Month: May 2016

May 31st

44 miles

344m climbing

Cumulative distance  289 miles

The clue is in the name….

Most of today across Somerset was indeed very flat making for quite a relaxed day with only one fairly mild climb up the Mendips at the end

Somerset Levels – instead of fences each field has a drainage ditch- plus resident swan in many

We started out along the Bridgewater Canal which was great cycling on touring bikes with slightly wider tyres- a road bike might struggle a bit with the slightly loose rocky surface . Although not as easy as cycling on tarmaced roads the fact that it was completely level more than compensated and we whizzed along nicely, . we were surprised by the number of WW2 pill boxes along the canal- it doesn’t seem to be the most obviously strategic thing to defend , but we see on Google that it was part of the Taunton Stop Line- a defensive line built across the west country to stop Nazi advances from the West. We hadnt noticed but all of the bridges had been fitted with cavities to take demolition charges as well .Something of a poor relation to the Maginot line but they must have been scary days.

WW2 Pill Box alongside the canal

Less sombre were scale depictions of the planets in the Solar system dotted along the path every few miles. . Sustrans commisions public sculpture and claims to be the longest linear art gallery in the world – do Chinese State Railways have any sculptures I wonder.

We met a couple of  friendly cyclists from Wigan doing Lands end to John O’Groats , they  were unencumbered with luggage having recruited some family members to drive and carry their kit. they had planned some really long days but like us had found the hills in Cornwall and Devon challenging and were having to shorten the days a bit.

We had done a quarter of the distance by mid morning and  had a leisurely  coffee at the Bridge Cafe in Bridgewater – excellent. we then left the canal but still had quite a lot of off road along old railways- the surface was slightly rougher but being traffic free makes it very pleasurable.

Unusual signpost in Bridgewater

The longest section was on the Strawberry line – a disused railway used to transport strawberries  grown in Somerset to Bristol .

Tunnel on the Strawberry Line

We had bread and cheese sat on a grassy verge untroubled by any traffic and then carried on to Cheddar- we contemplated taking a detour up  Cheddar Gorge itself which would have added a few miles but thought better of it when we saw the amount of traffic (that’s my story , rather than the 16% gradient)

We carried on and into the Mendips by a rather less steep route, again partly on old Railway lines and then through Axbridge – a small village with some lovely medieval buildings.

Tonight we are camped on a small site near Clevedon, it’s a popular spot for coarse fishing and good facilities- but noisy from the nearby Motorway. It is raining but we are tucked up in the tent doing our social media duty

Our home for the next few weeks – small but cosy , and the view from the front door changes each day

May 30th
56 miles
905m climbing
Cumulative distance 245 miles

We rearranged our route last night when we saw that our detour to a campsite actually added some extra miles and we could shorthen it a bit- Gayle pored over the digital map on her tablet in the pub with a pint of cider and came up with a fantastic route on a quiet series of roads along the ridge- just goes to show that time spent in the pub is rarely wasted. This morning there was a really heavy dew- the tent was soaked and took quite a while to dry before we could leave- the extra weight of a wet tent is considerable. The views of mist down in the valley early in the morning were impressive.

Devon in the mist ….from the campsite this morning

Although we did a bigger distance today there weren’t as many of the steep hills that Devon seems to go in for- although one out of a deeply wooded river valley seemed to make up for it. .. going on for ages and very steep- Devon’s last revenge. We had a late morniing coffee at the only pub we passed for miles- no cafes in these parts- but they excelled and produced bacon butties – somehow after going up hill you can justify it to yourself.

Hi tec sports nutrition- bacon sandwich

We had lunch sat on a bench in Tiverton , a rather faded looking town but with a lot of old elegant buildings and then set off along some off road Sustrans on an old railway folllowed by the towpath of the Great Western Canal- a quiet waterway with wildlife and a good surface on the towpath- and as is the nature of canals gloriously flat.

Canal

The last few miles left the canal and wound through some gentle rolling country- very different from the last few days. One dramatic little gorge with steep sandstone walls was a short testing climb near the end.

At last we arrived in Taunton and stocked up on supper at the local Lidl. The last few miles out of Taunton to the campsite were along a canal, past the cricket ground where there was a county match on  – lots of applause emanating from the ground as we passed

Taunton Cricket Ground

Tonights campsite is unique- very comfortable , lots of geese, peacocks and pea hens strutting their stuff in amongst the campers, also some remarkably tame rabbits hopping around.

