Camra's Bristol Beer Festival

Here is a quick round up of the beers I tried at the opening night of Camra's Bristol Beer Festival (in alphabetical not tasted order). I'm no tasting expert, just a beer fan, so these are simply my impressions of the beers I tried. It's the first time they've held the event on a Thursday evening & it wasn't packed by any means, but there were enough there to ensure it didn't feel too lonely in Brunel's massive Old Station at Temple Meads. I suspect the Friday and Saturday evenings will be a lot less sedate...

The room was the original terminal station for the GWR railway. Designed by the great Isambard Kingdom Brunel, it was opened on 31 August 1840 to Bath and a year later to Paddington, with the Bristol and Exeter station being built a couple of years later at right angles to Brunel's. I love the interior, with it's huge roof and mock hammerbeams, designed to emulate Westminster Hall.

So, lets get down to business. The beer. The choice was stupendous, about 135 different beers and obviously I didn't try all of them or I would not be sat here writing this today, I would be throwing up somewhere in a gutter at the back of the station.

Here, then, is a quick rundown of the ones I did try. The glass you get when you come in is usefully lined (yay, lined glasses!!!) with pint, half and third measures, so I stuck to thirds on the basis I could try more beers. I also agreed with my companion that we would not try the same beers and taste each others to maximise the number of different beers we could try.



Chocolate Orange Stout from Amber in Wigan 4.0%
Yes - it really does taste like Terry's Chocolate Orange. Very yummy indeed although too sweet to drink more than a pint or ten.

Hop a Doodle Doo from Brewsters in Lincolnshire 4.3%

Ok, I'll admit that this was the last beer of the evening  - I was feeling a little tipsy and my tastebuds had taken a hammering. My tasting notes say 'jaunty'. I think it was nice.

Trade Winds from Cairngorm in Scotland 4.3%
I love this beer - I voted it my favourite beer of my Lands End to John o'Groats cycle ride. Lovely pale golden beer with lovely citrus and elderflower notes.

Ginger from Enville in Stourbridge 4.6%
Maybe I'm not very subtle but I like a ginger beer to really taste of ginger. This one doesn't. It was agreeable enough but lacked a punch.

Litehouse from Forge in Devon 4.3%
This was SIBA Champion South West in 2010 so hopes were high but I found it a bit flat and disappointing. Nice golden colour but tasted a bit - well - saggy and tired.

Windermere Pale from Hawkshead in Cumbria 3.5%
This was super - low gravity but not low flavour - fresh, hoppy taste and went down very well.


Wenlock Stout from Ironbridge in Shropshire 5.1%
A smashing stout this - very smooth. Malty without tasting burnt or bitter.

Riders on the Storm from Kelham Island in Sheffield 4.5%
Amber coloured, nice flavoured - can I taste orange in there somewhere?

Ginger from Marble in Manchester  4.5%
This is what I call a ginger beer! Strong ginger flavour and lots of bite. Liked it very much.

Oscar Wilde Mild from Mighty Oak in Essex 3.7%
Dark reddish beer with unusual flavours but rather overpowered by coffee which I wasn't terribly keen on - bit like drinking cold Nescafe.

Dark Island from Orkney in Scotland 4.6%
Consulting the beer index of Mud Sweat and Gears I see I tried the bottled version of this at John o'Groats. Dark beer with notes of chocolate, fruit and coffee but with none of the flavours overpowering the beer. Lovely. Easy to see why it's twice Champion Beer of Scotland.

Brewers Gold from Pictish in Lancashire 3.8%
Very fresh and fruity! Pale, hoppy beer which zings the taste buds.

Pure Gold from Purity in Warwickshire 3.8%
This beer apparently uses four different hops and two types of malt. Obviously used to good effect - a really quaffable beer at 3.8%.

Pure Ubu from Purity in Warwickshire 4.5%
Very tasty amber coloured brew wich is lovely to swill around the mouth. Pronounced caramel flavour.

Steam Spring from RCH in West Hewish 4.6%

Lovely, lovely fresh and zesty beer, one of my favourites of the evening. I cycled past the brewery the other day, I may call back and stock up on this one!

