Day 13 - Over Two Bridges to Chepstow

It rained all night and Day 13, Friday, dawned murky and drizzly and cold. Sue returned us to Wraxhall Church, and were soon on our way, steeply up to The Downs School which was traversed by our footpath. The first part of the route was quite pleasant, in spite of the rain, through bluebell woods and over quiet fields. Walking through Prior's wood down to Portbury was actually enjoyable, but we were soon back on suburban streets, winding our way to Gordano Services just off the M5. This place was another world to us after the past days, and seemed totally industrial and ghastly, with cars and trucks roaring past, and the dirt, litter inhuman scale of things. Once we get in our cars, we have a very different appreciation of speed and danger from that when we are on foot.

We had a break in the services and a coffee, then found a footpath that led to the north, just by the M5, through a small wood that was littered with rubbish, then through more streets to find the path that would lead over the Avonmouth Bridge. The carries the M5 high over the Avon, which looked grey and muddy as it was low tide, and the bridge was a long, windy noisy trudge. There followed 3 miles through the huge housing estates to the west of Bristol where many people seemed to look at us as strange creatures from another planet. We got a few cheery 'hellos' though, and the area seemed quite well looked after overall.

Finally emerging onto fields we crossed the M5, then walked on lanes towards the M4 and beyond. This is an odd bit of land, surrounded by the Severn Estuary, and 3 motorways. It is mostly flat farmland with bits of industry and little settlements and villages here and there, but always the hum of traffic. There was one huge truck graveyard with recovery trucks waiting for the call out.

We headed for a pub at Pilning, hoping for a bowl of soup, but sadly it had closed down and we sat in the smokers area outside, with ash trays full of soggy buts. Even liquorice allsorts had started to pall. From there it was long lanes, over the M4, at Northwick where a horse had escaped from a traveller's camp and a man was trying to recover it from the roadside. Then a mile or so across a lot of fields and stiles to Aust and the Severn Bridge. Again, we were frustrated in the fields by the lack of sign posting which caused us to waste time and go wrong at one point. Also the stiles in Somerset and Avon don't have a proper cross-piece on which you step to go over the stile, but rely upon a wider bottom rung only: this makes them more difficult to cross.

At Aust, we climbed up to the cycle path that runs alongside the motorway - this is 2 miles long and seemed a lot longer in the murk of a soggy afternoon. The Severn was brown and swirling, and a long way below us. On the other side, we still had a further 2 miles up through the suburbia and estates of Bulwark into Chepstow. We quickly found a hotel in the centre and it was a great relief to be able to stop, take a bath and look forward to the weekend!