Distance - 65 miles
Total distance - 887 miles
Maximum speed - 38.2 mph
What. A. Day. Mother nature certainly decided that we had had it too easy so far. So not only was today the hilliest of days, it was also the day we experienced the strongest headwind and the heaviest rain. Quite a combination.
It all started in a rather mundane nature. Jonny kept to his bold promise that he would get up early to make a start on some bacon and eggs in the kitchen beneath the dorm. After a pretty heroic effort he supplied us with a filling breakfast and shortly afterwards we were packed up and on our way. The cycling today began much how it had finished yesterday. In other words there were plenty of hills. Most of them were in an upwards direction. But shortly we were cycling along open moorland, with wild ponies, sheep and cows to keep us company. Another new companion was a strong headwind, which made the going extremely tough. Even what downhill sections there were required plenty of effort.
But after struggling on for a couple of hours we made our way out of Dartmoor National Park. I'm never sure how I feel about Dartmoor. It's a weird blend of spectacular yet barren landscape. Either way it was good to leave and we assumed the going would get easier, which it didn't. After Tavistock we crossed into Cornwall, which coincided with a ridiculous hill. Initially descending, then ascending. The ascent was horrible, although at this point it was dry. The headwind was keeping us busy though.
We stopped for a slightly early lunch in Callington, where a young lad became very interested in what we were doing. Apparently he had a half day at school. Do kids get half days now? Either way he was a good lad and actually lead us out of the town on a shorter route than we would have taken. Half an hour after lunch was when the real fun started.
The rain began around Liskeard and was initially light. It didn't stay that way. Between the hours of 3pm and 4pm it rained very heavily. In fact I haven't seen it rain as hard in quite a while. And with the wind it truly rained sideways. Soon there were torrents of water flowing down the hills and we were soaked through. At times it was scary. With the rain straight into the eyes a few downhill sections were tackled with next-to-no visibility.
Eventually it became beyond wet so we stopped in Lostwithiel and found a cup of tea. It was perhaps the best cup of tea ever. Well, it probably wasn't, but it seemed so. After the rain eased we headed back out, keeping our heads down towards St Austells. Further showers came and went, but at least we went with the hope that we would be able to find somewhere to stay for the night. Or so we thought. We couldn't find a hotel, hostel or B&B for love nor money. Everywhere was fully booked. At this point we were cold and miserable. With a little work on the smartphone we found a B&B 5 miles along the road, luckily in the direction we planned to go. After covering the miles with gritted teeth we eventually found the B&B around 7pm. It isn't the nicest of B&B's, by any means, but it provides a roof and that's enough.
So a crazy and very tough day comes to an end. We had hoped to make it to Truro, but we are all satisfied with our effort today. We are about 50 miles from Land's End. That is the sole focus. I just want to get going.
No comments:
Post a Comment