LEJOG Day 2

Day 2 in tres partes divisa est. First was the idyllic Camel Path, along the disused railway track from Camelford to St. Austell through an ancient forest by the Camel River with dappled sunlight. Martin said that the best part about it was that it was flat. Richard's old schoolfriend Chris, who lives nearby, met us with coffee and biscuits for elevenses (see pic).

This sybaritic idyll was then rudely replaced by a climb onto Bodmin Moor which Peter suggested that Sherlock Holmes would have called a "five piper" (three pipes being the number required by the great man to solve the most intractable of mysteries). Half way up, to use a technical espression, we declined.

Then Richard was attacked once again by the bicycling gremlins, this time with a puncture, which produced an "oh bother" or two. The third part of the day was spent cycling down the Tamar Valley into Devon, interrupted by a heartwarming visit to the local Home Farm Trust in Tregadillet. Finally after a few more wind and limb testing mountains (strangely called hills by the natives) we arrived exhausted at Bridestowe.

Aplogies if the tracking isn't completely smooth yet, and the presentation of the pix is slightly erratic. 17 more days to get it right

LEJOG Day 1

We decided to have dinner at The Falcon at Mawgan. A closer study of the above sign post will tell you why for peculiarly Cornish reasons it took us a little while to find it.

LEJOG Day 1

Below is a new blogging experiment. It is called a "collage". Each photo can be clicked separately. Hope it works for you.

Day 1 was full of excitement. Martin arrived hotfoot from the opening night at Glyndebourne on the overnight sleeper from Paddington to Penzance, where he was greeted by Peter and Geraldine (see pic). We assembled at Land's End with a greeting party from Home Farm Trust who gave as a royal send off (pic).

At approx 1015 we set off (pic). The whole point of doing the End to End in May is that it is always warm, and the prevailing wind blows steadily from the South West. In fact it was perishing cold, and the wind was blowing at 15 mph from the North East - but it was a spectacularly beautiful day. Richard went off like a greyhound so that by the time we reached Penzance we had lost him. This resulted in a little guidance being given which seemed to do the trick.

We passed St.Michael's Mount (pic), and then glided effortlessly (if you believe that you'll believe anything) through the wonderful Cornish countryside, finishing up at an appropriately named pub in Redruth for lunch (pic).

Just outside Truro, Richard managed to remove his chain and wrap it several times around his back wheel. Just as despair was setting in, a 12 year old boy came by and fixed it for him. We arrived in St.Columb Major at 6.30 p.m. having covered 54 triumphant miles.

...do you think we'll ever see them again...

Day O - Sunday 18th May

Peter with Geraldine, Martin's invaluable assistant and freshly appointed support vehicle driver, preparing to leave Newnton House at 9.35 a.m. (5 minutes late according to Peter) to form the advance guard to Land's End. Per ardua ad astra.