Thanks indeed Chris, it was quite a day out. I’m sure there are lots of good points to doing it anti-clockwise but the idea of striking out beyond the city early on was a strong incentive to me to do it clockwise. In that direction the descent from Spaniorum hill gives great views across to Manor Farm and round to the Severn. That was the scenic high-point for me, but I also greatly enjoyed the following section past Easter Compton, the descent from Shortwood Hill and almost all of the way from Keynsham to Norton Hawkfield. By Dundry it seems largely downhill home, excepting the climb through Ashton Court, but the prospect of passing the Green Man carries one up that bit.
You are right that Three Acre Covert is nettly – swift progress through there helps. But more unpleasant in my estimation were the three or four places where cattle being herded through narrow gaps had created deep gooey mud – on the CFP route from Willsbridge to Londonderry Farm and somewhere near Chewton Keynsham, in particular.
There are some different route-finding challenges to a clockwise orbit. I’ve made plenty of mistakes on previous runs over sections of the route, but the point that I have found consistently hard has been spotting the path on which to turn left after crossing Bailey’s Court Road.
Looking back just a little it’s intriguing to think of passing so many attractive places on the periphery of Bristol in a day, quite satisfying. But there is a bit of a challenge left for me for next year, perhaps, so see whether I can find a way to get around it in less than twelve hours – I’ll ponder on that over the dark nights of winter!
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