Homeward Bound

Day 16: Penzance to Edinburgh

Letting the train take the strain!

This is (probably) our final posting from this holiday. Very, very sorry that the adventure is over for the time being. No punctures or significant mechanical issues, only one injury from Euan's run in with that gate and we're still speaking to each other – result!!!

After an early night and a really good sleep for both of us we were up and about early to make sure we were fully packed and sorted. We even had time for a short wander along the Promenade in the breezy sunshine before going into the Beachfield Hotel (which our Guest Lodge was attached to) in search of some breakfast around 8am. Much, much more personal service in here than yesterday morning in St Ives. Lovely setting, tasty food and we enjoyed looking at old photographs of the hotel & environs which were prominently displayed in the reception area.

So sadly we paid for our breakfast (not included in room rate, but well worth it), collected our bikes from reception and gently pedalled our way along the seafront to the station. The nice thing about being on a train from the start to the finish of the journey is that it was waiting for us when we arrived and we were able to take our time getting our bikes and ourselves on. We were safely at our seats around 20 minutes before it left, which even by my anxious standards was rather early!

Apart from to say how relieved we were to have gone for first class tickets (insanely crammed train in standard class and the trolley was stuck at the opposite end of the train from us – I wish the powers that be in CrossCountry would take a trip on their own trains to realise just how utterly horrendous the effect of their cost cutting measures are!) there's nothing much to report about the journey itself. Currently in Leeds station (5pm) having seen no significant rain, read half a book each, watched a film on the computer, eaten snacks and lunch (eventually being offered coffee around 4 – 'only' 6.5 hours after departing Penzance). At this point, looking forward to getting home...

So, what have we learnt from this trip?

• You can be lucky with the British summer weather (yes, really, we have the suntans to prove it)
• We like Cornwall and would like to go down for another holiday there
• Most people are very friendly and genuinely interested in what other people are doing
• There are some steep hills around, but we can almost always get up them
• It's really nice to catch up with friends and family along the way
• It was well worth investing in new panniers before this trip – SO nice not to have to worry about them bouncing off
• Do not buy a new saddle just before going cycling for two weeks (Euan did)!
• We like rest days! Important for recharging the batteries and getting a proper opportunity to see some tourist sites
• It would've been nice to have had some extra time at the end to relax and explore for a few days before heading back
• Bed and breakfasts are often nicer, more individual and much more interesting to stay in than hotels
• For long distance travel it's well, well, well worth spending the extra on first class for the journey home (and booking well in advance for the cycle reservation)
• Pack a few bin bags (or lightweight cycle cover if you have one) – excellent way to provide a makeshift bike shelter if they need to stay outside overnight
• We like Sherborne
• You can spend a lot of money on food whilst cycling!
• Planning the route in advance took ages, but was great fun and was totally worth the effort – our double system of detailed mapping (invest in mapping software so you only need to print out the actual pages that you need) with written directions certainly works very well for us
• Don't rely on following cycle routes – they are improving, but are often poorly marked, confusing, prone to vanishing or just unsuitable for riding touring bikes on
• The UK is full of amazing places to explore and people to meet. We barely scratched the surface – everyone would have a different experience and find their own things of interest to investigate along the way
  Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone we've stayed with, cycled with or met along the way!
  

Almost the end - Land's End

Day 15

St Ives to Penzance via Land's End

Planned mileage: 34 miles

Actual mileage: 36 miles (overshot our accommodation and had to retrace steps)

Cycling time: 2 hrs 45½ mins

Average speed: 13 mph

Maximum speed: 34.4 mph

Route: http://gb.mapometer.com/en/cycling/route_1398274.html

Accomodation: Guest Lodge, Penzance - http://www.guestlodgepenzance.co.uk/

Ok statistics fans, I've done the numbers and... including our rest day trip to the Eden Project which distorts them a little, here's the summary.

