Sustrans will be receiving a peachy e-mail from me shortly!

Wow what a tiring day. I checked out of my hostel around 9 am, then rode around the city reading the rest of the tourist info boards and checked out the architecture, and the sky mirror (which was super awesome!), nearly running over a pigeon 4x in the process. The hills of nottingham aren't as nice when you have to ride up them with 2 heavy bags. Much better vis today though, so got to see a bit of the outskirts although it was mostly obscured by trees. So 2 1/2 hours later (11:36am) I was ready to depart for Edwinstowe! I had already done 7.61 miles before I left. I had trouble finding route 6 and went all the way to wollaton hall, 2 miles out of the city, and had to turn around. I eventually found it and everything was fine until I came to a path in buswell that to the right was a bridge over a railway track and to the left another path, so I took that one, but then saw signs on the opp side of the tracks but I was parallel to the direction they were pointing so I kept following. I then doubted myself so I turned around and was going to take the bridge over the tracks when an old man told me the way to go. So I got back on track ( no pun intended) and continued through beetswood country park which also wasn't marked at forks. But I guessed right again ( I either have a good sense of direction or am just really lucky). The park was real pretty with the leaves on the floor and different colors on the trees. I stopped and had lunch at a lake. But then I got lost when a sign took me out of the park but then didn't tell me when to turn. I went over tram tracks via a bridge but I knew it was the wrong way cause there was no 6 sign on the other side. I called mike to help me but I couldn't make sense of the directions so I just went back over the bridge ( which was hard to squeeze through so I was a bit annoyed) and just rode through an industrial estate and found the network again. Then it started to tinkle down with rain but it didn't last too long. I rode through more country and woodland until I got to newstead abbey. I was unsure where to go (again, no markers) but it had a large garden and park area so I walked in and went to the bathroom. When I came out a staff member asked for my ticket cause you had to pay to walk around. I said I was looking for route 6 and he told me the way but said I was free to peruse the gardens and he "hadn't seen me". Wasn't that nice! There also was a lake and lots of sections of international plants so I was there for about 40 minutes. The house wasn't open unfortunately. So I then left the grounds and once I got out of the gates the route 6 signs were sooo misleading. They literally were in every direction. I followed the one that pointed left for workslop. After going a mile or so I didnt see the 6 sign and i was on a major a road so that didn't seem right. Called mike again and he set me straight. So i turned around and followed a footpath through a residental area and eventually passed through more farm and woodland. It started to get dark by this point but the moon was full and lit my way. But in the woodland I couldn't see anything so I put my light on. I couldnt see the route 6 signs anymore but I just followed the main path. I tell ya it really is so much more energy draining when you ride on rocky paths than paved roads! And as a result I had to ride a lot slower. So it got really dark, but on the plus side I saw a badger run across the path! I think I saw 2 others at dusk but the figures were hard to make out. And can you believe it, I actually saw another biker on the path!! So a few miles later I found the exit. Apparently I was in sherwood pines. I quickly found a sign for edwinstowe and followed that b road to my hostel. It's a pretty nice place. So I arrived at 5:20pm and did a total of 40.78 miles the whole day with an avg of 7.3 mph. Id say like 8 of that is just from being lost. So It's another early night for me, Ill be exploring sherwood forest tomorrow and then riding to eyam in the peak district!