LEJOG Day 4 - Bude to Barnstaple

The Engineer at work.  It was the tiniest piece of metal on the brake disc!

An amazing 30 mile trail

Along the estuary

Morning visitor

Last of the Cornwall hills!

Hoo-boy!  A king sized bed!

Over the viaduct

On the Tarka Rail Trail

Reminded us of pedalling on the coastal rail trail in Varazze

Last Cornwall hill day today, we’ll be in Devon tonight (and we won’t talk about the Devon hills just yet).  It’s a hilly 47 miles today and it looks like it’s going to be a balmy 84 / 29 degrees today.

The rooster just crowed outside our funky B&B window.  Upton Cross is a very cobbled together place, with rooms tucked into every nook and cranny.  We were boiling last night, but the sea breeze came up once it went dark and was a lovely temperature for sleeping.  I had the best night’s sleep I’ve had on the trip so far.

On sleep, earplugs and eye shades make a world of difference when you’re sleeping in a different room each night. We had Belgian motorcyclists in the garden outside our window last night and I hardly noticed them

Really?  This is what you do for blinds?!

And all the light coming in from the ‘artistically’ spaced blinds didn’t bother me a bit with the eyeshades that I’d thrown in the bag at the last minute.

The rooster is still crowing…

The route was a bit misleading yesterday.  Although the Sustrans book said Bodmin to Bude, the gpx of the route went to Marhamchurch and just stopped.  We got out trusty Google Maps for the route to the B&B, but why would it say Bodmin to Bude if it’s really Bodmin to Marhamchurch?  These are the things you wonder about when panting up yet another hill.

Packing for the weather is a challenge when trying to keep the luggage weight down.  I had been checking the forecasts for Truro for a couple of weeks before the trip and the weather looked similar to Lancashire.  But, the weather has turned - in a good way, it’s warmer than expected.  Thank you, Weather Gods!  However, that means I only have one short sleeved jersey, which is why we’re in the same shirts for the past 3 days.  Nightly laundry does occur!

Some serious ups and downs today!  You can see it on the route map, nasty steep suckers!  Not as much uphill pushing today though, we may be starting to get in the swing of ‘twiddling’ (that is a technical term) our way up a hill.  

There have been some fantastic downs, but we need to explain to the farmers that their huge tractors are interfering with our epic descents!  We crest a hill (finally) and start heading down, standing up in the pedals, screaming along and then…a tractor.  Have to stop that wonderful descent, let him go by, often by mere inches as we cower in the hedgerow.

The engineer was back out today as there was a ting, ting, ting as we were pedalling.  Finally turned out to be a bit of metal embedded on the brake disc, file it off and the ting was gone!

After all the hilly bits, there was the Tarka Trail, another old railway that has been converted to a walking / cycling trail - absolutely amazing!  Miles of well groomed, immaculate cycling trail through gorgeous countryside.  There was a gentle climb over several miles on a gravel trail and a paved trail descending into Biddeford.

We cruised along the Taw River and then along the estuary to Bickington, to the Cedars Inn in Barnstaple, our home for the next two nights!  We’ve made it out of Cornwall, the first county of the tour, and are now in Devon. It will be good to have a day off, chance to heal and relax.

So, 175 miles so far and the first of six sections of the trip are done!