Blackberry Cascade from Saltaire in W Yorks 4.8%
I was expecting a reddish beer, in fact it is a blonde but with hints of blackberry and other fruits. Nice, fresh beer, lovely on a summer day in the pub garden.

Ginger Tosser from Skinners in Cornwall 3.8%
No ginger or anything else much in this one. The beer was flat (in flavour I mean) and didn't taste of anything much. Disappointing.

Cornwall's Pride from Tintagel in Cornwall 4.0%
Beautiful amber colour; this Cornish beer had plenty of rounded flavour and body.

Midnight Sun from Williams in Scotland 5.6%
I hadn't read the notes and expected a golden beer (cos of the reference to the sun), in fact it's a black, strong flavoured porter that packed a punch. Lots of malty, roasty, hoppy, gingery taste.

Old Trout from Worsthorne in Lancashire 4.5%
Middling colour, middling flavour. A reasonable session beer although it lacked any wow factor ,as far as I'm concerned.

Overall, a cracking choice of beers from across the country. I realised at the end of the evening that I had merely scratched the surface. I have much work to do if I'm going to try them all.

A Bristol pub crawl

An entirely subjective list of my favourite pubs in Bristol central/harbour area:

1. The Three Tuns

The Tuns used to be a bit of a dive. Actually that's not true. It was a lot of a dive. The Telegraph reports it was an 'honest boozer's pub.' Not sure about that, I remember it as the sort of pub one scuttled past on the way to Hotwells, ideally on the opposite side of the road. After a refit the Three Tuns re-opened three years ago under manager Mark Farrell, and soon became a favourite on the real ale circuit. The interior is plain - hefty pine tables and stripped wooden floor. No games machines or TV, a double plus on my marking system. A couple of managers on, the Tuns still serves superbly kept beer. One of two pubs owned by Kingswood brewery Arbor Ales, the Tuns gets it right on every count.

2. Bag of Nails

Just down the road from the Three Tuns is the Bag of Nails, which has long been a favourite of mine. Once known as the American Eagle, the pub got a refurb and change of name in the 1990's. Last year there was much consternation amongst the local real ale fraternity when the pub closed again - but it has since reopened, having been tastefully spruced up by landlord Luke. I like the record player and invitation to put on your own vinyl. I also like the ever changing choice of real ales on offer. Luke's Rules, chalked up on the central pillar have caused some discussion, especially the controversial Rule One.

3. Merchants Arms

A Bath Ales pub, it's a traditional boozer. The interior is painted cream and brown which sounds vile but actually works well. There's a separate room at the back popular if you fancy playing aboard game of which there are plenty. The pub has all the ingredients of a traditional boozer: friendly with good conversation, nice low lighting and good beer.



4. The Grain Barge

Two hundred and fifty years ago there were nine shipyards in Bristol. By 1976 there was only one, Charles Hill and Sons, who in that year, launched their last ship. The Grain Barge had been built at the Charles Hill Shipyard in 1936. The engineless 'dumb' barge used to be towed across the Severn from Bristol to Cardiff carrying barley and wheat. As Bristol docks declined as a working port, the barge sat rusting away on her moorings near the SS Great Britain until she was bought by Bristol Beer Factory in 2007 who restored and refitted her. She is now moored opposite the site of the yard where she was built. On summer evenings the Barge is a fabulous place to sit out on deck with a pint and watch the activity in the docks. Bristol Beer Factory produce some fine brews, my personal favourite is Sunrise, a lovely slightly citrus golden ale.



5.The Cornubia

The Cornubia was built as a Georgian townhouse in 1776 for a local wigmaker, Charles Cox. It became a pub in 1859 and has been so ever since. Sadly, all the surrounding buildings have disappeared, and it now sits incongruously amongst a sea of office blocks. Originally named the Rabbit Warren, 'Cornubia' is the old Latin name for Cornwall; it's likely that the pub was renamed after the SS Cornubia, a paddle steamship built in 1858 that used to run between Hayle and Bristol. In the American Civil War she was bought by the Confederate States and taken over to America to carry supplies as a blockade runner. (The ship not the pub.) The Cornubia was the brewery tap for Georges Brewery just up the road. After Georges was swallowed up by Courages it became a training pub for Courage managers, which is probably how it managed to hang on to so many of its original fittings. The pub is now run by Phil and Jackie who do a good job of having a regularly rotating choice of well kept beers. The only snag is Phil's dislike of cyclists - I'm going to work on that...


