Outlook for Devon

What I don't think Will made clear enough, quite how nice people are. Today we ran into Nigel and Tim from Skedaddle, again. We first met Nigel back in Launceston. Back then he kitted us up with enough raisin cereal bars to feed more than 2 cyclists on their way to John O' Groats. This time we got a sandwich and a pork pie too! From what I gather Skedaddle run groups of LeJoGers like us over 3 weeks, looking after them and showing them a route. It sounds like a good idea to me! The generosity doesn't stop there. At every stop we have people say hello and wish us luck, we even got a nice donation from a stranger today.

After another English breakfast with more healthy sides we set off from Okehampton with around 45 miles to our destination of Wellington. Today's route was a lot more scenic. We managed to escape the A30 for country roads, which have a lot more personality, you might say. The enemies became potholes, STEEP hills and lorries in narrow areas. The hills were steep, that's for sure. Will was clocking 38mph on the downs with no pedalling and maybe even 0.38 on the ups, grinding through in the lowest possible gear. All these hills really take it out of your legs. We learned the hard way that cycling gets really hard when your muscles don't have access to a good base of sandwiches, pasta and soft drinks. Despite the magnitude of the climbs we put in through Devon we were better off by the end of the day thanks to food. It seems like my body is starting to understand this, allowing me to sneak in more meals than days 1 and 2. We made a couple of roadside repairs, the hills had taken their toll on Will's back brake pads and unclipping from pedals made our shoes require a bit of tinkering.

The weather today ranged from summer sun to moderate drizzle, with cloudy spells. Stops for lunch occurred in Crediton and Tiverton with intermittant snack breaks in the region of hills. On a personal outlook, spirits today were higher than ever. However, Will has decided to first bring up my character faults at this early stage in the journey and (relatively) late point of my lifetime.

We are settled watching Shaun of the Dead and looking forward to taking on Somerset. Night all