It was Sunday morning so the traffic was quiet and I wanted to get there quickly, so I blatted straight up the A38 to Gloucester. In the outskirts I took to the towpath and very soon – thunk, chunk, bump! Flat front tyre. The S&G was to one point the world's broadest canal but its towpath is narrow, not an ideal environment in which to change a tube. Air was gushing out of an old patch, no new holes visible, nothing in the tyre, so put a new tube in and off. I haven't been to Gloucester since last summer, when I'd seen from the other side of the canal they were resurfacing the towpath, looked like tarmac. It turns out they've put a tarmac base down, presumably for durability and all-weather use, with gravel on top. I presume the gravel is because it matches the canal aesthetic and is kinder to the feet of runners, small children, dogs and tow horses, not that I've ever seen a horse along there. It also makes a pleasing crunching sound underwheel.
Stopped at the Comfy Pew and had some "cauliflower wings," which were pleasant in an odd way, then out across Alney Island and up through Maisemore and Hartpury. The hill between these two is one of my favourite places to ride a bike, especially for the views of the Cotswolds to the right, the Malverns straight ahead and far off to the left the Black Mountains. In the next village, Ashleworth, someone was selling homemade jam from their garden. There was a choice of rhubarb jam or rhubarb chutney... I got a jar of jam. A Carradice saddlebag is a very useful thing to have! Meandered up some lanes I'd never taken before, which turned out to lead me in a loop back to where I'd been five minutes earlier.
Just after Ashleworth is a low-lying flooded area that's an important site for water birds. Occasionally there are hordes of twitchers there, mostly middle-aged men in odd clothes getting obsessive about things other people find bemusing; if they had bicycles they'd be audaxers. Yesterday there was only one. Apparently most birds are moulting at this time of year so it's a bit dull for them, but he did get very excited when he spotted a roebuck. "That's a truly wild animal! One of only two native British deer species! He's a wonderfully healthy specimen, look at his coat!"
Continued up to Tewkesbury then headed down the A38 back to Gloucester, because it's pretty much the only alternative to retracing. About halfway along there is a signpost to a village called The Leigh with one of those brown historic building signs to St Catherine's Church. I've often ridden past it but never been for a look, so I went to find it. As soon as I walked in, an elderly lady came up to me. "Have you come to join our service?" No, which is just as well as I'd have been 45 minutes early. Soon a slightly less elderly lady joined us and started talking to me. She'd been a maths teacher. Her husband's family apparently find the idea of a woman teaching maths odd. It turned out she'd taught at my sister's school (which was nowhere near Tewkesbury)! I didn't establish whether she'd actually taught my sister, it seemed wisest not to enquire too deeply, just in case...
Had some pancakes when I got back to Gloucester. The Three Choirs Festival is on. My observations indicate the average age of the audience to be around 70, large groups attracted from (judging by accents) Netherlands, Scandinavia and USA. I can see andrewc attending in a couple of decades time!
Then back down the lanes, meeting no more bird watchers or festival goers. My sugrued rear light (photos to be posted elsewhere) survived intact, my knees were tired. There was cake at home. Was.