Day 20 – Merryton to Abington
Actual distance 41.07Km or 25.52miles (or 23,878 bicycles)
Total Ascent 574m (or 7.65 wind turbines)
Staying at Abington Fire Station
We woke today, had egg butties (cooked by Ollie) for breakfast, then headed off back to Larkhall (Merryton) to start our cycle.
The kids found a playground (the first of two today!) as soon as we arrived at the start and disappeared whilst we took the bikes off the car.
We picked up cycle route 74 again and followed it all day! Within a kilometre we hit our first steep climb. The road continued in a similar vein with teasingly brief descents, followed by further climbs winding around cattle filled farm land and fields filled with large wind turbines.
We stopped for lunch in Blackwood in a park with an excellent playground. Clearly the hills hadn’t tired the children out enough as they certainly made the most of the facilities!
After lunch the road levelled out for a while, before hitting our biggest hill of the day; a steady but persistent ascent directly into a head wind. The wind was described as being ‘the worse thing yet’ by our youngest participant, and certainly caused quite a challenge for small legs. It meant the last 18km was fairly tough going for all (and for another cyclist that we overtook) despite a fairly nice cycle path.
We finished the day in Abington, initially taking refugee in their village shop where we stopped for an cuppa (and the children bought and ate far too much chocolate!). We then settled in pitching our tents on the grounds of the community fire station. A little alfresco cooking and dining followed and we were soon comfortably ready to sleep.