Total mileage: 833.73 miles

Total cycling time: 59 hrs 22 mins 33 secs

Overall average speed: 14.04 mph

Average daily mileage: 59.55 miles

Average daily riding time: 4 hrs 14½ mins

So we could've done it more quickly, but we've really enjoyed our riding as a proper holiday. The times of course don't include stops, so we were actually out and about on the road for a big proportion of each day.

What is absolutely amazing to me is that we haven't got properly rained on for over a fortnight. It's been wet overnight (once torrentially) twice and the one time it did rain during the day (today – very hard for less than a minute), we happened by pure fluke to be inside having a cream tea anyway! So sorry if you've had a soggy time of it, but we certainly haven't and have made the most of the sunshine.

Anyway, back to today...Slept incredibly well and were very reluctant to be up even in time to get to breakfast for 9am as we'd planned. Fortunately there was no rush as we knew we'd only 30 odd miles to cycle. I'm sorry, but serve-yourself cooked breakfast from a buffet in a reasonable sized hotel is nothing like as nice or personal as anything we've had in any of the B&B's we stayed in. Even the yoghurt wasn't Cornish, although everything was still pretty tasty.

Stunning St Ives

Leaving our bikes parked and our baggage locked away at the hotel, we enjoyed the great sunshine whilst wandering down into St Ives town, viewing the scenery, coastline and generally vibrant atmosphere. Having said we'd be 30ish minutes, we were actually about 90 minutes as we went all the way down to and around 'The Island' which gave incredible views around 360 degrees. Very, very reluctant to leave. St Ives is full of steep, tiny streets with excellent looking (we only bought one single postcard) shops.

We did eventually tear ourselves away and started our climb up out of St Ives. And for the next 6 miles against a strong headwind, pretty exclusively we climbed – hard work! Fortunately, most of the rest of the route (into & out of St Just excluded) to Land's End was much easier pedalling. Quite a bleak landscape in places (though still very colourful, with loads of wild flowers all around us) with lots of evidence of old mineworkings. There are SO many things to see round here that we just have to come back another time. Bring back the overnight sleeper train service to Penzance and we'll be the first to book!

Land's End - we made it!

Now, Land's End has a reputation for being a bit tacky so we had pretty low expectations. So we were pleasantly surprised to find it full of tourist attractions (including a great little free “End to End” exhibition) and slightly overpriced cafes, but no amusement arcades or anything similarly grim. We ate our mini picnic lunch on a bench overlooking the Atlantic (very dramatic in the sunshine) before venturing into tourist central to take a few photos in front of that famous signpost. Sorry, but we weren't queuing up and paying someone else to do it for us 'properly'.

A much quicker onward journey to Penzance as we had a great tailwind to help us along. The scenery was quite different too, although certainly not entirely without short, sharp hills to ensure we stayed awake! Shortly before 4 we arrived in Mousehole and had our first and only proper Cornish cream tea in the Pilchard Press Cafe – yum. 'That' rain (which sounded like someone was chucking buckets of water noisily on the floor) happened a few minutes after we sat down – purely, purely by coincidence I promise. A rapid spin around the very attractive harbour and we were off for the final 3 flat miles of our route – back in the sunshine again.

We spotted Penzance station (very useful for our train in the morning) when we overshot our Guest Lodge and had to return all the way along the promenade – oh well, a good way to rapidly see just a little of the seafront. We checked in at the very nice looking Beachfield Hotel, abandoned our bikes in a corridor by reception and went off round the corner to find our accommodation which is in a building next door. Quite an odd arrangement, but the room is pleasant, clean and quiet with its own fridge.

Having discovered that breakfast in the hotel in the morning is early enough for us to catch our train we only needed to buy lunch, snacks and celebratory bottle of wine at the local Co-Op on the High Street. Meandered back along the length of the prom and were very impressed with Penzance which seems to have plenty going for it. For the first and only time this holiday we decided to have fish and chips in a proper fish and chips restaurant – yummy! Back in our room nice and early with Vimto and Twix for pudding. Very pleased with our achievements, although almost wondering if we can fit in a long weekend later this year to finish off the journey by bike to John O'Groats... Also a little sad that our holiday is almost over – it's been a really fun adventure!

