Destination: Perranporth – Okehampton
Daily miles: 78.6
Total Miles: 126.7
Average Speed: 11.9
Alcohol: less than 2 units each
Weather: Mixture of sunshine and showers
Sunburn ratings: mostly comedy cycle-short sunburn on the knees – but mostly on the sunnyside (the right knees!)
Got up at 8am and had porridge. Had no milk so had to borrow tea and coffee from our friendly room-mate who was very impressed with our venture. Packed our panniers after last nights ‘pack explosion’. Sadly nothing had dried and putting on wet shoes was not particularly comfortable.
Happily the weather looks beautiful and the scenery from the hostel is lovely. It is right on the cliffs and looks out towards the sea and Perranporth Bay. Completely different from yesterday.
Hel’s is having problems with her gears, but fortunately we befriended the pizza man last night, who lives 5 doors away from the hostel and apparently had a mountain bike business previously. Seemed to sort it out, but won’t know until we are back on the road. Head off and have a very slight navigational error, which added about 4 miles to the journey.
Head to Newquay and sit near to fistral beach to watch the surfers and enjoy Cornish Pasties and coffee. We have decided to take a costal route and avoid Bodmin and the large hills. Very wise, we thought!
Starting to really enjoy the bike and feel a little more confident. We head along the A39 to Wadebridge and Launceston and enjoy Cornish icecream by Launceston castle. Hels is still having problems with the gears, so we try and sort that out and finally ‘phone a friend’! Mat helped talk through the gear adjustments and we set off to test them out on the last stretch of the A30 to Okehampton, again in the rain…bit of a pattern emerging…..We find the YHA in Okehampton up a very steep hill, but it is a nice building by the railway and we have the room to ourselves. After a quick shower, we walk back to town and find a local pub still serving food – sadly the lasagne was a bit stodgy and the bottled cider a bit synthetic so struggled to finish it and walked back feeling very full. Decided we should have small meals on the evening – maybe even a salad would do!
