Today started with a huge breakfast. We keep forgetting that you order a hot breakfast at the table and usually over-indulge on the buffet before ordering. Liz got eggs florentine and I got a salmon/scrambled eggs sandwich (very delicious by the way). After my Müsli and my sandwich I was sorted nutritionally for the day.
Before leaving Stafford, we made a quick stop at the Specialized store to buy new water bottles – their Purist series supposedly does not impart the water with a plasticky taste, so we got those. I think I still have a plasticky taste, but I’ll give the product a few days. Regarding hydration, our strategy is to carry 2.25l of water each and drink it during the day. Once it gets hot, we’ll surely have to carry more, though.
The NCN left us hanging a tiny bit today in that the Route 5 going south-east just suddenly ends. But we found a good route through the Cannock Chase AONB (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty) to reconnect with Route 5 near Burntwood, where we stopped for coffee, a Pasty, and some donuts to snack.
Following Route 5 south, we hit a channel leading to Birmingham near Smethwick. There, we had to do a small detour to check out the Brooks Saddles factory, which was underwhelming because it was closed, but it was still neat to be close to the place where the saddles were made that we will ride on for the next three months.
Reece and Anne’s bikes had Wrights saddles that were also made near Birmingham, and the company would eventually be taken over by Brooks. This also caused Brooks to move out of Birmingham city centre to a building in Smethwick large enough to house the combined Wrights/Brooks production facilities.
We did not actually see much of Birmingham, because we just followed the canal system through town and south of it to the Guest House in Acocks Green. In the city, there are again many locks to overcome the elevation. At one lock we talked to the boaters and they said they are in a 24h boating event that started this morning at 8.00 and ends tomorrow at 14.00 (they need to get 6h rest). In the event, you get points for canals traveled and locks passed. So far, they had something like 25 locks and estimated that they would do about 60 over the whole 24h, and also remarked that they are unlikely to win the event.
In order to balance our diet a bit, we went to a small local grocery store to buy Naan, some veggies and a Romanian version of Feta for dinner. And we had the rest of the nice beer that we bought at Titanic yesterday (good not to have to carry it much further, too).
Tomorrow, we’ll have but a short trip (about a Marathon Distance) to Startford-upon-Avon, where we’ll also have the next rest day on Monday. And we booked a Shakespeare play, too!
Total distance/elevation to date: 790km/7333m
Day 10 Route and Stats
The 1948 Tour 
Awesome guys. Keep on rocking!
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