SPOT THE AMATEUR
INTO DEVON
THE GRANITE WAY AQUEDUCT
PADSTOWE: DISABLED PAY FULL FEE!!!
New Boscastle YHA rebuilt after floods
Perranporth to Boscastle
After my day wearing the T-shirt, and cycling shorts, I discovered I was suffering from the Scottish Sunburn Problem. You’ll see us all on the second day of our holiday looking like Neapolitan ice-creams. Not a lot of demand genetically in Caithness for resistance to this. So today it was longsleeve shirts and jeans. Every inch covered up- Muslim style sunbathing?
Getting out of Perranporth was by the steep hill was tricky for someone already rather stiff from yesterday. The weather was rather windier, but still very pleasant, and indeed warmer than yesterday.
Norman has worked out how to get his direction finder worker visible, but it only works for short periods. We have to slow down or even stop at junctions so that it can make its mind up.
The scenery was beautiful- the route took us via a series of small lanes, and we were at probably the best time of year for flowers in the verges- all a riot of every type of wild flower you could imagine, Bluebells, buttercups, those pink things, Whin, Broom. In the shadier bits, it tended to smell like a Spanish restaurant as we passed ranks of wild garlic.
Yesterday I’d reckoned that it was pretty hilly, but not as extreme as the area I was practising in (potential Cornish Tourist Office slogan- Not quite as hilly as North Hertfordshire). Today was quite a bit steeper, and I think that it is Quite as Hilly as North Hertfordshire.
Most of the bits we went through were delightful little historic villages. The one blot was Padstowe, which really is awful!
Eventually we arrived in Boscastle after what seemed to be a lot of climbing, all dissipated in one
mad helter skelter descent into Boscastle. What a delightful little town.
John is still wearing the T-shirts, which keep up our profile wherever we go. He’s just come back from a week’s sailing in Greece, and looks like a year-round tan.
Today was quite hard work, but Norman patiently went at my pace. I really am beginning to wonder about my bike. Covering up seemed to work OK for the sunburn, except for my hands, and I have to admit I missed the padding in the cycling shorts. On the other hand, Norman was complaining, and he is wearing padded cycling shorts.
Boscastle to Okehampton
Today left me in a bit of a quandary as far as what to wear- jeans (to keep off the sun), or padded shorts (well, you know). I compromised by wearing both. Am I going to be hot?
Norman’s machine seemed to have got a bit tired after its efforts yesterday and kept on stopping. We had to keep stopping to ask the very helpful locals the way every 5 miles. I could see that this is going to make it take a very long time. When he wasn’t looking, I sneaked into a garage and bought a map.
I was rather apprehensive about today, as I reckoned that Day 3 was probably going to be our worst day. However it went much easier
We got to about 10 miles from our destination, and I was feeling pretty well exhausted. John was there which was great. Perhaps John could put the bikes on the back of the car, and carry us all there. Well, said Norman, if you do this, you’ll have to come back and do it tomorrow. Oh all right then. The last few miles were actually quite pleasant.
Norman feeling even more uncomfortable.
