If it's Tuesday, it must be...

... Westward Ho! to Charnock Richard!

Today started early again, the Frog chorus snoring in the chalet keeping one of our party awake most of the night, though all of us were unsettled at some point. At least we didn't have tents to take down, except Terry; he braved the conditions to continue his "grizzly LEJOG" whilst some of us were enjoying our "luxury LEJOG".

We set off at about 0700, heading for Linton and Lynmouth, with some of us wondering just how bad this Porlock Hill really was. Once we'd got down it, with stinking brakes and howling gearboxes, we realised that what we'd just gone down and up was not in fact Porlock Hill - that came later, starting off as 1 in 8 and going to 1 in 4 at the bottom, with a hairpin or two thrown in for good measure. All the cars made it though, and eventually we arrived at Morrisons in Bridgwater for breakfast. And not a moment too soon.

Next was a journey via Gordano Services to Charlton Farm, the CHSW's latest premises. This turned out to be a longer and slightly wetter journey for two cars, as we lost sight of the car in front coming out of the services and so missed the immediate right turn that took us the right way to Charlton Farm. Instead, we took the scenic route through a couple of floods which, when driven through, reached the roofs of the cars.

After finally getting back on the right road and turning into Charlton Farm we negotiated the speed humps (or rather gouged them with the exhaust) and headed up to reception, where we found the rest of the LEJOGgers had already been assembled, so we ended up parking at the front and being in a couple of the main photos as lead cars 8-)

Moving from there we headed for the old Severn Bridge, to take us into Chepstow. By this time we'd heard that the A466 was closed, so we decided that once we got to it we'd just follow any diversions in place. After negotiating the toll booths at the bridge, we entered Wales.

We weren't there very long, although the detour we had was most enjoyable, well signposted and we all managed to stay mostly together. We did notice that whilst all the road sign were in both English and Welsh, the "flood" and "diversion" signs weren't...

Eventually we headed for Hereford, back on the right road and free of diversions. A quick "comfort break" dropped us out of the convoy (apparently I'm the star of the video at that point, though I thought the nettles were enough cover).

We managed to get repositioned in the convoy in time for going round Shrewsbury and seeing my Dad in a layby with a "Go Dennis" sign waving and taking pictures as we all shot by beeping and waving ourselves. I should probably have told him about the support van that was following us, as apparently he was a bit puzzled by these two people waving at him from what was essentially just another white van...

We carried on up the country, through the odd bit of flooded road, as Team Flowery Twats had to break convoy due to their back seat passenger becoming car sick - though some blame this on someone else feeding her copious amounts of BabyBels...

Eventually we arrived at the services (after another unplanned detour near Warrington) and settled in. A quick KFC and a couple of bevvies later, here I am, wondering whether the forecast of snow for parts of Scotland is going to cause us any trouble tomorrow. It can't be any worse than submarining in Bristol, can it?