Cardiff to Chepstow, the difficult day continues

View from Penarth

The other side of the Bristol Channel was looking closer all the time.  

First sight of Cardiff Bay

Cardiff was much like Swansea, lovely to enter, not so nice to leave.  My coastal route into Cardiff involved a hill, but gave some nice views over the bay.  Much like Swansea, I did not explore the city, but instead rode over the bay barrage, stopping to admire the fish bypass, which is even larger than Twickenham's own fish bypass.  

Fish bypass

Whizz through the harbour, and out the other side   I was late for an appointment with a bed and a shower in Chepstow.  So if you want to find out what Cardiff is like, sorry  but this is the wrong blog for you. 

Leaving Cardiff

Leaving Cardiff was a nightmare.  The obvious coastal road went past some sort of steelworks,  but was choc-a-bloc with heavy traffic: vans, lorries, and cars.  Slow moving, and not wide enough to filter inside the lane of traffic.  It was horrible.  I rode on the pavement, which was awful - covered with black mucky grit.  Signs warned of slag lorries crossing.  It was raining a bit.  And then I got a puncture.  My first in all the thousands of miles round the coast.  And in a horrible place to fix it.  The wheel was filthy black.  Marathon Plus tyres are pretty sturdy, but a big, 1cm shard of glass had managed to get through.  It was miserable.

Puncture fixed, I set off into the traffic, gritting my teeth and riding as fast as I could.  Garmin didn't  help: "turn left onto trunk road".  Luckily that was only a roundabout.

After an age,  Garmin said "onto unclassified road"   30mph signs.  But nobody had told the drivers, who were still doing 60mph.

The end of the nightmare?

Eventually, quiet roads returned and my stress levels slowly went down.  I was very late.  But I'd entered a very flat area, like the fens, with drainage ditches everywhere, so I could just buzz along for miles.

Arrive at Newport, with the wide, tidal river Usk.  I was gasping for a little something, so went into town along the Usk and found a riverside cafe.  Very pretty.  Again I didn't  go into the city centre.

River Usk at Newport

Transporter Bridge 

I was planning to cross the Usk on the very impressive Transporter Bridge, a sort of horizontal lift dangling from a very high up railway. But it seemed to be closed, so I found another bridge, with a wide cycleway, and that was all fine. I liked Newport.

Flat riding

More flat riding. I hadn't seen the sea, well, the Bristol Channel, for a long time, and was heading for it. Garmin said "Turn left onto footpath". Warning bells rang. My notes said "C-track for 4.5 miles along coast, ... looks OK" (meaning looks OK on the satellite view). It wasn't. After climbing up the levee, there was a tiny kissing gate, impassable for bikes, with a steep drop into the river if you went round it.

You Shall Not Pass

I'm not sure how this was labelled as a cycle track, but it wasn't for me. I took a route inland, and after a couple of tries eventually found a proper cycle route along the Severn. A few nice roads, and a bit of the hated A48, and I arrived at Chepstow about 7.30pm.

The newer Severn Crossing

Check into the hostel, rush to pub before last food orders, eat, return, shower, and relax. Ahhh.