The obvious route out of Kiddy is the canal, so even though we’ve rejected towpaths before, we give this one more of a go. It is lovely in many ways: peaceful, scenic, with plenty of blackberries and no hills or traffic to worry about. The locks are quaint and the bridges are pretty.
At first the track is smooth and wide enough for two, but it gradually deteriorates and becomes a tyres-width bumping over grass and dried mud, so we decide we’ve had enough and come up to the roads. There might be hills and there might be traffic, but these are the choices you’re sometimes faced with on a bike tour.
Howard is back riding with us for the weekend, and we’re joined by Katy just south of Swindon (not that one), who has travelled down from Stockport and will be joining us for a couple of days. Shivaji has recommended the Medicine bakery in Codsall, just outside Wolverhampton, for what was supposed to be a coffee and cake stop. We’ve spent so long on the towpath that it’s most definitely lunchtime by the time we reach Codsall!
One advantage of using the roads is that the signs tell us when we’ve passed into a new county, and today we can add Staffordshire to the list. Stafford will be our next pit stop – preferably a nice pub near the river where we can have a coke before the final stretch to Stoke. The options are canal towpath (rejected), A road (flat but busy), or the country lanes over Aston hill.
We all know how hard it is on the legs to be constantly slogging uphill with all our luggage. But the hills bring the views and the freewheeling reward. It’s taken many years of cycle touring for me to appreciate hills. Once upon a time I hated going down because it only meant I had to go up again. Now I love going up, because it means you get to do the easy fun bit afterwards – a metaphor for life, perhaps. So of course we choose Aston hill, and we ride through the delightful village, climb the hill, and whizz down the other side smiling.
The riverside path in Stafford is paved, so it’s safe to venture back to the water to ride into town. It’s not quite what we were expecting: it’s shopping centres and car parks backing onto the water instead of the anticipated country pub. So we have a snack instead and keep going to Stone. Once again we’re bookending the day with a ride along the canal, and now it’s the Trent and Mersey, our fifth canal of the trip. The pub on the wharf is the perfect spot to toast the ride, before the last few miles to the campsite.
Stats for the day: 92km riding, 741m climbing
Accommodation: View camping. Good but Mark didn’t sleep well again because of the road noise.
Ride for Tim 
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