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!