Day Eleven
Set off from Elberton near Bristol and headed down to Avonmouth,
for some reason every other bend round here seemed to hide another
horse and rider. Then over the Avonmouth bridge which is quite
spectacular on a bike even if you do feel slightly vulnerable. Then
out onto the Somerset levesl with my rejuvenated drive train
churning along in an nice high gear. I was doing so well I took a
small detour and headed t Axbridge and Debbie and had lunch
together in the medieval market square, it's very pretty but
neither of us took a picture I'm afraid so you'll just have to
google it! Then I headede down towards Bridgewater, via Cheddar and
Mark where I had to persuade the road crew to let me ride gently
over their newly laid tarmac to avoid a multi-mile detour, they
obviously felt sorry for me and let me carry on. Bridgewater &
then Taunton in the rush hour are not fun - definitely best
avoided. I then headed off around Wellington for the next night's
stop. We were technically still in Somerset by a few hundred yards
but the landscape was definitely Devon - hills, hills and more
bloody hills! These are very annoying hills, not long enough to get
into a good rhythm but very very steep, I was mightily pleased to
arrive at the end of the day. I am very conscious that reserves,
both physical and mental are diminishing fast. Nice place to stay,
terrible pub to eat at - still it was so bad it was actually
amusing and it filled a need. We did gain a friend at dinner
though!
Day Twelve
Have I mentioned Devon hills? There are lots of them, in fact
everywhere you turn there's another hill, and it always seems
steeper than the last. My bike computer has a set of OS maps on it,
slightly worried as I have two hills in a row with double arrows on
them, both pointed towrds me! For the non-cartographers among you
that means very very steep. Definitely not agood route choice,
although I must admit the veiws from the top of the hills are
magnificent and I had to call Debbie to ask what the big golden
disc in the sky was - yes it was a sunny day in August! Reached the
finish in Holsworthy and had a great meal at a local pub. Not far
to go now. (Thankfully, definitely getting tired)
Day Thirteen
Into Cornwall. A much better class of hill here. They are very
very long, several climbs that went on for 10k or more but at a
steady and achieveable gradient that you can build up a proper
rhythm on and also descents that are fun to do fast as opposed to
Devon where you are just wearing out brake blocks trying to control
a savagely steep and twisty descent where you don't know what's
coming next. Came out on top of Bodmin Moor, views to die for, good
roads, sunshine and flat on top of the moor, just great. Then down
towards Bodmin and pick up the Camel Trail. Just like the Bristol
to Bath bike path the number of families out riding this great
trail shows that if we make sensible provision fort cyclists then
people will get out and cycle. Finally into Truro, bit of a problem
as another mecahanical problem has hit. My chain somehow got itself
doubled up going through the front mech and I had to rely on the
detailed engineering training from my colleagues at Leafield and
hit a screwdriver with a rock to get it free! Needless to say this
hasn't actually improved the quality of the gear changes and now
changing bewtween front rings means stopping and manually adjusting
chain. Have decided looking at the hills round Truro that the last
ten miles can all happen in the small ring! Great views on Bodmin
Moor:
Day Fourteen
The end is near - in every sense! The bike, the ropute and me,
still one more day's riding and we'll be there. A bit of bike
fettling got the gears a least sort of functional and I'm off. I
decided (I know I'm mad) to go the slightly longer and hilly route
and go down to Helford Passage and get the ferry across and then
climb the hill on the other side. This all sounded good until the
Garin froze and I couldn't get a satellite link so ended up taking
the wrong route outr of the village and gaily added a few extra KM
and few hundred meters of extra climbing onto my route - what joy!
Anyway up onto Goonhilly downs and past the starngets signpost in
the world, I'll post a pictrure when I can extract it from the
go-pro. Thjis route all because I foolishly decided to add Dunnet
Head and the Lizard into the route. Anyway I made it to the Lizard
and left as fast as possible, not the most endearing of English
tourist spots. Now we really are onto the final stretch, two big
hills out of Helston and then stop for lunch with 20 miles to go. I
am actually quite excited about getting to the end which seemed
such a long way away at one stage and is now very definitely within
reach, I'll walk and carry the bike from here if I have to! Down in
Marizon and past St Micahel's Mount which looks great in the
sunshine and then along Penzance front across to Newlyn and the
last big climb of the journet up out of Newlyn. 10k to go but only
20 minutes to whenI told Debbie I'd be there, with the first tail
wind of the whole trip I set off across some pleasantly rolling
countryisde and for once with no need to keep anything in the tank
for tomorrow just let rip with everything I had, I looked at the
speedo and couldn't believe it I'm flying along at 40kph - amazing
what a bit of adrenaline (and a tail wind) can do for
you.
And then it's done. Debbie was as ever there to greet me and
after a quite emotional hug we went off to get pictures taken at
the sign and to sign my name in the book at the hotel for having
completed the journey.
I will add some more to this when I have had time to collect my
thoughts but in the meantime PLEASER PLEASE PLEASE donate if you
haven't already done so and if you have then THANK YOU
And of course thank you to Debbie because without her I
definitely couldn't have done this.
Here is the view waiting for the ferry at Helford
