Lands End to John O Groats: Post 8, Day 2; Hills and rain

DAY 2, Hills... and Rain…

Was it Billy Connelly who said that “there's no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong clothing?”

Unfortunately today, I had both.

We cruised out onto the hills of Liskeard at dawn, fuelled by porridge and optimism. Today was billed as a “Hard Day”, short on miles and big on hills. We would leave Cornwall and climb the heights of Dartmoor, before dipping up and down to Exeter.

Despite the anticipation, once we got moving we found that, whilst the hills were tough and extremely long, they weren't as bad as our imagination had coloured them…and despite the gradient, it all seemed to be going well.

Pretty soon, were crossing out of Cornwall and entering Devon, with a long climb up to Tavistock.

Tavistock is a beautiful market town in the foothills of Dartmoor. At our tea stop in the village we established that Bryan (a sinewy giant of a man) had a dangerously snagging freehub and a small group of us set off in search of a local bike shop to see if we couldn't sort it out.

This was excellent displacement activity, we darted about town, here and there...efficiently delaying the inevitable climb up onto the moors, for as long as possible.

Once found, Tavistock Cycles worked hard to sort the issue and within 30 minutes we were rolling again, the chap in the shop refused payment of any kind and was happy instead to simply trade cycle stories, it was rich currency.

I like Tavistock, it's a relaxed, friendly kind of town, full of patient types, I wanted to stay…but time was pushing on and the moors were calling.

We set off.

All the while we rode, we were reserving energy in the anticipation that things would soon get tough. But the thing is, they just didn't. Sure at times it was hard and the hills were long but our training was really paying off and we each felt that we were well within our comfort zones.

So, instead what followed was some epic riding. We swept along the down hills, the wind filling our ears, the ups were taken in our stride, dropping the gears and winding it in. The views on the moor were just stunning, windswept, dramatic and encouraging us along with every push of the pedal. All the while we climbed up further into the mist. Occasionally my ears were popping from the altitude and my lungs bursting from the effort…but constantly up and up we climbed.

By way of a distraction, the wildlife was abundant along the road. Suicidal sheep, nonchalant ponies, cows...then more cows... and then really big cows who made us realise pretty soon that this was actually their road, as they stood fast, letting cars and cyclist weave around them whilst they enjoyed lunch.

Our lunch (a tiny church hall in Postbridge), was plentiful. As we get to know one another the organising team (Jen, Ian and Lachen) are beginning to find our tastes and stocking up well on all the right food.

When we left, Matthew (our best dressed rider) mentioned that it had just started to rain a little, which was no surprise as we were well and truly up in the clouds by now.

We hit the top of the moor just as the rain began to come in thick and fast, we were keen to push on and get out of the cloud and so began to put the hammer down. We were flying and dropped nearly 1000 feet in a matter of minutes. Sadly, the rain stayed with us and seemed to be getting worse as we hit the lowlands but it was warm and there were plenty of sharp long hills to work up a steam, we shrugged of the rain.

Last tea stop was up the last sharp hill into Exeter, we refilled our bidons and scoffed bananas and jelly babies as fast as we could before pushing on for the last 15 miles. The rain, by now, was falling fast and we were dressed for sun. Negotiating Exeter in heavy rain was tricky, just seeing the Garmin was hard enough, let alone making out the route but despite a few wrong turns (that were swiftly dealt with with Uturns) we were out of the town and onto the final stretch to Cullumpton.

We arrived at the impressive Padbrook Park Hotel, drenched, hot and insanely happy. The Hotel supplied a dry, carpeted room to store the bikes along with plenty of old tea cloths to wipe down the essentials, ready for tomorrow.

Today was fantastic, made better still by the realisation that we had cracked what was billed as the Hardest day, with a good deal of energy in reserve.

As a post script, I have to admit that, I've made a new friend. Just like my missus she’s shapely, sleek, intelligent and most importantly…she’s always right. This little Garmin is a wonder, it’s the first time I've really stretched its legs and we would be literally lost without it.