Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Day 4 - Huntstile
First up an apology to all of those eagerly anticipating another day of following our epic journey. Oops, I forgot to turn the live tracker on! It was pouring with rain when we set off OK?
What a fab fab day despite the weather’s best attempts to drown us at various intervals. Not too impressed with the torrential (there cannot be enough emphasis on the word torrential) downpour just 10 minutes from camp.
Back to the beginning. The YH was stuffed full of end to enders (there were two others) and Sam chose to spend the day with us despite our slowness potential. He was heading to Cheddar. Great lad and great company. We had an ace day, cheers Sam. I hope my navigational skills were good enough!
After finding our way out of Okehampton, which wasn’t that easy, after an initial climb it was downhill all the way nearly and we ate up the miles. It wasn’t long before we were just a mile from Crediton when BANG one of Andrew’s spokes snapped (did I forget to mention that he was the first faller yesterday when he forgot his bike is wider with panniers on?).
No worries, Crediton has a brill bike shop that put the kettle on for us while they fixed it. They also provided some useful route advice. Cheers Bike Shed.
We headed for Cullompton for lunch and just before we saw one of the Ice Trikes of Ben and Donald ahead. It was Ben on his lonesome and we found a caff for a chat and a bite to eat. I hope Ben found Donald again! The picture is Sam, Andrew, Me and Ben.
After some navigational twists and turns we eventually found the NCN 3 which followed little lanes into Taunton and then forgot to signpost us out again. Hmm, we negotiated the rush hour traffic instead and rang ahead to Huntstile Organic Farm for camping.
What an excellent location. We appeared like drowned rates but the coffee was on before we could hardly say hi. Great hosts have plied us with beer and conversation. Full English for brekkie tomorrow, that must be better than cold left over pizza like this morning? Not sure we’ll be able to move afterwards though!
Where was Devon? That was easy peasy, what’s next?! It would be nice, pretty please, for a drying day.
Distance : 72.96 miles
Time cycling : 6h28m
Ascent : 1677 m
Average speed : 11.3 mph
Posted by jochta at 10:42pm
Monday, May 18, 2009
Day 3 - Okehampton
After the evening’s children’s entertainers at the holiday camp it was off to the tents to be kept awake most of the night by the light above the tent and the wind.
I was feeling rubbish in the morning and it was cold and windy. I packed rather haphazardly and we set off. After the few miles to Padstow the cobwebs were blown away though.
We followed the Camel Trail from Padstow through Wadebridge to Wenford Bridge which was very pretty and well surfaced. A few heavy showers didn’t deter us. It was a little muddy in places due to the rain.
We stopped for some lunch at the Post Office in St Breward (highly recommended) before the fantastic scenery and minor roads over Bodmin Moor.
We kept to minor roads as much as possible to Launceston (pronounced Lans-Ton) apparently. After a minor navigation error into the industrial estate we found the way out of town and over the River Tamar and into Devon. That’s Cornwall done and not the hilly nightmare we were warned about. We hope Devon isn’t too bad!
We stopped for a cream tea in Lifton just as the heavens opened. A lucky break we thought until shortly after resuming they opened again.
The old A30 was busy with fast traffic and pretty miserable in the wet but we got to Bridestowe and climbed the rough track onto the Granite Way for a fab run into Okehampton.
The YHA guy then sent us into town and back out again up a really steep hill back past the Granite Way! We’re camping at their out of town hostel which is nice and warm and I can charge everything up.
Neither of us are having any problems with the cycling yet. It’s going ace!
Distance : 68.06 miles
Time cycling : 6h33m
Ascent : 2476 m (allegedly)
Average speed : 10.4 mph
Posted by jochta at 09:24pm
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Day 2 - Harlyn Bay
The weather during the night was atrocious. Heavy rain and strong winds. The thought of losing the tents on the first night crossed my mind as I lay awake.
They survived but we woke to wind and rain and had to pack up in the wet. It was full waterproofs weather and it was torrential during the short cycle to Hayle on the A3074.
By some miracle however it blew over and the Sun came out so that we removed our waterproofs before we’d even got to Portreath. The rest of the day was mostly sunny with very brief heavy showers. The very strong southwesterly was still with us helping us along the way.
We had our first navigation error in Porthtowan, only minor but I think it gave us one extra steep climb.
We stopped for lunch in Perranporth. The cycling had been pretty straightforward to this point, not really any of the dreaded Cornish hills to worry about.
They came between St Newlyn East and Rumford. Up and down with some fairly steep ascents. Nothing really bad though. We stopped for supplies in Treyarnon and loaded with food bags stopped at the first available campsite which is a rather tacky holiday camp. Never mind, it was cheap and we’ll have better some nights I’m sure.
Distance : 51.80 miles
Time cycling : 4h58m
Ascent : 1382 m
Average speed : 10.4 mph
Posted by jochta at 09:44pm
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Day 1 - St Ives
We’re off! The train journey was long and dull and we got stung for excess fares as there were only two of us on a party saver ticket. Ho hum. We did say hi to Andrew and Peter who joined at Swindon and were starting their end to end today.
Penzance was very windy and quickly left behind as we retrieved our bikes and headed into the wind on the NCN 3.
This part of the journey seemed fairly pointless as we hadn’t really started yet. We followed the NCN route all the way to Sennen via Mousehole and St Buryan. About 15 miles later we were at Lands End having our photo taken and formally started LEJOG 2009!
We chose to take the B3306 to St Ives which we had been warned was hilly. With a very strong tailwind though it was fantastic cycling with only two short climbs to trouble us. The weather was brill, sunny, cool with the odd brief heavy shower which the wind soon dried.
Found a great campsite in town and walked down the hill to eat. A great start to the adventure, long may the good days last!
Distance : 19.62 miles
Time cycling : 1h47m
Ascent : 445m
Average speed : 11.0mph
Posted by jochta at 09:46pm
Friday, May 15, 2009
The Adventure Starts Here
Packed. Ready. Let’s Go!
I hope the website all works for the trip. Thanks for visiting and enjoy following us, and thanks to all of our sponsors. Got to be up for the train in a few hours.
Posted by jochta at 10:01pm
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