This bivi was 1700 feet higher than the previous night and the weather and temperature had been markedly different to the night before. The thermometer showed it had dropped to 8 degrees overnight and Mike complained of having been cold. I’d put my down jacket on and was toasty although I had been a bit worried about the wind at times.
Now the sun was out it was a cracking spot. We’re only just off the road and we could hear the first of the lorries going past down to the work site further down the pass but they were oblivious to us sat drinking coffee and letting the shelters dry out in the sun. The main advantage of sleeping at the high point is that it would be downhill to breakfast, it was over 5 miles of descending on mainly smooth tarmac and dropping 1300 feet with only a few hundred yards of peddling at the end to get to the café at Hay-On-Wye
At breakfast we were joined by another bikepacker, I forget where he was going but he wasn’t overly sure, he was navigating using screen shots of a route produced on Google Maps
A quick stop at a garage on the outside of town and we were climbing which I suppose was bound to happen after all the descending to breakfast. We were soon off the tarmac turned onto a delightful green lane.
Sadly, this surface didn’t last long
I think something slightly more damaging than a bicycle has been through. It actually continued to get worse and worse, with us having to bushwhack at times to get round the impassable bits. Once we reached the end we made the executive decision to skip the next section of green lane in case it was the same. This one had been downhill and bad enough, an uphill one would just be an unnecessary slog – were weren’t on a BB200
We were trending generally upwards toward Hergest Ridge above Kington.
On the ridge were views for miles. The sun was back today and it was hot going, with stops to apply more sun cream, something the locals don’t need.
We made a quick diversion to the trig as it’s the rules to take a picture of your bike at every one passed?
At the top is a small stand of trees, but rather puzzling is that they are, well I’m sure you can see
This would make a great bivi spot, there’s enough room between them for a bivi bag on the grass and even a bench right next to them. We weren’t the only one confused by them
Next would be lunch, so we headed off on an amazing descent on smooth but undulating grass dropping 800 feet in under 2 miles at speeds well in excess of sensible but we were concerned the café might close. As it was we arrived in plenty of time. Fed and watered I redressed my knee which was looking a bit suspect with the pink edges but I’d just have to keep and eye on it. Mike had a bivi spot in mind, seen on a previous ride, and that was only 20 ish miles away so it was a leisurely ride along the lanes in that direction.
We stopped at a local shop and sat on the grass outside in the sun for a while relaxing and then eventually arrived at a very posh looking pub for dinner. Wallets braced we were pleasantly surprised to find out that as it was a Wednesday the food was on special, a trick which obviously works as the inside was fully booked. We sat in the beer garden and I bored Mike whilst I pointed out all the poor construction details and bad workmanship in the newly built covered seating area. Why is it that anyone who owns a cordless drill and a circular saw thinks they’re a carpenter? I can confirm this is not the case
Post dinner we headed out for the bivi spot. On the way we looked for the remains of a hill fort which was another possible but couldn’t really determine if we were there or not, and besides it was too hilly, obviously
The spot we had in mind was an area of beach trees just off route and it was as Mike had remembered, dry clear ground, pretty flat and out of sight 
Shelters up we even had time to sit and drink our beers we’d been carrying since the night before Our shortest day so far at only 47 miles but 4050 feet of climbing.
