If you were the couple from Oxfordshire, that was me. Sorry! My excuse is that by that time my brain was tired. I had forgotten about Fernhill, too. In fact I hadn't really paid much attention to that part of the route, thinking "Local roads, I'll know where to go." As a result, I got thoroughly lost between Doynton and Bitton – retracing three times and getting lost in a different direction each time.
Anyway, for me the hardest section by far was from the bridge to Raglan. It wasn't a windy day but the headwind that there was really sapped my strength. That and the constant up-down roads. But after Clytha it was new roads to me, rather beautiful ones, and the descent into Usk recharged my batteries. I'd only been up the big hill after Usk once before – on that occasion I had to walk half of it, so wasn't optimistic with already tired legs, but, making steam train noises, and indeed lots of steam, I did it. Which just goes to show that it's easier to get up a hill when you know what's up there. Perhaps.
And the descent through Wentwood. Were we meant to go through Wentwood? I don't think so, because I know I missed a turn to Shirenewton somewhere. Worth it for that amazing downhill though! I ended up on a main road and asked a fortuitously timed Sainsbury's van driver for directions. "Just go straight along here, don't turn anywhere. This is the A48 Chepstow Road," he told me, warning "It's five or six miles though." The A48 is a South Wales equivalent of the A38 north of Bristol – quiet (at least on a Saturday afternoon), wide, straight and mostly flat. It didn't feel like even five miles to the roundabout at the end of the cycle track that leads to the bridge. And after that it was just a matter of plodding on and getting lost again!
It was great, I must start doing this audax lark again.