6. The Seven Stars

Lurking down a dark, cobbled alley off Redcliff Street, The Seven Stars is another pub with a long history. The first known mention of the pub is in 1694 when Sir John Hawkins bought the pub from the Saunders brewing dynasty, at the same time as setting up what was to become Georges Brewery. Almost a hundred years later, in 1787, Thomas Clarkson came to Bristol as part of his investigation of the slave trade. The landlord of the Seven Stars befriended him, and he would sit in the Seven Stars secretly gathering evidence of the trade, and of the underhand methods which the slave ship owners would use to recruit sailors for these voyages. The evidence Clarkson gathered was key to eventually changing public opinion and getting the slave trade abolished twenty years later. Nowadays things are much jollier; the Seven Stars regularly has eight different beers on offer, and it won CAMRA Bristol and District Pub of the Year in 2010 and 2011. The decor is pretty basic, there's a pool table and some rough seats. It is - in short - a proper pub.



7. Commercial Rooms

The Commercial Rooms is a JDW pub opened in 1995. It's a Neoclassical building designed by Charles Busby, an architect working mainly in Brighton and Hove, and opened in 1810 as a club for wealthy Bristol merchants. Perched on the roof are three statues - the 'three commercial graces' representing Bristol, commerce and navigation. The interior is stunning, a large room which still has the boards listing the names of the club presidents and officials. The first president was one John Loudon McAdam, inventor of tarmac. Although Scottish, he had been appointed surveyor to the Bristol Turnpike Trust in 1816. Above the bar is a circular weather vane dial which told the merchants when ships were likely to be arriving in port. (Incidentally the clock dating from 1822 on the Exchange immediately opposite the Commercial Rooms is also unusual, in that it tells both Bristol and Greenwich Mean Time.) The pub always has a good selection of well kept real ales. The only downside is the counter is very high. At least its a downside for shorties like me. Sometimes, when it's busy, I have to jump up and down to be seen.


8. The Kings Head, Victoria Street.

Another historic pub dating, according to the sign on the wall, from 1660. It sits in front of Bristol's own leaning tower, Temple Church, built on marsh land and bombed in World War 2.

The interior of the pub is an odd and fascinating mixture, dating from the mid-nineteenth century onwards. It is the only Bristol pub on Camra's National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors and is worth a visit for that reason alone. The Tramcar Bar was installed in the early Victorian period, and indeed the whole pub, with it's narrow corridor and brown paint, reminds me of  a GWR train.

There is normally has a good choice of real ale on offer, including a regular appearance of TEA (Traditional English Ale) from Hogs Back Brewery in Surrey and Betty Stoggs from Skinners Brewery. The pub is on the expensive side though, at £3.40 a pint.


9. The Cottage

Owned by Butcombe Brewery the Cottage is a comparatively new pub by Bristol standards. The building dates to 1868 and was used for timber storage and later as the Harbour Masters Office. It opened as a pub in 1983 and was bought by Butcombes in 2009.

It majors in food (which it does very well) but remains a proper pub and often has Butcombe's less easily available brews on offer. When I visited recently it was offering Old Vic Porter and Adam Henson's Rare Breed. It is also in a superb location with lovely views across the harbour (or 'the Docks' as we Bristolians call it). Worth seeking out on summer days.

10. The Orchard Inn

Tucked away behind the SS Great Britain Spike Island, Bristol's artisan quarter, the Orchard is primarily a cider pub, in fact it won Camra's National Cider Pub of the Year Award in 2009. But it always has a few real ales on offer as well. It has a down-to-earth friendly feel about it and the clientele is an interesting mix of local arty types, stray tourists and cider heads. To soak up the booze there is proper pub grub - pasties and pies, and delicious filled rolls. The beer has got more expensive of late, but sadly, that seems to be the case everywhere.