There may well be more reflections on our experiences written on the train tomorrow – watch this space!

As we were going to St Ives...

Day 14

Bodmin to St Ives

Planned mileage: 50 miles

Actual mileage: 53 miles (couple of minor wrong turns and re-routing)

Cycling time: 4 hrs exactly!

Average speed: 13.2 mph

Maximum speed: 32.8mph

Route: http://gb.mapometer.com/en/cycling/route_1398691.html

Accomodation: Chy-An-Albany Hotel, St Ives - http://www.chyanalbanyhotel.com/st-ives-cornwall-hotel/luxury-hotel.php

When The Famous Five visited Cornwall they always stayed at a farmhouse that gave them milk direct from the cow, home-churned butter and (no doubt) home made fruit compote, yoghurt, jam & marmalade. Well, we were definitely in Famous Five country as we had all of the above. Fortunately however we didn't have any mysteries to solve.

We packed up, sorted our bikes and waved farewell to Stephen Gelly Farmhouse a bit after 10. Our route to St Ives took us along some amazingly narrow, moss-and-grass covered roads which were almost entirely car-free but not hill-free – though nothing like Wednesday's hills, thankfully!

We twisted and turned our way south-west, took a couple of minor wrong turns and adapted our route accordingly (e.g. – we missed Black Cross but instead went through White Cross). By and by we reached a railway bridge over the tiny Lappa Valley narrow gauge railway, and no sooner had decided to carry on when we heard the toot of a distant train, so stayed on until it arrived. We were rewarded by TWO little steam trains passing under the bridge some minutes later, and were delighted when the driver of one of them waved to us. How easily pleased we are!

The day had started cloudy but by this point the sun was starting to shine, and by the time we reached the coast at Perranporth it had turned into a properly hot sunny day. A mere 25 miles from our farmhouse at Bodmin, and the contrast could hardly be more extreme. Instead of a quiet, old-fashioned family house set in the middle of pastoral farmland, we now found ourselves in a thriving seaside village, packed with tourists, and with a beach so thronged you could barely see any sand.

We had been in Cornwall for about 4 days and hadn't had a pasty in that time, so Jenny bought two from a local baker, plus a couple of cakes, and we found a really nice public garden just off the main road where we ate them (they were, incidentally, very good and... extremely hot – ouch!) sitting on a nice bench in the lovely sunshine.

After lunch, we climbed up a long and fairly steep slope only to discover that we were on the wrong road, however worked out an alternative and very attractive route that avoided retracing our steps.

We paused in the pretty town of St Agnes (after getting confused by its one-way system) then carried on along the coast to Porthreath. We didn't stop in this former fishing/whaling/tin mining port, but pushed on up the hill on the other side of it. This was quite an ascent, and near the top we paused to take a photograph of the view down. There was an elderly couple sitting on a bench, who started chatting with us, and we had a very pleasant few minutes telling them our tale and hearing about themselves and the local area (it's changed greatly in the last 50 years – no more industry, lots more tourists and holiday houses). This just reinforced what we've found about the south-west – the majority of people we've encountered have been exceedingly friendly and genuinely interested in our little tour.

By this time we were going along a plain about 50 or 60 metres above the sea, and enjoyed great views down the coastline and even better, without too many hills. We were entertained by some aerial acrobatics from model aircraft practising for a model aircraft show being held over the weekend – there were two military-style planes screaming past at great speed right over us.

At Hell's Mouth (a bay in the cliffs which is actually very un-Hell like) we stopped for Cornish ice cream and ate this sitting atop the cliffs – all National trust land around here, with views down towards St Ives.

The last few miles were quite hilly and much busier, going through the rather depressed-looking town of Hayle then on up into St Ives. As this is our penultimate night we were splashing out and are staying in a grand (ish) hotel, the Chy An Albany, which was dead easy to find as it was just off the main road, with great views along the coast we'd just cycled along.

