Superb couple of days in the Forest of Dean, courtesy of Psling and Kev. Many bikers just visit Cannop trail centre, but there's all sorts of hidden tracks and corners to explore in one of the most interesting areas of the UK. Peter kindly accommodated my industrial archaeology leanings into the route and there was lots to see.
A roundabout train journey via Birmingham brought me to Lydney late Tuesday night, and tea and toast and yarning meant we didn't crash out until midnight. Up at a civilised 7.30am for tea and shredded wheat and off we went.
A fairly immediate steep uphill set the pattern for the day, but Peter had planned a stop at the Filling Station Cafe in Tintern. After a very nice coffee, we bumped into Andy Lewis MBE, with his amazing artificial leg, on his bike. He asked to pop round to Peter’s for some bikepacking advice!
A quick diversion to the old wire works site (factoid: brass was “invented” here in 1568), then another uphill slog through the trees and along the top of the Wye valley down to the Boat Inn at Redbrook for lunch. Or not. Some pea and mint soup on the menu but the kitchen closed 20 minutes ago. Peter had the excellent idea of asking for cold soup and cooking it on our stoves outside, but we fell back on a beer and some crisps, followed by a sandwich at the shop over the river.
More uphill (where do they put the “downs” in Dean I wonder?) into Coleford where we were accosted by a lady who asked if we were policemen and then told us not to ride our bikes next to the bike stands outside the supermarket. All very curious.
The route next took in various old mineral railways to the pub near Parkend where “Beware The Bear” was one of the beers on offer – I fancied adding a Post-It note on the end of the pump clip with “Boners” on it.
Our bivi spot was situated on top of an old coal mine’s slag heap, so you couldn’t sleep much closer to the archaeology than that I suppose. A feature of slag is that it’s pretty solid stuff so I simply bunged my mat and sleeping bag down and left it at that. Kev was made of sterner stuff however and managed to erect his tarp using some BBB carbon pegs which just goes to show the quality of Stu’s gear – “you can hammer these pegs into solid rock nae bother”. The full moon saved our light batteries, and after a pleasant night we were woken by the dawn chorus of a whole forest full of birds – amazing sound.
More hidden trails in the morning, including a route through the sculpture park. These are incredible, and include a giant stained glass window suspended from the trees. I actually found the sculptures slightly unsettling as a result of their incongruity.
A traditional “second breakfast” was provided by the lovely people at Hopewell Colliery Museum, who Peter knew seemingly just like he knows everyone else in the Forest
. I partook of four slices of toast and a brew, while Peter and Kev indulged in a FEB – I’ve no idea how you lot manage these and still ride bikes afterwards. The mine is an example of what used to be possibly hundreds of coal drift mines in the FoD, where tradition allows a couple of blokes (and recently, the first lady Free Miner) and a dog and a pick-axe to hack coal out from pretty much anywhere in the Forest. We didn’t have time for a mine tour, but Peter suggested we could do something next year with an “access all areas” tour of various mines and caves in a “speleopacking” caper – top idea.
A last gentle wobble down through the Forest to Lydney, where I roped the chaps into yet another hare-brained Reg diversion to go and inspect the docks. I’ll be the first to admit they were slightly underwhelming but at least we’d viewed them, and also had a chat with some tandem aficionados who were on the way to a meet-up near Parkend. One thing I’d like to see is a tandem team with the bloke on the BACK seat and the lassie in charge up front, but I still haven’t spotted one.
A very pleasant train ride back home ensued, after a laid back and extremely enjoyable couple of days. As you know I don’t give a monkeys about miles, times or whatnot but I think Peter said it was about 40 miles and 4500’ of climb. More curious for me was that I managed that, on a fairly warm day, on just a pot of tea, some shredded wheat, a coffee and some toffee FJ, a dodgy cheese and pickle roll, a Picnic bar and a pint, plus only about 1 litre of water; followed by a bean burger and a couple more beers (but NO sticky toffee pudding!) afterwards. Clever things, bodies.
4/4, 4/12, 39/39.
‘Reg’
Thank you so much for your offer, but it sounds like it will be a similar pack size to my current one. thank you so much though :)
