Day seven began in Bath when we said goodbye to Tricia, Marcus, Izzy and Max. Helen drove me back to Chew Stoke where I had stopped the evening before and then we both set off for Bristol where we were going to meet for lunch. My progress was slightly slower than hers as I was straight back onto steep and narrow lanes with high hedgerows compounded by some ambiguous signage that caused me to add a few unnecessary miles to my journey.

Bristol is the home of Sustrans and as a result there are many more cycle routes here than in other parts of the country and being on a cycle trail is no guarantee that it is the one you want. Just about every corner has cycle route stickers and signs and there are cycle lanes everywhere. Bristol also seems to be mostly a building site just now and the centre and every approach is dug up and cordoned off and following the correct cycle route was well-nigh impossible for me. I eventually enlisted the support of a passing lady cyclist of my vintage who was heading for Queen Square in the centre as I was and I was at last able to meet up with Helen about an hour behind schedule. Lunch was a highlight, but all too soon I was once again lost in a maze of streets and had once more to enlist the help of strangers.

It took about an hour and a half to disentangle myself from Bristol by which time I had explored it pretty fully but had covered no more than 15 miles of the 65 that I needed to cycle to get to Gloucester and by now it was about three in the afternoon. I was however, still struggling with my navigation and having gone over and under and round the M4, the M5 and passed Go twice, I had to flag down a passing cyclist to reassure me that I wasn’t on the completely wrong country lane.

Eventually I did get on to a road with a decent surface that went for more than 200 yards without a turn-off and, with a following wind, the miles started to pass by. The guide had promised that Berkeley, which is about 20 miles from Gloucester, was a good place for weary travellers to refresh themselves but when I got there – it was shut! I buckled down to the business of cycling again and saw that I was about to join the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal tow path and was encouraged that I would be on a traffic free flat surface, however the tow path proved to be a bone jarring experience that once again slowed my progress. The canal was once the widest and deepest in the world in order to allow ships to avoid strong tides on the Severn on their way to Gloucester.

I eventually made it to Gloucester at about 6.30pm and finding the hotel was very straightforward which was at least one navigational success for the day. The area of Gloucester where we stayed is called the Quays and had been the heart of the port but like many cities it has been transformed into a very stylish shopping and dining area and I managed to get a smart new rain jacket and a jolly good dinner. The distance covered was 63 miles with an ascent of 2,400 feet in about 6.5 hours of cycling and a lot of time spent asking for directions.