St Ives

The necessary tea & biscuits over (we also ate our emergency flapjacks!) we got ourselves cleaned up, then went for a wander round St Ives – a very busy and prosperous-feeling seaside town, with clear Atlantic water and lovely golden beaches. The place was crammed with tourists and all the restaurants we saw looked very busy, so were glad we had booked a table for dinner in our hotel.

Dinner now over, and we're sitting in the comfortable sun lounge (no sun, it's 10:45) and we had an excellent meal.

In need of a rest?

Day 13 – Rest Day

To Eden Project / Lanhydrock

www.edenproject.com

www.nationaltrust.org.uk/w-lanhydrock/

Mileage: 23.8 miles

Cycling time: 1hr 56mins

Well, it certainly does know how to rain in Cornwall. It was incredibly wet overnight! Fortunately by the time we got up it had dried out and we were able to sit out in the conservatory to have breakfast without being disturbed by loud, drumming noises on the roof. Stewed fruit from the garden, yoghurt, milk and butter from the house cow and eggs from the hens outside were all on offer, along with good coffee, tasty bacon and toast (with home made jam and marmalade too).

Our bikes had to sleep outside, so we were pleased that our temporary bin bag bike covers had kept the worst of the downpour off their mechanicals. It felt very strange heading out without the weight of our panniers to hold us back. If we hadn't had to pedal straight up a steep hill there might even have been some decent acceleration in evidence! Really nice little country lanes took us all the way to the Eden Project, about 10 miles to the south. Definitely some ups and downs involved, with hedges lining the edges, grass and moss growing along the centre in places and a beautiful woodland glade to keep us entertained.

12 years ago this was just a muddy clay pit!

We managed to get a special bike parking ring complete with stripy, knitted cover (no, we've no idea why either, there were just several like that) and locked our bikes up for the first time this holiday before putting our helmets and other bits into the cycle lockers and meandering down to the entrance which (at 11:30am) was pretty darn busy.

If you haven't been before, the Eden Project is an incredible feat of vision, engineering, teamwork and eco-principles – well, well worth a visit if you're down in Cornwall. The main drawback is actually its popularity, with astonishing numbers of people there, most of whom seemed to be in the shop whilst we were attempting to buy bottled water! Very good, reasonably priced food available too, with the majority of fruit & veg in the meals grown on site.

It's a bit hot in here

The Biomes (massive air bubble greenhouses to the uninitiated) were especially amazing. We were just disappointed that that 50m high (yes, 50m above the Biome floor) observation platform was out of commission, although we'd most likely have melted at that height as it was very, very warm inside anyway.

Wandering away around 4:30 we decided to take a longer route back in order to at least see Lanhydrock House and had a very enjoyable whizz down the hill into Bodmin and even (shock horror) along a maintained off road cycle path for some of it. We passed the steam railway station too and generally got a much more favourable impression of Bodmin as a lively, interesting town than we had the night before.

Feeling pretty tired (we were like that on our previous rest day too) we conked out for a bit on our return and listened to The Archers Omnibus on the iPlayer before we had our showers. After various snacks during the day we weren't really hungry for proper dinner. So we just strolled along the lanes to the Co-Op for pasta salads, rice pudding and Schloer which we munched back at base in the conservatory. Just gearing up now for our final couple of days cycling – we're going to be very sad to have to stop and go back to the normal routine without new places to explore and enjoy.

Hills, hills, hills

Day 12:

Bude to Bodmin – 38 miles

Planned mileage: 38 miles

Actual mileage: 41.2 miles (mostly going down to Tintagel Castle)

Cycling time: 3hrs 20½ mins (although that includes some pushing up steep hills for Jen!)

Average speed: 12.3mph (see comments about steep hills...)

