Day 2 Sun 5th June Redgate to Tiverton

Our hosts have their own weather station - the forecast for today was "Sunny spells in the morning, turning cloudy with isoalted showers likely in the afternoon". This is exactly how it turned out.

Hoping that local knowledge on directions was as good as the forecasting, I asked for the shortest route back to A390. Clive's directions proved to be equally spot on as I avoided as 3 mile detour back the way we had arrived and avoided travelling through Liskeard. Not that I have anything against Liskeard but I knew from reconnaisance that the route I had chosen for the day included 3 major ascents at Gunnislake, Tavistock and onto Dartmoor.

As it turned out the road to Gunnislake lent itself to superb cycling - generally flat and not too busy on Sunady morning. Whereas yesterday afternoon felt like hard work, this was fun and I was soon making good pace and enjoying magnificent views back over south east Cornwall. The descent to the Tamar Valley was very steep and I had to make the most use of my breaks so far, not wanting to risk utilising the well advertised escape lanes. For those of you that know how I play my hockey, as I crossed the River Tamar into Devon my thought was "that's Cornwall in my pocket". With that in mind even the climb out of the valley wasn't too onerous. It was a long gradual incline. I'm certainly glad I wasn't travelling in the opposite direction.

The next town was Tavistock and I happened to arrive in the middle of a steam rally. Fortunately, cyclists don't get held up in the traffic, so I was able to press onto Dartmoor leaving the town gridlocked. Not long after entering the National Park, I passed a pub called the Harevst Home. Harvest Home also happens to be the first single released by my favourite band (Big Country) so I starting singing to myself as I went along

 - "Watch how the waves must shatter, Watch how the shores divides. Watch how the nets will tatter. Watch Canute and his bride." Stuart Adamson - you're still having an impact on people's lives.

Then the climb up Dartmoor started in earnest, just as the rain started to fall. I'd had a text from George telling me we were lunching in the second layby after the Dartmoor Inn. The good news was I came upon the Dartmor Inn far sooner than I had thought. As I made my way up to the aforementioned layby I completed the first 100 miles, which felt like a really significant landmark.

Lunch turned out to be a magnificent picnic with Burchells and Crosby-Kinsons. What you can't see from the photo below is that we parked our 3 cars in a U shape and tied a tarpaulin across the space in between to shelter from the rain. It was really quite chilly and the hot pasties went down a treat. Thanks to Caroline, Ed and Suzette and all the children for coming out to meet us and offer some cheer on a gloomy afternoon. Fortunately, the worst of the weather passed while we were lunching.

From then on the cycle over Dartmoor was very rewarding and well worth the climb (about 1500ft) to get there. At one point I had to slow down to allow one of the Dartmoor ponies and 2 foals across the road.

Next stop was Moretonhampstead - which apparently means piece of land near the moor. The only thing missing at lunch was a flask of tea, so we decided to stop at the Gateway Tea Rooms http://www.thegatewaytearoom/ to consume a cuppa or two.

From Moretonhampstead I descended off the moor to the outskirts of Exeter where we picked up the road to Tiverton. By now I had worked out that we should end the day in Tiverton and drive onto our accommodation at Willand, as I would only be re-tracing the route in the morning if I cycled it. As long as I re-start where I finished the route remains unbroken. Add to that some clever navigation which yielded a much more dircet route than I had planned and I managed to cut the day's mileage to 69 miles.

We arrived at Wier Mill Farm in good time and even managed to catch the cricket highlights.

Duration: 5 hours 25 minutes

Calories: 4516

Max speed: 33.3 mph

Av speed: 12.67mph

Total Fundraising to date: £445.00

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/93779576