Day 12 Newland to Street. 70 miles

Got woken several times in the night by a strong wind blowing my tiny tent around - not a good sign for the day's ride ahead! Sure enough when we got up the wind was still strong and it started to rain just as we were packing up. We got going and cycled through the beautiful Wye Valley (the view was somewhat marred by the pouring rain) heading towards Chepstow. 10 miles in we came across a lovely little Cafe within an old railway statiion in Tintern where we stopped for a fry up. Feeling decidedly better we headed in to Chepstow where the rain cleared up just as we reached the beautiful vista that is the old Severn Bridge, which we crossed on the cycle path. We then used the Gand Nav to travel along back roads and cycle paths to the nice part of Bristol, up and down some big hills to the Clifton Downs and then over the River Avon on the Clifton Bridge. We asked Gand to cycle over first to take a photo of Darrin and I as we crossed, but he managed to completely screw it up due to getting a text just as he was pressing the shutter - it was refreshing to see that even he can get things wrong occasionally! We then headed for Cheddar and decided to take a Gandhi shortcut which took us through the Mendip Hills. One or 2 tough climbs later (why do his shortcuts always involve big hills?), we reached Cheddar then headed on for Glastonbury and Street, our stop for the night. Feeling tired and filthy, I decided to stay at a pub while the others headed for the local hostel. I say local - proved to be 3 miles out of town. When they got there, they were told that there were no spare bunks, so the poor sods are camping again. Can't wait to see the little rays of sunshine tomorrow morning.....