Maximum speed: 31.8 mph (mostly too twisty and/or bumpy to safely go faster)

Route: http://gb.mapometer.com/en/cycling/route_1398253.html

Accomodation: Stephen Gelly Farm, Bodmin - stephengellyfarm.farming.officelive.com/Accommodation.aspx

The hills in Cornwall are steep. I mean, really steep.

We left Bude in bright hot sunshine after an excellent breakfast and a nice chat with our fellow guests. Our trip from Edinburgh has certainly kick-started quite a few conversations, most of which start:

“So where have you come from?”

“We've cycled down from Edinburgh.”

“Oh I see, you're doing it for charity!”

“No, it's just our summer holiday”

“Oh...”

30% - must try harder!

So off we set down the coast and soon started hitting the hills. Not like yesterday's Devon hills, which were quite hard work, but real Cornish ones, which start long and steep and soon become longer and steeper. Then oh, how we congratulated ourselves at our good planning when we met a 30% (that's nearly 1 in 3) downwards gradient. That's steep enough that the cars which were driving up it could barely get going when they met each other. We smirked at their misfortune. Then we reached the next inlet and the smiles rapidly vanished when we saw the signs warning of a 30% upward climb.

Now, I unfortunately have a bit of a personal vendetta against hills, which basically is that I can not allow myself to be beaten by them – the last time I failed at cycling up a hill was on Kintyre in 1986, after which I vowed to buy a new bicycle. Jenny is much more sensible and walked up it after she stalled on the corner with the 30% gradient. The hill just about finished me off, and it went on and on too, so by the time we eventually reached the top I had to rest for a good 10 minutes and get an instant glucose boost by eating our ancient Kendal Mint Cake bar that we've carried with us (surprisingly, or perhaps not, it tasted exceedingly good).

A few miles further on, I noticed that our route took us down to Crackington Haven, which looked as if it involved another such cliff face to ascend. I also noticed that there was an alternative route along nice B and A roads and which still took us to Boscastle, a village we wanted to see. It didn't take much persuading for Jenny to agree to this, and so we upped our average speed and saved both legs and my pride, as I really don't think I could have coped with another hill like the one we had recently climbed.

Boscastle is the village parts of which were swept away in August 2004, but they have done an excellent job rebuilding it so at a casual glance you would imagine that it had remained untouched for centuries, especially on a sunny & hot day like today. It was very busy with tourists, but we found a very pleasant cafe and enjoyed our coffee & cakes sitting on its terrace next to the main road.

We were dreading the road out of Boscastle as it climbed away up out of the village, however in practice it was a cinch by comparison to what we had already done, and even though we followed the coastline to Tintagel the worst of the hills was behind us. Phew!

Tintagel was very busy which gave it quite a buzzing atmosphere but we carried on through the village and straight down the steep path to the castle ticket office. The castle itself is quite spread out, covering the mainland and a small peninsula, and was built on the reputed site of King Arthur's birthplace. It was also massively busy – in fact we were warned to avoid the main path in to it as we would have to queue. As it is run by English Heritage and we get free access with our Historic Scotland membership, we decided just to abandon seeing the castle itself and had a picnic lunch in what was one of the outer courtyards on the mainland bit of it.

More tea please, no hills

Lunch over, we carried on, heading inland through Camelford, almost entirely on B roads and despite quite a few long climbs and a freshening headwind – it had also clouded over somewhat – we made very good progress. Approaching Bodmin around 4, we branched off onto some small roads and found our remote, organic farmhouse bed & breakfast, without too much trouble. Our host kindly brought us tea and home made flapjacks in the (now sunny again) conservatory, before we had much-needed showers in our spacious, comfortable and well-appointed room, overlooking flowers, fields and trees.

We headed into Bodmin on foot, a walk of about 2 miles, and found a very welcoming pub, The Mason's Arms, where we had an excellent meal (sirloin steak, chips & nice veg) and a selection of guest real ales. On the walk home we experienced the first real precipitation of our holiday – very light drizzle, which now (10pm) has turned to proper rain. Let's hope it's dry again by tomorrow!