11. The Shakespeare

I was going to list my top ten but it seems a shame to miss out the Shakespeare  Tavern on Prince Street. I mention the street as there are quite a few pubs called the Shakespeare in Bristol. I know this as I remember sitting in one of them for quite a long time on my own wondering why none of my mates had turned up. (This was pre-mobile phone so no way of phoning and saying 'where the bloody hell are you?') I was in the wrong Shakespeare.

Anyway, this Shakespeare is one of a block of three Georgian townhouses designed by John Strachan in 1725. Fashionable with local wealthy merchants in the eighteenth century, the area fell out of favour after the construction of the New Cut which slowed up the flow of the river (into which everyone chucked their sewage) and the place began to stink. It doesn't stink now though. The Shakespeare is a Greene King pub although there is usually a guest ale on as well. For a city centre pub it has a nice, solid feel to it - lots of wood, and the beer has always been in condition when I've been here.


Well that's my top eleven pubs for Bristol central/harbour/Hotwells. No doubt there are many gems I have missed so if you know of any that should be added to the list please let me know and I will conduct an inspection visit. It's a hard job but someone's got to do it...

And because I'm feeling nice, I've drawn a map with a suggested route from and to the train station, showing where all the pubs are.


View Bristol pub crawl in a larger map

A Radstock Ring

It's only a few weeks until End-to-End Ireland. Number of training rides this year so far - one. This will not do. I have been pottering about on my bike as usual but I need to get a few more longer rides under my belt  if we are not going to have a repeat of Lejog (lots of tears and fears). Plus I have somehow managed to acquire another fourteen pounds (weight not money) since that trip. There is definitely a need for some serious training.

Mick turned up on his Cannondale and, easing us into the ride gently, we set off along the Bristol-Bath cycle path. (Sustrans Route 4) which sugueways nicely into the towpath alongside the River Avon. Along the bank, large numbers of people in yellow high viz jackets were doing a fine job, litter picking and repainting benches. I stopped to chat to one of them, mindful of the current hoo-hah about people on benefit being forced to carry out unpaid labour. 'You're not on one of those schemes are you?' I asked.
He shook his head. 'No, it's all voluntary. The council advertised at the universities and colleges.'
"Well you're doing a fine job.'
'Yes,' he replied, 'only thing is, there's so many of us, we're running out of litter.'
Mick kindly offered to throw his gum wrapper on the floor to help out, but his offer was politely declined, and we went on our way.

In Bath I briefly led us onto a busy road before realising both lanes were for carrying traffic in the other direction. 'Oops,' I said, heading for the pavement. 'It's more than oops,' said Mick. 'I'll lead, you'll get us killed.' He led us to the bottom of Widcombe flight, and a brief respite from the traffic before we rejoined it again on Bathwick Hill. For speed we cycled to Bathampton on the busy A36, and I was relieved when the turning for the village came up on the left. I waited at the top of the hill for Mick who was a little way behind for a change.
'Ah, were you stood there waiting for me?' he asked.
"Yes,' I said, expecting him to thank me.
'I used to have a dog that did that,' he said.


In Bathampton the cafe, on a little boat on the canal was open. 'For that comment, you can buy me a coffee,' I told him.

After coffee we cycled along to Dundas aqueduct and the start of the Somersetshire Coal Canal. This is also the start of the Colliers Way, a newish Sustrans route, number 24. (Pdf of the Sustrans leaflet here).

We weaved though Monkton Combe, on a similar route to the one I had walked with Yvonne the previous week, passing the home of William Smith at Tucking Mill, the guy who is credited with producing the first geological map of Britain.

At Midford we joined the line of the old Somerset and Dorset Railway. The path started well with a tarmaced section through a short tunnel and past the old Midford Station. This is where the Two Tunnels  Greenway is planned to intersect with the Colliers Way, which will provide a brilliant circular route once finished. The New Somerset and Dorset Railway are working to reopen the old railway route, aiming to provide a much needed rail link for local communities. They have plans to rebuild the station in 50's/60's style and provide a cafe/info point etc. There are no immediate plans to lay track, although presumably it would be possible for the cycle path to run alongside, as it does in Bitton and in Okehampton. I think it's a long term project so no need to worry about it just yet.

