Just got to South Molton - 16 miles - the hardest cycling yet - 2 hills we had to walk up as far too steep - tough just pushing the bike up the hill. Its a curious feature of cycling that as one wizzes down a long hill one cannot help speculating that the price one will pay will be a long hill up.
All End to End cyclists say that the first few days cycling through Cornwall and Devon are the most difficult - and we were not disappointed! Beautiful scenery but so many steep or long hills- sometimes both; the last were the Quantock Hills just before we got to Bridgwater. During the day we had we deveated from the CTC route as it was too hilly with narrow high hedged roads - however the road we took instead was quiet and pleasant. For much of the ride we were on a ridge overlooking hills on both sides. Had lunch at Bampton - in a rather snooty cafe and we rather let the place down! Still having trouble with the gears that keep slipping so first thing we did when we got to Bridgwater was to go to St Johns Cycles, where we bought the tandem 10 years ago and where Jeff took it in February of this year for them to sort out amongst other things the gears, - where an infuriating mechanic questioned ua about the tandem that his firm had built! He rather condescendingly agreed to have a mechanic look at the bike in the morning. Great Band B with large room and joy of joys for Linda - a bath. As we cycled she was fantasising about having a bath - she had a good soaking. Bridgewater is rather dreary, seedy town. Had a good buffet meal at nearby chinese - all you can eat for £8. We ate a lot ( well Jeff did) (7o miles )
All End to End cyclists say that the first few days cycling through Cornwall and Devon are the most difficult - and we were not disappointed! Beautiful scenery but so many steep or long hills- sometimes both; the last were the Quantock Hills just before we got to Bridgwater. During the day we had we deveated from the CTC route as it was too hilly with narrow high hedged roads - however the road we took instead was quiet and pleasant. For much of the ride we were on a ridge overlooking hills on both sides. Had lunch at Bampton - in a rather snooty cafe and we rather let the place down! Still having trouble with the gears that keep slipping so first thing we did when we got to Bridgwater was to go to St Johns Cycles, where we bought the tandem 10 years ago and where Jeff took it in February of this year for them to sort out amongst other things the gears, - where an infuriating mechanic questioned ua about the tandem that his firm had built! He rather condescendingly agreed to have a mechanic look at the bike in the morning. Great Band B with large room and joy of joys for Linda - a bath. As we cycled she was fantasising about having a bath - she had a good soaking. Bridgewater is rather dreary, seedy town. Had a good buffet meal at nearby chinese - all you can eat for £8. We ate a lot ( well Jeff did) (7o miles )
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