Day 3 - Okehampton to Combwich

 Well...  I knew it was going to be hilly leaving Okehampton and getting to Tiverton, but I didn't realise it was going to be another day of relentless hills all day long!!!  71 miles - mostly of tiny country lanes - and another 5,200 of climbing!  That's almost as much as the day before, and far more than I'd ever done in a day before.   And it was hot!  And the biggest, meanest climb of the day came quite near the end, up and over the Quantock hills at West Bagborough, when we were tired and had had enough...

But, despite all that, it was another wonderful day!  The scenery was still absolutely beautiful, the route was interesting and quite fun and took us through places you'd never ever go to otherwise.  One absolute highlight of the day was our first meeting point at Lapford, half-way between Okehampton and Tiverton.  Met the lovely ladies volunteering at the ARK (Acts of Random Kindness) drop-in cafe and food bank. They welcomed us in, although they weren't quite open yet, fed us yummy coffee and home-made cakes and chatted to us very enthusiastically about their charity and our ride.  We donated to theirs, and they to ours, which was so sweet of them and they made us feel very special.  Filled my heart and helped me up the steep hill out of the village :-).   

Another highlight was picking up Duncan from Tiverton train station, having a pub lunch together and having my cycle buddy with me all afternoon. Lovely to have his company and someone to share the highs and lows with. And then (eventually, around 7pm) we arrived at my family home in Somerset, to another surprise. Old family friends I hadn't seen for 8 years were hiding, waiting for us to come in and surprise us and have dinner with us. And we were also joined by Alison's friend Mel and Uncle Robert, so had quite the houseful!  

Am hoping today (Combwich to Chepstow) will be much much easier - it should be as flat as a pancake (only 1000 ft of climbing all day) and a bit shorter.  If not, I'm going to sack the tour guide (me!) and demand my money back!!!   Adios xx
















Comments

  1. no nameJune 15, 2022 at 3:19 AM

    Well done on the amazing progress so far. Such a beautiful part of the country. Glad to see Duncan is finally putting in some hard graft! Tim

    ReplyDelete

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