Sadly the tarmac soon disappeared and the path got rather muddy. It looks like it's been scraped though so maybe there are plans to tarmac it soon. We passed one of Sustrans' art installations, 'Stone Column' by Jerrry Ortmans.

This piece is formed by seven stacked boulders reflecting the geological strata of the area (Chalk Cretaceous, Forest Marble, Great Oolite, Inferior Oolite, Blue Lias, White Lias, Pennant) to commemorate the pioneering work of William Smith, the 'father of geology' who once lived at nearby Tucking Mill and who worked as a surveyor constructing the canal system in the area.
(Sustrans website)

I rather liked it but Mick was not impressed. 'It's just a pile of rocks,' he said incredulously. 'Bloody hell, everything's "art" these days!' Sorry Mr Ortmans.

Rejoining a quiet road, we climbed up the hill to Wellow and forked off left down through a quiet lane. where we saw not one, but three green woodpeckers in the trees on our right.  At the bottom of the hill we had a choice and took the left turn up to Faulkland. It was a steep climb but I hoped it would be worth it, as Faulkland is where the wonderful Tucker's Grave pub is. We toiled up the hill and then down the road to the pub. Which was shut.



Instead we called into the Faulkland Inn. It's a bit restauranty, in fact the landlady straightaway reached for menus when we walked in. 'We'll just have a drink,' we said, although after half an hour Mick was unable to resist ordering a bowl of delicious, chunky chips. The beer was That Gold Devil from Devilfish Brewery situated just behind the village, and was a nice golden, hoppy beer. I did find it amusing though, when a rep from the brewery called into the pub and ordered half a lager whilst he was waiting for the Landlord.
Whilst we were supping on our drinks I said to Mick I would get the map out to plan the journey home. 'You mean this is planned?' he said. 'I thought we were lost.'
He asked to have a look at the map but I refused. 'I'm planning the route,' I said.
'That's the trouble with you short people,' he replied. 'You're dictatorial.'

It was cold, misty and drizzling up here on the edge of the eastern Mendips. Mick pointed out that this made it more realistic as a training ride as Ireland was likely to be cold, misty and drizzling as well.

The home route was rather hilly, down to Radstock, up to Clandown, steep down to Radford Mill, climb up to Timsbury. Mick decided the litter strewn lay-by outside a sewage works would be a good place to stop.
'I'm not eating here!' I exclaimed. 'It's disgusting.'
'It's not that bad,' he retorted. 'You've obviously never been to Bolivia.' Bolivia, according to Mick, is one vast rubbish tip. His description didn't fill me with an urge to visit.
As it was, we stopped at Timsbury churchyard to eat our sandwiches. 'Your place isn't any better,' he grumbled. 'It's full of dead people.'
'Well I'd rather eat with dead people than with used condoms and litter.'

From here it was a scary whizz along the dual carriageway of the A39 before joining the more peaceful lanes back to Saltford and home. Recovering with a cuppa I looked again at the map.
'Bollocks!' I shouted.
'What now?' said Mick, wearily.
'I've just realised we passed within yards of Stoney Littleton Long Barrow. We missed it! We're going to have to do the ride again.'
I ducked just in time. Mick had thrown his last cheese roll at me.

Our route is here

My Favourite Pubs - Helgi's, Kirkwall

Window at Helgi's

How far are you willing to go for a decent pint? If the answer is a few hundred miles and a ferry or two thrown in then you might want to check out Helgi's in Kirkwall, Orkney. (Unless you're Orcadian, of course, and then it may only be a short walk/bike/bus ride.) Or - if you've got to John o'Groats and spent 15 minutes there, you'll have had enough - so why not hop on the ferry and try Orkney instead?

Kirkwall Harbour

 Helgi's is right on the harbour in Kirkwall, lovely for gazing out of the window at the fishing boats on the quay, especially on summer evenings when the days are long and the nights practically non-existent.