Devon knows how they make it so hilly!

Day 11:

Cullompton to Bude – 64 miles

Planned mileage: 64 miles

Actual mileage: 69.2 miles – couple of extra miles going wrong before Tiverton, plus silly messing about with stupid cycle paths before Holsworthy!

Cycling time: 5hrs 10mins

Average speed: 13.3mph (record low – will this dip further???)

Maximum speed: 35mph

Route: http://gb.mapometer.com/en/cycling/route_1398242.html

Accomodation: Links Side Guesthouse, Bude - www.linkssidebude.co.uk

Really good night's sleep after a slightly later night than planned (always the way when catching up with friends you've not seen for years!), so woke refreshed and oblivious to the hard work ahead of us today. Amazing cooked breakfast from Andrew who had also packed us a box of his excellent homemade scones & jam to take with us.

We were really pleased that Andrew was joining us as far as Tiverton and hopeful that he'd know the best route there whilst avoiding the biggest hills. Despite this, we still managed to take a longer (though flatter than planned on the mapped route) way into Tiverton where we said goodbye to Andrew and continued on our way up the aptly named Longdrag Hill. This went on for over a mile and made us quite warm and out of puff by the time we'd slogged our way up to the top. After some more climbing (with some descents thrown in to keep us happy) we reached what appeared to be a high plateau running on for miles and miles. Very enjoyable and we got some very valuable miles under our belts before swooping down into the little village of Chawleigh where we discovered the brand new (well, it opened in November), purpose built village shop. Bought Cornish Pasties (saved for later) and milkshakes which we downed alongside two of the scones each whilst sitting on the bench outside the shop and being entertained by a local girl with her very sweet dog who wanted to say hello to anyone who happened to be passing.

We soon discovered that Devon had lulled us into a false sense of security and was in fact full of steep (though fortunately mostly fairly short) hills! For most of the rest of what seemed like a pretty long cycle we seemed to be either slogging hard to go up, or cautiously hovering over our brakes going down due to the nasty gravely/muddy stuff in the middle of the narrow, twist, tall hedge-lined lanes.

Hatherleigh coffee & cake - yum!

Non cycling highlights were our lunch on a picnic bench above Hatherleigh with a superb view, plus cappuccino and spiced fruit cake stop at the lovely newish tea rooms in the same village. The countryside was extremely pretty too – very lush and green with lots of hand sheathed haystacks and rather lovely villages and cottages (some apparently coated in marzipan) in evidence.

Following a run-in with a rubbish section of cycle route (i.e. muddy, gravely, rocky, brambly – completely unsuitable for anything other than mountain bikes and should be marked as such in my humble opinion) and subsequent difficulties trying to meet back up with it, we were advised by a local in Holsworthy to take the main road into Bude. And do you know what? We were so weary and fed up with the constant stop/start that we did! Those final 10 miles vanished in around 35 minutes on what was a lovely smooth, sweeping road. Only slightly spoilt by the traffic and not being able to speak to each other, as most of the vehicles (and their owners) were pretty well behaved.

Very relieved to arrive in Bude and easily find our Guest House and an extremely warm welcome from our hosts. Tonight the bikes are sleeping inside in the hall which I'm sure they'll enjoy very much!

HUGE Atlantic sunset - glorious

Collapsed with a cup of tea, the final scone each and the last of our hip flask whisky (which we have a mini-toast with at the successful end of each cycling day). Then shortly afterwards pulled ourselves together to get cleaned up and out to find some proper food. Discovered a local cafe called Bellini's which refreshed us with excellent local cider (my award winning blush version was particularly good), garlic ciabatta and a big dish of tasty pasta for me and an ultra filling pizza for Euan. Feeling a tad squiffy (I'd had another cider and Euan some local SOS (Save Our Seapool) beer by this point) we meandered out into the mild evening for a little wander around Bude itself. Of course, we had to go and look at the sea and were rewarded with the most spectacular sunset over the water. Quite, quite stunning – parts of it reminded me of deep space photos of nebulae and such like. A lovely, restful way to end the evening. Rather glad at this point that in theory it's only meant to be 38 miles to Bodmin tomorrow – we shall see what that's like!

