Miles:35.50
Average Speed
Hours: 8.30am - 5 pm
Up: 3645
Down: 3515
Weather today was perfect. There were times when I was biking along thinking "Oh yes, THIS is why I love biking so much." But there were other times too, when I was not so happy.
Anyway, we set off in misty cool weather, a few miles of lovely riverside road, along which we saw hundreds and hundreds of pheasants, some sitting right on the road, which is apparently a problem around these parts.
And then the 'fun' began. In North Molton we started up a hill that lasted several miles of steep unbikeable (at least for us] roads. It took us at least a couple of hours to push the bikes up, and we decided that it was the departure toll that Devon was charging us.
At the end of it, however, we were on the top of Exmoor - just at the edge, but enough to give the idea of the vastness and the beauty. Wild and lonely, with lovely heather in large areas.
And lo and behold, at the down side of this hill was the lovely village of Withypool where there was a tea room. We both had tea, and I might have had a scone with clotted cream and jam. Very pretty place. We had to stay a while so that we could charge JST' s Garmin (bike computer and GPS).
Another humongous hill, and down the other side to where there just happened to be another lovely tea rooms with outside tables, perfect on a day like this, where we just might have had fabulous ice cream again. I mean, we had been doing all this pushing of bikes, walking, and, let me tell you, today I had MAJOR blisters on my heel - it is absolutely no longer a joke. We needed little rewards like this
More and more hills, really tiring, but through truly beautiful countryside . Eventually we reached a ridge that seemed to take us off the hills and down toward Taunton. It was biking heaven, with downs long enough to get up speed for the next up, and then the piece de resistance - a fabulous 1:6 descent almost right to Bishops Ledyeard, where once again we found the perfect Pub (The Lethbridge) with beer, shandy, bed and brekky - plus free wifi, of course ( NZ and OZ hotels and motels take note)
Posted with Blogsy
Hi Lynley and John
ReplyDeleteCarol has sent me your journal link so I've just caught up with your start and progress....all up hill. It all sounds so familiar its a fun trip except for those hills, only those who have walked the hills can understand how steep they are as the photos don't do justice.
We seemed to have long days on the road as well and always looking for accomadation, towards the end of the trip we'd start looking from 2 pm onwards....pub dinners are the best, I love your photo of BnB host in her pinny and jandals, so delightful.
Keep up the tea and scones, I've just got my large map of GB out and am going to plot your route against ours.
Take care and keep on having fun
Sandra