Lejog day 6 cheddar to monmouth

Ooh ow! Today was a toughy. Started well by feeling ok at breakfast, but both went rapidly downhill (metaphorically). Physically we went uphill with a grinder up the gorge. The drizzle set in from the offset and the gorge, although spectacular, was oppressive in the rain and felt neverending. Chew lake is apparently the most depressing place to stop for tea although the scone was ok we were left feeling down. We got back on our cycles just in time for drizzle to kick back in. Legendary timing. We took our first wrong turning shortly afterwards so it wasnt going well. Drag over to a place called ham green pill-where i jested that you would need medication if you ate green ham. Ha ha you have to keep your sense of humour on these things. Followed cycle path 41 through a massive council estate to get to the avonmouth bridge. Avonmouth is a shithole. Was expecting a big lorry park and wasnt disappointed. Cycle paths were awful and we were frequently abandoned to the busy lorry filled road. Got through unscathed to join the severn and wye bridges were we bumped into the fellow lejoggers from our cheddar b&b. dont think they were as clued up as us tho because they were navigating with a lonely planet guide and one of them had fallen off a couple of times. Bit of a drag out to tintern but then the scenery improved a million times over. The wye valley was beautiful (even better for being fairly flat!). A few ups and downs into monmouth but pretty good. Think i had some of my darkest hours today. I am not ashamed to say there were a couple of points where i shed a tear or two. It is pretty hard this lejog thing! But have now managed 3 60mile days in a row so something to be proud of. Hope we can take it a bit easier the next couple of days as our backsides are now pretty worn out. Really looking forward to the ride from wigan to standish though :0) sarah. Stats - 97 km, 14.8kph 488km cumulative. Road kill was varied today a badger,fox and a squirrel. I managed to also smuggle a caterpillar across the welsh border in my hair.