads, Bath Spa and Didcot Parkway, arriving in Oxford right after midnight. So, everything was fine. I got on the train and took the long, nightly way home. On the next day I went to the bike shop and replaced the tyres, which eliminated the problem of losing air. A tour to do again with adequate equipment!