A visit to Quaker's Croft

Day 10:

Sherborne to Cullompton – 47 miles

Planned mileage: 47 miles

Actual mileage: 50.5 miles (perfect navigation, the extra is from a scenic loop around Sherborne to take in the old castle)

Cycling time: 3hrs 36mins

Average speed: 14mph

Maximum speed: 31.2mph

Route: http://gb.mapometer.com/en/cycling/route_1398217.html

Accomodation: Staying with Andrew M

Quarterly peals from the abbey clock and a busy road aside, we slept well in our comfortable though slightly noisy room, and were down for breakfast in what felt more like a communal country kitchen than the usual B&B dining room. A warm welcome (especially from Charlie the Labrador!) was followed by an excellent cooked breakfast, with fresh strawberries on the sideboard to complete the fresh & homely touches.

We had a rest morning today! As the mileage was a bit lower than usual and we wanted to look round Sherborne, we milled around the place for several hours with our bikes and luggage safely parked in the B&B. It was another very warm day, and sunny with it – we've had quite a lot of warm but muggy weather – so we had a look round the impressive abbey (Saxon roots, mainly medieval, but with some late 20^th century elements too and no doubt everything in between). We were disappointed that the tower was not open to the public but it saved our legs some effort! Not disappointing though was the organ playing from a retired professional organist throughout our visit – extremely atmospheric. We emerged into the warmth outside again, did a quick tour of a few shops then went in search of a cafe – well, we hadn't eaten for a good couple of hours. Found one at the back of a second-hand bookshop, with a lovely courtyard in which we could enjoy our cappuccinos and scone / spiced apple cake (the latter, especially, excellent. Jen shared some of it with me and I was sorry not to have chosen that instead of my (still good) scone!).

Finally we collected our bikes but we still had time to visit the old castle (Sherborne has two, one old and one slightly less so) which was well worth doing, topped off by an excellent Dorset-made ice cream from the castle shop.

Jack The Treacle Eater!

So, at about 1pm, it was definitely time to head off properly so we said our farewell to Sherborne though it's definitely worth a repeat visit some time. We set off along some lovely country lanes, heading west for most of the day, keeping to the south of Yeovil. We saw Jack the Treacle Eater! Marked on the map, we had been intrigued by what this was – a memorial to someone with a peculiar eating disorder perhaps? - only to discover that it was a quaint little stone tower in the middle of a field. At East Coker we stopped on an attractive stone memorial bench next to a millennium marker stone, and were touched when an elderly woman passed by and said “Oh, Peter would have loved to see you sitting on his bench”.

We carried on into the head wind and soon picked up the much busier A30. This had recently been resurfaced with stone chips and for about 5 miles we were cycling in a complete dust cloud thrown up by cars and lorries – it was a bit like crossing a desert! Around 35 miles into the journey I asked Jenny what the exact mileage was – and was shocked to discover it was only 20 miles!! About 30 more to go and it was hard work. At Chard (birthplace of powered flight apparently, though we didn't have time to stop off to find out further details) we turned off the A30 and set up some pretty steep hills on small roads, so were ready for a break by the time we reached the hilly village of Combe St Nicholas. The friendly shop keepers sold us some suitable refreshments and gave us freely some directions to find the small road which led up yet more hills.

Once again however we found that some decent chunky hills are actually almost easier than the relentless grind of continuous ups & downs, and perhaps because of this or possibly our flapjacks were kicking in, we were soon flying along at much more like the sort of speeds we have come to expect.

The scenery was very pleasant too at this stage, with pretty villages, hedge-lined roads and great views due to all that climbing. Even better, we had plenty of descent and before too long were heading down towards the M5 and finally in to Cullompton, about 15 miles north of Exeter.