The owners also collect old farm machinery, the antiquated machines have a certain elegant charm. (I must try this line on Gayle next time she wants to clear out the garage)

One persons junk is another person’s antique

Our companions on the campsite

Tomorrow we head off towards Clevedon on the Bristol Channel.

29th May 2016
32 miles
930 metres of climbing
Total miles 189 miles.

Leaving the campsite was challenging as there was clearly a vintage VW van rally, about 30 of them in various states of repair … brilliant. We just waited until they had gone.

Beautiful cycling today along tiny lanes through Devon, no big towns and most places were tiny, not even running to a shop. Although it is Bank Holiday the lanes were deserted with very little traffic. Just birdsong, cows and everything so green. Later on we climbed up and along a ridge with beautiful views South over Dartmoor.

Lunchtime stop by apple orchards

Looking towards Dartmoor

We use the Sustrans routes a lot when planning where to go, this consists of a network of cycle friendly roads and off road routes which use local cycleways and beautiful rural lanes. They are well sigposted (usually) but the signs are discreet and it always reminds me of following trails as a child in Guides, you have to look out for the clues!

sustrans sign hidden in the hedge

Devon is hilly and we pushed on a couple of hills at the end. Because of the Bank Holiday we stocked up with food which meant that we had extra weight …. Martin had to rescue me by taking the Granola!

pushing uphill

Camped in a sunny field, wind keeping the midges at bay.

We looked at tomorrow’s route and realised that it is 57 miles with over 1200 metres of climbing! it is because we have needed to do a detour to get to this campsite and in Devonian style this means several steep hills, we are busy replanning to avoid some of the twisting and turning and up and down, Martin is grappling with transferring the new routes from the tablet to the cycle satnav.

King Arthur’s realm

28th May 2016

Miles today 29
Climbing 697 m
Miles so far 157

Martin in the tent last night

A shorter day cycling today as we took the opportunity to cycle down to Tintagel and be tourists for the morning visiting the castle. We were really impressed, beautiful position and views over the dramatic coastline with mist blowing in and out between the blue sea and sky. It is beautifully preserved as a historic, wild place without the king Arthur theme park approach that dominates the village itself, most of the shops have some Arthurian theme. The one exception was a modern statue of an Arthur like figure on top, cast as rather ghostly as if to ask ” is he real or not?”

Tintagel

Tintagel

From Tintagel

Cycling back up from the coast without luggage (we left the bags at the campsite) was a pleasure – reminding us how much extra work it is carrying them on the hills, on the flat it is not too bad.

We then set off along Sustrans route 3 heading towards Devon, rather windy but sunny and beautiful quiet flowery lanes and rewarded by more views over Bodmin Moor. We succumbed to ice creams in the intriguingly named Week St Mary.

Quiet lanes

We are staying at a large camping and caravanning park, very different from last night when there were only 2 tents. We suddenly realised that it is bank holiday weekend, really busy, lots of children having fun, warm showers, somewhere to recharge the electronic gizmos. We have fitted dynamos on the bikes which keeps them topped up through the day but all this social media is juice hungry. Wifi rubbish though so not sure we’ll get this posted tonight.

Thunder and a bit of rain tonight but forecast nice tomorrow.

27th May 2016

30.5 miles , 755 metres climbing, total so far 127 miles

Everything was sodden this morning and the midges were out en force so we packed up the sleeping bags and clothes and went off to the Eden Project leaving the tent to dry out as the sun came out later.

Local people had been somewhat equivocal about the Eden project but we thought the biomes, especially the rainforest one were impressive in scale and execution, clearly a massive undertaking and even out of school/holidays it was really busy.

We then set off on the Sustrans 3 which took/us to Bodmin where we had a late lunch in the sun and on to join the Camel Trail- an idylic disused railway along the Camel river ‘
,Victorian railway engineers were geniuses , creating level routes through the undulating landscape, a welcome respits after the last couple of days.

