Ten years later

As the sands of this sweltering summer ran down, G and I found time – and some cooler days – for an overnight bike tour to Gloucester docks. It was a ride we’d last done when he was three, our first long family bike ride mixing adventure and comfort into two happily exhausting days.

Ten years had passed since we’d stood watching a bridge lift slowly, allowing a narrowboat to pass underneath and enter the docks. If you’re three years old, a lifting bridge is indescribably exciting – a road transforming itself in front of your eyes. G was three then, and the promise of seeing the bridge in action had kept him happy in his bike trailer as we pedalled nearly 50km along the back roads, bridleways and cycle paths from Malvern to Gloucester Docks.

Like all the best adventures, ours had its share of adversity.

It was our first attempt at a family bike ride on this scale and, as we took in the scene, we were proud to have made it. G’s trailer, a Weehoo, had pedals so he could legitimately claim to have ridden there. There was no suspension, though, so our detours along bridleways were often met with cries of “Too bumpy” from the trailer. That and the obligatory: “Are we nearly there yet?”

Like all the best adventures, ours had its share of adversity. On the outward leg, we’d spent some frustrating time bending J’s mudguard back into shape in a pub beer garden. But what a spot for some bike maintenance. The Boat Inn, perched on the river at Ashleworth Quay, was run by the same family, the Jelfs, for 350 years.

Over this time, tales had accumulated around pub like layers of silt. Rumours, but no evidence, suggest a man named Jelf rowed the future King Charles II across the river here as he fled the Battle of Worcester. Local poet Ivor Gurney is thought to have drunk at the inn after walking or cycling from his home in Gloucester to Ashleworth. But this pub’s story ended shortly after we passed through.