Andrew, Euan and those scones

We found Andrew's house without too much problem and he gave us a great welcome and plied us with tea. We had lovely refreshing baths, then an excellent meal followed by home-made scones with clotted cream and home-made jam. Yum!

Horrid headwinds plus hills

Day 9

Bristol to Sherbourne – 55 miles

Planned mileage: 55 miles

Actual mileage: 59.7 miles (some extra messing around at Barrow Gurney & Wincanton)

Cycling time: 4hrs 25mins

Average speed: 13.5mph

Maximum speed: 34.1mph

Route: http://gb.mapometer.com/en/cycling/route_1398201.html

Accomodation: The Bakehouse, Sherbourne - www.bakehouse.me.uk

It's so, so nice seeing and staying with people while you're on a cycle tour. The downside is that you have to say goodbye loads of times. The more times we've done it, the harder it's got.

Had a nice, relaxed start to the day, not getting out of bed till 8:30 and milling down for homemade blueberry pancakes, smoothie and various other bits and pieces with Kirsty and Matt. It wasn't far off 11 by the time we actually left, but I suppose it is Sunday. Kirsty fancied a little spin on her bike so accompanied us down through Bristol to give us a good view of the suspension bridge from the Downs and took us as far as Ashton Court before finally saying goodbye and leaving us to our pedalling. Dodging dogs and people we left the nice off-road section and headed through Long Ashton, waving hello to Nina as we headed past her house. Unfortunately she'd had to go off very early to run a stand at a triathlon so wasn't able to join us (or wave back).

Kirsty & Jenny overlooking Avon Gorge

 Barrow Gurney is very pretty. We weren't supposed actually to go through it, but missed a turning on first and even the second attempt. Eventually we found it and headed up a tiny little lane, through the cycle restrictions (though Euan almost demolished the first one on the way through) and up & over the rather steep hill.

Last time we'd been through the area we'd thought the drive past the Chew Valley lakes was very attractive. This time it seemed quite dull and we were fighting a significant headwind and it just all seemed like rather a tiring slog! Grit teeth, head down and just get on with it...

By the time we got to Chewton Mendip we were both wondering how we were going to get through the day. Fortunately, at that point we discovered the excellent Lynda's Loaf Deli where we were revived with tea, pasties and traybakes – yum, yum, yum.

The next section down to Shepton Mallet was great fun, especially once we turned onto the A37 and swooped downwards on a smooth road at top speed. The countryside had got much prettier too by this point so we were definitely happy again.

And then the fun bit really started as we headed off onto proper quiet little country roads and benefited from some pretty significant climbs and descents which rewarded us with brilliant, far reaching views. Slogging up a proper steep hill is so much more rewarding than feeling you're working hard for no apparent reason. I think it's safe to say that our bike fitness is definitely improving.

By the time we arrived in Wincanton just before 4 we were feeling in need of something else to eat. Unfortunately, apart from the racecourse, Wincanton appeared to be entirely closed, so we had to settle for buying milkshakes at Morrisons petrol station (the store itself was also closed) and eating them with Fry's Peppermint Creams a couple of miles further on. We were entertained by children playing noisily the other side of the thick hedge who had absolutely no clue that we were there.

Very relieved to finally arrive in Sherbourne and find our B&B. Bikes safely stowed in the courtyard and we thoroughly enjoyed the luxury of hot baths before wandering out into the town to find something to eat.

A curried feast!

 Now, Euan is famed for not eating hot food, so something we do very infrequently is have a curry. Breaking this tradition, we had a fantastic curry meal complete with ultra classy pre-created ice cream desserts. Especially lovely touch was the complimentary shot of Baileys with our bill.

After a wander round the town to appreciate the Abbey, the school (where a dramatic sounding concert was going on) and the generally lovely warm yellow stone buildings, we're now celebrating our first night entirely by ourselves by watching tv in bed and completely switching off. Night night all.