DIVER'S LOG - DAY THREE

JO, DOUGAL, NORMAN



WHO STOLE NORMAN'S SCONE?



DEMMY THE DIVER

Okehampton to Honiton

Towards the end of yesterday’s journey, there was a loud twang, and it turned out that one of the springs on my saddle had broken. If the other spring broke, I could envisage a sharp piece of metal coming through the saddle, so one of our first actions was obviously to get this fixed. I find that most bike shops are very friendly, and the one in Crediton was no exception. As well as producing a new saddle, and fixing my pedals, they were able to suggest a less hilly route to Tiverton.

We asked Clifford and Jo to join us for this stage, but unfortunately Clifford couldn’t make it as he was working. Thanks to them, we have now each had a plastic bath frogman toy attached to our bicycle. If you wind it up and let go the string, it will pedal like mad, and put a boost of at least 10 mph on our speed, though not for very long. It was a beautiful day, still sunny but not quite so warm.

The Devon countryside was not so hilly as Cornwall, so we were quite relieved. I predicted that after Days 1-3, with fatigue piling up from the previous days, Day 4 was the day that things would start to look up, and that seemed to be about right. Scenery was spectacular- long rolling hills when you could manage to look over the deep lanes.

John reckoned that he had managed to fix the direction finder, so Norman took it out with us again to navigate from. I kept my road map close to hand though.

We carried on in the usual way- me sometimes leading, but more often Norman haring on ahead and waiting for me to catch up. I reckon that left to his own devices Norman would probably be in Carlisle by now. John was waiting for us in a layby outside Honiton, We marked our spot with a small piece of wood and drove down to Exmouth to stay with Bill and Diana.