Day 7

Key stats: 78 miles, current location: The Mill, Staunton-on-Arrow, Ann Brisbane’s house

The morning got off to a slow start - we’d had snow, hail, and rain during breakfast and no-one wanted to leave the house. After an extremely long breakfast at Lucinda’s, we finally plucked up the courage to face the elements and actually managed to get into a good groove and had done close to 30 miles and were looking for our first break.

However, nothing could prepare us for the drama which was about to unfold. During one treacherous descent through the driving sleet, there was a sudden bang and a yelp from Will (the bang came from the bike), followed by Robin (a.k.a Murray Walker) dramatically exclaiming “Oh my god, it’s all over for Will, it’s all over!”. James and Tim turned, expecting to see Will careering into a ditch in a blaze of glory, were underwhelmed with the fact that Will’s rear tyre had blown and less than amused that we were a long walk to civilisation. There was only one thing for it, call in Bob in the support vehicle. Unfortunately, Dad was caught in a shopping outlet somewhere outside Chester and thus unable to reach us until we’d limped to the nearest village pub. It doesn’t happen like this on the Tour de France!

With the rain still driving outside the pub, it was evident that nerves were frayed. Murray Walker had morphed into Lloyd Grossman who was unjustly critical of the pub grub: the steak sandwiches had too many mushrooms in them, the French onion soup didn’t have enough onion in it, and the hot chocolate should have been renamed luke warm chocolate. The boys fed Robin with enough Dairy Milk to gag his culinary criticisms and get him back on the road.

This clearly worked, as we achieved over 50 miles non-stop through Shropshire and Herefordshire, which were relished and consumed by all like a good steak sandwich. Before we knew it, we’d scaled the infamous 1:4 climb between Castle Pulverbatch and Ratlinghope, unperturbed by their fearsome names, and descended into the heart of rural Herefordshire to Staunton-on-Arrow, the village where Mum grew up and Mum and Dad were married. Ann, Mum’s sister, lives in the village and is currently dog-sitting MacDuff (who, despite being 10, is still fast enough to catch a rat from the river Arrow, much to Dad’s delight).

It was here where our next challenge emerged: a mountain of ginger cake, lemon drizzle cake, hot cross buns, followed by spaghetti bolognase and a selection of four puddings and fruit salad. This is a challenge that we’ve grown familiar with. Lloyd was very satisfied with the quality and slept well.