We then had a steep climb up onto Bodmin moor in the late afternoon sun, fantastic views

Coffee in Bodmin

Camel Trail

Bodmin Moor

We had arranged to camp at Slaughterbridge at the Arthurian Centre when we had emailed we had such a warm message baCck from the owner Joe supporting our venture , we arrived to find that he and Sam had arranged a barbeque for us and invited friends round to support MSF- really moving

We had a further surprise- around this part of Cornwall there are a lot of Arthurian themed fish and chip shops , pubs and dog grooming parlours however on Joe and Sams farm they have the site of the Celtic / Saxon Battle of Camlann ,the last battle of the true historical Arthur figure ( giving the name to the hamlet of Slaughterbridge),  Tennyson visited the site and went on to write his poem and create the Victorian romantic myth. THERE is also an intriguing stone pillar inscribed in Latin with Arthurs name and Ogham script, it was recorded in medieval texts but then lost for several hundred years until it was found having been used as a footbridge over a small stream. It is now looked after by English Heritage but still lies on the bank of the stream on their land.

There is also a medieval farm that is being excavated by archaeologists. They have arranged access to this in a low key symparthetic way with a path through the meadows and over the stream where there are otters . Although they have been appoached by people wanting to develop a Disney like experience they have resisted and the whole feeling was in keeping with the surrounding landscape- a very heartening experience after visiting Lands End

Arthurs Stone

We are camped in a small field behind the farm- proper camping with warm showers but no karaoke- perfect

BBQ with Joe and Sam

26th May 2016

35 miles, 1030 metres of ascent, total miles so far 97

The Lanyon Park campsite provided baths, I have never before soaked in bath when camping! they were also welcoming and generous contributing to the cause.

It was all downhill to Redruth, a nice second breakfast at the Organic Coffee House there. It was only 26 miles to St Austell so we decided to aim for lunch there. It didn’t quite go as planned, as several short segments of the route turned out to be very rough bridleway, too much to negotiate with the bags so we had some detours extending by a few miles.

Beautiful cycling on little Cornish lanes with hedgerows full of flowers but it was hilly! like cycling waves of land with steep ups and downs. We only pushed once but we certainly lived up to our name going at a snail’s pace. I go particularly slowly uphill, down to 3-4 miles an hour and it is not possible to go fast down hill either on these windy steep gravelly roads, we made an average of 8 miles an hour and were actually very hungry by the time we got to St Austell!

Rustic viaduct tucked up a small quiet valley

Just an ordinary roadside verge, full of flowers

We met up with Jackie Pendleton in St Austell , a colleague of Martins from working in NHS management in PCTs and the CCG, someone I have always really enjoyed working with but who escaped from landlocked Derbyshire to live next to the sea – I can see why after the last few days .

Quiet lanes, idyllic cycling

I

Camped at YHA Eden Project , it is raining tonight but they provide a large warm marquee which makes for a friendly communal space so we are sitting there drinking tea and eating apricots. We will visit the Biomes tomorrow morning before setting off up the Camel trail to camp near Tintagel.

People are being most generous with sponsorship just over £1000, thankyou to all for your generosity.

EDEN project space for campers away from the midges

Miles Today 48, Miles in total 62, Climbing today 1006 metres

Well we’re off, good night at the very comfortable Youth Hostel in Penzance,  the warden warned us to be up early as a large school party was in and if we appeared after 7.30 ” could be mayhem”. We dutifully arrived early but in fact the children were very civilised, respect though to teachers dealing with  school trips!

We cycled to Lands End with the wind behind us (not what we want as then it will be a headwind for the rest of the time). We were rather appalled at Land’s End as to what commercial enterprise can do to Britain’s natural beauty…. tacky amusements in a gorgeous place.

We declined the fee for the “official” photo in front of the famous sign and instead had our picture taken by a friendly passing tourist- and our banner generated interest and some donations.

Lands End- how not to enhance wild coastal scenery

Quiet Cornish lanes

Then we set off back to Penzance with a stiff headwind but little traffic.

View at lunch over to St Michael’s Mount. Gull eyeing up our sandwiches

Lunch and then on to Hayle , Camborne and our intended (booked ) campsite- but calamity, the lady said that the toilet wasn’t working so they couldn’t accomodate any camping on the farm. Our pleas of weary legs were to no avail- so we were glad of a  mobile signal and searched for another site, luckily not too much further but inevitably up another hill (Cornwall may have no big mountains but we can confirm other’s comments that it has some very steep hills)

Anyway all is well, the campsite we arrived, Lanyon’s Holiday Park was much nicer and the charming proprietor Jamie was interested in our project and when he found out the causes we were raising for donated us free camping-  a really generous  gift, we have put the fee into justgiving.

