Day 04: A game of two halves

Friday June 8, 2012, 50 miles (81 km) - Total so far: 200 miles (322 km)

Well the weather smiled on us for most of the day, at least as much as it could in what were storm conditions today.

We were both worried about the storm conditions, but we had to just go and see what it was like out there... In the end, it was a tail wind for most of the day, and the rain was sporadic and light, so certainly much better than it could have been.... !

Starting in Devon, the first half of today was hilly... Typical regular hills that just aren't pleasant, but the second half of today, after we entered Somerset and in particular Taunton, we rode on the canal to Bridgwater, which was beautiful, lovely, and best of all, flat..!

Today's challenges were mostly mechanical.. It started with our brake pads, I was grinding worn out metal brake blocks onto not-very-happy wheel rims... We found a bike shop in Wellington... Kings cycles are fantastic.. Replacing the Brakes, and selling me a cut-price bike computer since mine fell off and headed for some bushes somewhere near the tamar river.. And Andrew immediately fell for some better panniers after finding that the bottoms of his old ones were not as waterproof as they could have been (let's call it "wet sock syndrome")... This is Andrew repacking his panniers in the shop...

After the mud of the canal path, Andrews gears needed some adjustment.. So when we got to Bridgwater, we found another bike shop.. The bicycle chain.. And they again did a great job of fixing us up... This journey is already much harder on the bikes than I realised.. More on that tomorrow... It here's a few photos of us enjoying the canal.. 

Tomorrow we're crossing he severn estuary, but with the first of a few longer days (60+ miles), it's going to be no easier than the previous one... We will just be glad to leave the hills of Devon and Cornwall behind..

Calories :3943 

Flies eaten by Andrew : 3 

Feet climbed :2334

Day 05: Bridge over the river (K)Wye