It majors in food and I suppose you could call it a gastro-bar which I normally hate, but this one gets the balance right. I did try the food one evening - haggis lasagne which was interesting  - and surprisingly good.

Helgi's has a Nordic feel to it, as does much of Orkney, not surprising really as for centuries Orkney was part of the Kingdom of Norway. In 2009 Alistair Carmichael, the MP for Orkney and Shetland, when asked to name his nearest mainline railway station on an expenses form allegedly wrote 'Oslo'.

Orkney is also packed with megalithic monuments including the awesome Ring of Brodgar.Orkneyjar is an excellent website on the Islands and their history if you're interested in finding out more.


Beer is supplied by Rob Hill's Highland Brewing Co. at Swannay Brewery. My favourite is Scapa Special, which is bloody gorgeous. It's a Pale Ale and at 4.2% is my ideal strength. It has a hoppy flavour, and was always lovely and fresh.

I believe Helgi's has made it into the CAMRA Good Beer Guide again in 2012, if you should find yourself that far north, it's well worth a visit.

Kirkwall Harbour

Ring of Brodgar

Standing Stone - Ring of Brodgar

Adam Henson and a lot of mud on Mendip

Digging out the map to go to Mendip. Mick, as usual, has been taking the mick and deriding my insistence that we take it. 'I know Mendip like the back of my hand!' he protested. 'We don't need a map, you just take it for comfort. I bet you even use a map to get to the kitchen in your flat! What do you do, negotiate a tight squeeze under the bed, scale TV ridge and go over table mountain to get to the kettle?'

I decided to rise above it - after all, my mother always said that sarcasm was the lowest form of wit. 'I'm taking a map,' I said haughtily. 'You don't have to look at it if you don't want to.'

Burrington Cafe - and my car

We headed off to Burrington Coombe, stopping on the way to pick up some provisions for lunch. At Burrington I faffed around for a bit getting my boots just right. I had an existing blister and didn't want to exacerbate it. Finally I was ready and we set off. After walking ten yards we reached the entrance to the Burrington Inn/cafe.


'Fancy a cuppa?' said Mick.
'Ooh, yes please,' I said. I bent down to untie my boot laces.
'What are you doing?' he asked.
'Taking my boots off.'
'But you've only just put them on.'
'Yes, but I can't wear them inside.' The boots, naturally, were still covered in mud from my previous walk. So Mick strode on in wearing his clean boots. I timed it well, he was just paying for the tea when I had shed my boots and joined him.

After half-an-hour drinking tea and watching walkers and cyclists going up and down the road we heaved ourselves up. I spent another ten minutes faffing with my boots and getting them just right, then finally, we set off up Link Lane and then turned right along the path towards Dolebury Warren, so named because in medieval times it was used to breed rabbits. After all the tea we had drunk we both frequently found that we needed to run behind a bush to have a pee but at last we reached the hillfort at the end of the Warren where we decided it was time for a snack break. Usually the views are superb from here, out into the Bristol Channel, but today a low mist hung across the horizon. It was still a lovely place to tarry for a while though, amongst ancient hawthorn trees lined with delicate pale green lichen, an indication of the clean air up on Mendip.

Descending the other side, we had a choice, left into Rowberrow woods, or right to the road.
'Fancy a pint?' said Mick hopefully.
I pretended to ponder this question for a while, stroking my chin and umming and aahing, before putting him out of his misery by saying 'Oh, go on then!'

We headed up the road to the Swan at Rowberrow. This is a fine country pub, one of my favourites.

When we got there, one of the members of staff had just lit the fire and the smoke was entering the room rather than going up the chimney. 'It'll clear in a minute,' said the woman at the bar waving a menu about her.
'It's low atmospheric pressure,' said Mick. 'No draw up the chimney.'

