First, I made a mistake in the video captions. I broke the tour on Saturday night, not Sunday night: Sunday was the day with horrendous weather forecast for a really hard section of the tour - the day I most needed to miss!

As the title suggests, this records the 2nd day of my SLOTHO tour. SLOTHO stands for SLeep Out To Help Out. The idea was to help out the YHA which has faced financial pressures since COVID and is selling off some of its smaller hostels. I hope the fees from my 7 overnight stays on this tour should make a big difference to them because the YHA played an important part for me in learning independence and getting out into the world in my early life. There is more information about SLOTHO. on my SLOTHO Day Zero video.


Alas, the bright sunshine and blue skies of the first day had largely gone by the 2nd morning, and all the colours are more muted - it wasn't such a good day for filming but it didn't rain and that is pretty exceptional for this spring. This was a day of several distinct stages - Bath city, the railway path, Bristol city, the Marshes and Severn Bridge, the hills West of Tintern and also the Wye Valley path before a final short climb where there was no light to film with (or see much).


One incident I mention in the video (because I like to remember it) was an encounter with Haydn of cycleforlove.com. He made himself known with a call of "I like your bike!" OWTTE. He explained that he had used a Thorn Sterling for his ride to New Zealand which is recorded on his website and Instagram and was undertaken to raise money for a refugee charity. "That bike will last the rest of your lifetime" he said. I wondered how close to the grave I actually looked - I certainly felt pretty low at that point after a long, slow, grey climb beside a busy road that had felt much harder than it looked, but I got a tremendous boost from Haydn's companionship and by the time he accelerated away I was in a much better place in all senses! The wooded hills and valleys were a delight and I enjoyed wasting time I couldn't spare setting up my camera to capture shots which show the scenery.


Wye Valley Hostel is at Welsh Bicknor, right on the banks of the river. It is a dead end by road and involves climbing a lane over a hill to get there and climbing back over it to get away next morning. As usual, the warden and staff were very welcoming and friendly. The Hostel has a campsite and runs a range of adventurous holiday activities; when I was there, there was a school D of E group on the campsite but my bike and I had the male dormitory to ourselves. My bike did not snore once!




Made by FotoPlay
Music Copyright:
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Music: Endless Beauty Main
Musician: Daddy s Music