Because our small stove only burns for a short time we have to limit what we can cook- but tonight’s fresh pasta with sauce tasted great after 48 miles.

Lanyon Campsite

24th May 2016

Return to Penzance today.

Sunny but windy and cold. Packed, all very organised as the bags always are at the beginning of trips. Visited the beautiful health centre to acquire a stock of Sturgeron for the boat journey, the waiting room has a picture window with an amazing view. The staff were enthusiastic about our project and have put leaflets up for us

Then to the Scillies museum where we read about all the things we have seen. An old fashioned, cluttered museum, stuffed with things: Mesolithic axe heads, neolithic arrows and brooches and pottery, civil war soldiers pipes, relics from wrecks and then historyies of the schools, football clubs boats and people. We learnt that the islands were much bigger in Neolithic times with many of the islands joined together to form a single bigger landmass. Then rising sealevels divided them and the current coastline dates from medieval times. We also learnt that they were held by Royalists in the civil war long after Cromwell’s troops had won on the mainland and that all the Civil war fortifications we have seen were due to Cromwell taking the islands , fearing the French would use them as a base to invade.

We learnt that there 700 recorded wrecks but in reality many more and they contributed greatly to the islands economy as ships needed pilots and then often rescue and salvage, and then inevitably the islanders profited from goods coming ashore as well as a spot of smuggling. The islanders were hostile to Her Majesty’s Customs establishing an office there and the Customs ruled that the local boats, or gigs, would be restricted to 6 oars to prevent them being able to go faster than the Customs boats.

All fascinating stuff

After that we bought food, posted postcards and wandered down ot the pier.

Scilly post office

Waiting for the ferry

On the way over, we had been horrified to find that the bikes had been unsecured in a container and had been crashing and sliding around all journey so this time we made a fuss about seeing them well secured. The sea is much calmer and I am sitting writing this in the sun on the back deck in relative comfort.

Unloading a racing skiff from the ferry, if it fits they will take it

Mooring at Penzance Quay

Horse Point- the most Southerly point of the British isles,

Today we started the trip for real- took the small boat over to St Agnes- the most southerly of the inhabited Scillies and walked to Horse Point the most southerly tip where we scrambled along the rocky promentary to the high water mark . We took the obligatory picture with our banner and then enjoyed the remarkable views over the western rocks out towards Bishops Rock lighthouse.

On our boat trip we met a nice couple from Matlock and another GP who trained in Chesterfield- a small world.

Rock formations on St Agnes

We didnt take our bikes as they cant manage them on the small boat, and anyway we could have only have cycled about 200m on the island before the road turns into sandy footpath.

Why not the Channel Islands as the most southerly point I hear you ask? Well we felt that as they have a different government and you need a permit to live there they are really another country

Bishops Rock Lighthouse on the Western Rocks

St Agnes was just delightful remote ,  gentle but with sculptural rock formations.  There have been lots of shipwrecks on the Western Rocks  through the years, Tresco holds a fine collection of  ship figureheads retrieved  over the 1800s

Agriculture is flowers in fields between high hedges to shelter from the sea winds

The Scillies have the smallest football league, 2 clubs, we cross their field to get to the campsite

2 clubs: Garrison Gunners and Woolpack Wanderers

Back in the campsite it is cold as soon as the sun goes down … we got into sleeping bags fully dressed until we warmed up. The blackbird hops right into the tent now to look for food

Tomorrow we catch the Scillonian back to Penzance and the day after start the proper pedalling

Martin tinkering with his bike

22d May 2016

Sunny today but windy and chilly. This campsite has lots of birds, and they clearly make a living from campers. A large gull and a family of blackbirds stole a box of 6 eggs, we returned to find just the shells… Sparrows blackbirds and even thrushes come to see what might be on offer, here is a very handsome character cosying up to Martin!

Blackbird eying up Martin’s muesli

We couldn’t come to the Scillies without being tourists. We went to Tresco today, beautiful gardens and coastline. Castles from the civil war with graffiti from Cromwell’s forces still clearly visible in the cement rendering. Red squirrels. The whole island is like an enormous garden, lovingly looked after .

Red Squirrel in the Abbey Gardens

Cromwell’s Castle.

We go to St Agnes tomorrow, the most southerly inhabited British Island (we are not counting the Channel islands, separate administration) We can’t take the bikes there, the boat is too small so we will walk the 2 miles to the southerly tip with our banner.