Day 3 Wellington (Somerset) to Thornbury (Gloucestershire)

Day 3 is now all done, the daily stats are:

Miles: 74.2
Climbing: 1686 ft
Average Speed: 14.0 mph
Max Speed: 28.6 mph
Time Riding: 5 hr 18 mins
Total Duration: 8 hr 23 mins
Steepest Gradient: 15.8%

Strawberry Line

Rolled out of the Travelodge in Wellington at 5 minutes past 8 this morning after a relatively poor night's sleep due to the room being way too hot. What with no air conditioning, the window only opening 4 inches and the room being in the eaves I am not surprised the room was to warm. So it was much to my surprise that within half a mile of the start I was reaching for the arm warmers, which remained on until late morning. If only the window would have opened further I'm sure I could have got another 2 hours sleep in.
The ride today was almost the polar opposite of yesterday's Devon exploits. With less than 2000 ft of climbing the ride through the Somerset Levels was great, heading up the A38 to Taunton and then Bridgewater before heading onto country lanes across the levels to Weston Super Mare on the coast. Here I took in the sea air and relaxed on the promenade and beach for an hour.
After Weston I continued NE, the Strawberry Line was a welcome break from riding on the roads, pity I only got to experience a couple of miles of it as I headed to Yatton. From there I went through Clevedon followed by Portishead and then across the Avonmouth river bridge adjacent to the M5. Once across the river it was a great ride through the outskirts of Bristol using many National Cycle Network routes, heading up and past Blaisse Castle before dropping back down to the valley to cross the M4 and M48 and into South Gloucestershire. Having had perfect weather and a relatively flat route today I rolled into the B&B for tonight at 4:30.

Weston Super Mare

Weston Super Mare

The Causeway