Thursday 24 September 2015

Lejogle - Day 20

We set off at about 9:00 and headed down to Cullompton in order to avoid the motorway junction and the very busy dual carriageway to Tiverton. It was then across to Crediton to then do the reverse of the second day of the ride. Unfortunately I missed a turning and went a couple of miles out of my way on the way to Crediton, but a quick check on my phone and I was back where I was meant to be.

With the rain overnight and the roads being muddy or little used, I had problems when going up hills as, every time I got out of the saddle to pedal, the rear wheel slipped due to a lack of grip on the road.

It stayed pretty dry until going towards Okehampton when it chucked it down, which wasn’t all that enjoyable with the headwinds. It was also annoying as I could see sunshine across the valley. By the time I got to Sourton Cross (a couple of miles south of Okehampton at the A30) the sun was out. My dad had stopped for lunch and ordered a bacon roll for me when I arrived.

We then headed to Launceston, where it rained. It was then down over bits Bodmin Moor. I’ve done the same route at Easter for the last two years and each time, when I’ve got to a couple of the hills, I’ve started walking up them. For this ride I decided that I wouldn’t walk any of it and so I have climbed every hill on my bike and there are only two places where I’ve walked (because the cycle path was gravel near the Forth Bridge due to roadworks and yesterday due to some roadworks with a long queue and not wanting to hold up the traffic). The worse climb came today, about 5 miles from my mum’s is the town of Lostwithiel where there is a steep hill (so steep that it has an escape lane and a ban on lorries going down). Having never made it up there on my bike before, I decided to avoid the main road so as not to hold up the traffic and go up a side road. Unfortunately I hadn’t thought about the side road being shorter and therefore it was steeper than the main road but I made it up in the end (although I did have to stop for a breather part way up).

I arrived at my mum’s at about 16:55. My dad had already unloaded the van and had waited as my mum wanted at take a photo of the two of us to go with the photo from the start, obviously with the van in place of the motorbike.

Tomorrow I have to go to the dentist before I can set off. I will probably set off at about 11:00 and will do the reverse of the first day but will also be popping into the Age UK office in Truro. There’s no rush to get to Land’s End though as my family will be meeting me at the end and they can’t leave until my nephews get out of school.

Distance Today - 88.7 miles
Distance from John O'Groats - 836.0 miles
Total Distance - 1725.4 miles

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