Tired and Saddlesore

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We left Lands End on Saturday morning and made good progress until 10 miles south of Bodmin as we had lunch too late and hit the wall. Eventually we arrived at Bodmin at 3.30 for lunch. Steve had soup, liver, bacon and mash and I had soup, sausage and egg sandwich, pasta and 2 coffees! We left Bodmin and arrived at our first overnight stop in Launceston. Went to local pub for dinner where the locals sat watching a dvd of traction engines on a flat screen tv! Oh joy!

On Sunday we had brekkie at 7.30am, made a quick getaway and crossed thre border into Devon at 9.05. Steve fell off his bike in Okehampton but suffered no serious injuries apart from a bruised ego. Other than that we arrived in Taunton for our second night.

Monday morning the A361 beckoned and we set off to Glastonbury, arriving at 10.30 and we visited Gareth's cousin Fiona and her family, leaving at 1pm. There was a monster of a hill out of Glastonbury, Bristol Hill, 6 steady kilometres all uphil. We stopped on the A39 at a burger van for lunch, where the lady serving advised us to use a different route to Bath than we had planned. Unfortunately we managed to get separated on the way which added an hour to our journey - after Steve eventually returned my worried calls, having put his mobile in his backpack.

The climb out of Bath through Weston was the worst so far, taking half an hour to journey only 1 mile.
We started looking for a b and b at 5pm just south of the M4 near Bath, which did not yeild any result until Nailsworth at 7.30, by which time we were both f*****d. Went to local pub for a quick pint and then off to bed at 9.45. The worst day so far!

Today (Tuesday) looked down on Gloucester from Birdlip at 11.30am - awesome view - got soaked in a cloudburst as we were leaving Cheltenham and lunched in Evesham - by which time thankfully the downhill ride had dried us off. Found a hotel just south of Birmingham where we are staying tonight. Thankfully Steves knee, which had been playing up all day following his fall, did hold up under the strain and we've got our fingers crossed that it will be ok for tomorrow.

We're aiming for Manchester tomorrow (Wednesday).

Thanks to Gareths mum to typing this up for us over the phone - not many internet cafes on the route so far! Getting some really strange looks from the guests in the Restaurant here who are wondering why I'm reciting some sort of diary down the phone.

Will keep you all posted.

ps We are doing a survey on Crispy Bacon in the UK and will let you know the results soon!

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