I looked at him dubiously. Was he right? Or was he talking bollocks again? I decided to say nothing and studied the pumps in front of me. There was London Pride, Butcombe, usual thing. But what was this? Adam Henson's Rare Breed brewed by Butcombe. I hadn't heard of that before.
'Isn't he that handsome farmer on Countryfile?' I asked.
The barmaid nodded. She handed over a Butcombe booklet with a large picture of Adam looking very hunky.
'Yep, that's him,' I said. 'I'll have a pint of that then.'
'He came in here, you know,' she said. 'He was very nice.'
'Bet he looked lovely in his wellies,' I sighed.
Mick snorted. 'He's not handsome,' he said. 'But I'll have a pint of his beer anyway.'

It was a lovely pint so we had a couple more and then decided we had better continue our walk or we would never get back. We headed through the woods of Rowberrow Bottom to Tynings Farm and then up onto Blackdown.






 
We soon passed a bunker, a relic from World War Two when the authorities had attempted to fool the enemy by making a deserted hilltop look like Bristol using a few lightbulbs and some burning straw. I'm not sure how successful this was though.

On up to the trig point on Beacon Batch. I had forgotten that in the winter the top of the hill is basically one massive peaty bog and we slipped and slithered our way along the path. It's odd, but you rarely see anyone on Beacon Batch until you get to the trig point which is always packed. People huddle round the centre stone, drinking out of flasks and eating sandwiches, having a natter. I wonder where they go, because once you leave the trig point you never see anyone else until you get to the car park.

We reached the road and I was all for walking back down to the car. But Mick insisted on crossing the road to Burrington Ham. This meant another stretch of mud and then a very steep scramble down scree to get back down to the road. I sighed. Still, ten minutes later I had a good laugh when Mick indulged in a bit of serious mud sliding on his backside.

Mud Surfing - Old Man Down

Getting down the steep, wet, muddy and very slippery slope was challenging. We achieved it by means of an involuntary run from tree to tree, coming to a sudden stop each time by heading directly for the trunk and crashing into it. It became wearing after a while and I was almost relieved when we ran out of trees and tottered to the bottom of the slope. Mick finished the walk by falling over for a second time. I looked at his filthy trousers.
'You're not getting in the car like that,' I said. 'You'll have to walk.'
For a split second I think he thought I was serious. He did manage to find a plastic bag to sit on though.

Rock of Ages, Burrington

'I think,' said Mick wearily, as I dropped him off at his house, 'that I have found a cure for my insomnia.'

Our Route is Here

My favourite pubs - The Angel Inn, Grosmont

Cycling from Land's End to John o'Groats a couple of years ago, my companion and I had wearly dragged our bikes up the hill to the little village of Grosmont in the Welsh Marches. (We were taking the scenic route.) I will confess that there was a modicum of bad language spilling forth as we had been unable to get into the campsite at the bottom of the hill.

But at the top of the hill we miruculously found The Angel Inn. And what a find it was.

Like The Old Crown at Hesket Newmarket, The Angel is a community owned pub. When the pub was faced with closure in 2005, half-a-dozen regulars at the pub formed a consortium and bought the pub between them. It now forms part of what appears to be a thriving little village community. We were welcomed into the pub and bought pints of beer to wish us on our way. It was a most convivial evening.

The pub became The Daffodil for the 2007 film The Baker, a brilliant comedy filmed in Grosmont starring Damian Lewis as a hit man experiencing a mid-life crisis, hiding out in a small Welsh village.

There was an excellent choice of beers and I tried three delightful ones that I had not tasted before:

Cwrw Haf from Tomos Watkin in Swansea. Being English I couldn't pronounce it of course. Pointing at the pump I said: 'Erm, one of those please.' Apparently it is pronounced 'koo-roo hàrve'. Anyway, it tasted very nice and refreshing.









.410 from Golden Valley Ales in Peterchurch, Herefordshire, a golden coloured, slightly fruity beer. I just asked for four-one-oh, missing out the dot. It's called this because it's 4.1% and is also a reference to the .410 shotgun - as seen on the label.

Finally, Butty Bach (Little Friend) from the Wye Valley Brewery at Stoke Lacy in Herefordshire. I loved this beer. Golden in colour it was not too strong, either in flavour or in ABV, and went down extremely well.

The Three Castles Walk , also here, is a popular 20 mile circular route.I think I may have to make it my business to head down here pretty soon.