Bike ride in and around Gloucester

I mapped a 50k route in the morning before leaving home and driving to Gloucester.

Map of a 55.6 km cycling route around Cheltenham and Gloucester shown in red against a muted OpenStreetMap background, with an elevation profile below peaking around mid-ride, and text beneath reading 55.6 km Distance, 639 m Elevation Gain, and 2 h 38 m Moving Time.

It was good to have the opportunity to have a ride around an area outside of Kent. That’s not to say there is anything wrong with cycling in Kent. Far from it. I love the countryside, the landscape, the hills, hedgerows, farm land and country lanes close to home. It’s just good to see some new sites. To ride on unfamiliar roads.

In that regard and on the way into Cheltenham I came across a few fine examples of street art stencilled on the walls of a subway going under the Gloucester Road….

Black-and-white mural of a solemn human face on a dark wall, composed of pixel-like blocks, with a horizontal metal pipe crossing at mouth level and @rj77stencils stenciled in yellow at top left. Monochrome street art of a surprised woman peeking from behind a wall, painted beside bold purple graffiti letters, with a bright yellow handrail running across the lower third of the image. Close-up of a lifelike grayscale mural of a woman gazing upward, her hair rendered in fine brush-stroke detail, against a pale textured wall.

And then as I approached the top of a pretty long climb up a country lane I heard some proper thumping drum and bass. Very out of place in otherwise peaceful surroundings. No complaints from me. I love all that. Intrigued I rode on and soon spotted the musics origin -

Outdoor DJ setup in front of a hatchback car draped in camouflage netting, featuring a female DJ in a green puffer jacket mixing on a Pioneer controller, flanked by two assistants against an overcast sky.

Just the three of them there. I assumed they were testing things out and practising for greater things. They were happy for me to take a few snaps. I did not stop and chat or think to ask what they were up to. I regret not doing so now and using the opportunity to get more photos and hear their story.

Not far beyond this the route took me down a gravel track. In my haste I omitted to tick the box to have the route follow paved surfaces only. Just past the 20k mark and I’m on the Cotswold Way. Trudging down a deeply rutted and furrowed stony path through some woods and back down a long hill I’d just climbed all the way up.

Gravelly woodland track littered with sticks and stones, blocked by a fallen log, with a touring gravel bike leaning against it, small ferns and autumn leaves lining the narrow path.

I’d like to say lesson learned but this is not the first time I’ve done something like this. I think I am though making fewer of the same mistakes.

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