Sparks Wrexham LEJOG: Day 2 Okehampton to Bristol

Day two

Day two was tough.

To put this into context when we stopped we ran for the showers given we were doing a good impression of drowned rats with those joke teeth in our mouths.

The day had started well with sunshine in Okehampton and a reasonable breakfast at little chef.

We set of with our plans to follow the route on the Garnin. This lasted until the first odd looking turn down a lane that looked more useful for hiding evidence than a bike journey. At which point we all agreed to ignore the rule and headed straight on into Crediton.

We then decided to go through "Robs passage" to go around the Cadbury mountains. Although this added some mileage, it was supposed to reduce the amount of climb we made in the day.

It also meant we ended up on some great country lanes with stunning views of the countryside.

Through Taunton (no free cider samples were forthcoming) and out the other side we then needed to stock up on food and found a fantastic restaurant in a local garden center.

Despite aches and pains we rode for the next twenty miles in a similar way to a proper team and actually made great time for the next twenty two miles upon the flat roads.

We then had our final stop and looked at the foreboding hills that lay ahead.

Now up until this point things had gone well. We had covered a lot of miles, had made good time and were within 20 miles of our destination for the evening. This was a fantastic achievement and one we should all be proud of.

Day 2 - Part 2.

What happened next made the above feel like such a long time ago that writing about it is a stretch of my memory.

Firstly, there was a hill that would be a tough climb at any point let alone after 80 miles. As we descended from that climb, insult was added to injury. It began to rain. Hard.

Now it had rained briefly this morning but in a biblical fashion now this rain began again just as we hit the start of the climb up to Bristol Airport.

This climb is about 600 feet which is a long way and done over a short space of time into a wind with rain pouring down made it worse.

Briefly stopping three quarters of the way was a mistake on my part solely because my slick tyres could not then grip on the slope and water so getting going agaib meant I nearly fell off. Twice.

I finally got to the top and awaited the group. Having not put my waterproof on this was not a pleasant experience. Remember your school life saving lessons and then imagine standing under a cold shower for fifteen minutes.

All that waited now was the drop down into Bristol. Which should have been easy. However the Allanis Morissette lookalike upstairs had different ideas and Dodging floods, traffic jams buses taxis, random kerbs in cycle lanes and and Bristols one way system was not fun.

it was around now (ie when we found it) we realised that the Garmin on my bike was aiming to the wrong travelodge. This would not have been that bad but I could not see the directions it was telling me due to the rain on the screen, my glasses, contact lenses ...and it's habit of putting a big arrow for directions over the whole screen so you can't tell which road to take.

So It took us the best part of an hour to find what should have taken five minutes.

Roll on tomorrow.