Day 2

Hello from Portishead!

So this morning wasn't too bad, muscles fairly relaxed and nothing too painful going on... always a good start!

We stayed at a Travelodge which happened to be in a service station (you know the type) and so the only place to eat was the Esso garage or the Little Chef, which, by the way, deserves it's "Little Thief" nickname. £18.55 for two breakfasts each consisting of coffee, 2 toast, 1 sausage, 1 egg, 1 slice of bacon, 2 hash browns and a spoonful of beans. Maybe I'm a scrooge but it just seems ridiculously overpriced for what was a basic, bog standard breakfast!! HARUMPH.

2 miles in and I was incredibly pleased to note an average speed of 28mph... (the A30 is downhill from Okehampton for the first few miles!) 40 rolling, beautiful, lush, green hills and a lovely 5mile down hill stretch aptly named "5 mile hill" took us through Exeter to my parent's house in Cullompton (average speed having now dropped to 16mph!) where we were greeted with fresh cream sponge cakes, flapjacks, brownies, scones and our very smiley niece and nephew. The highlight of my day was 3 year old Oliver announcing very loudly "Garuff, take your hat off, it's silly!" then proceeding with the same request until we were both without gloves, helmets, shoes and windproof's. Ollie obviously disapproves of lycra clad cyclists as he looked most put out when we refused to remove our "silly" jackets too!

I couldn't agree more though Ollie, lycra isn't a good look, though a 2 hour break from cycling in your company was just what the doctor ordered, thanks little man!

Refreshed and ready for the familiar 65 mile route home (staying in Portishead at home tonight) we set off! Cue painful right knee and the beginning of saddle sore...

Apart from passing a group we'd seen yesterday, here in known as the "Wooden Spoon Crew" The journey between Cullompton and over the Somerset border into Bridgwater was uneventful and relatively flat, disregarding a few minor bumps. We stopped at the usual Costa Coffee shop for lunch, coffee and another piece of Mum's magic flapjack!  Cue the rain...

We stopped for the obligatory photo at the "Welcome to North Somerset" county sign where we met a couple of chaps who were also doing LEJOG but were going the wrong way having missed their turning. They were fully laden with panniers, front packs and saddle bags, maps, the lot, and they were rather bemused at having been stuck on a hilly, all over the place route recommended to them, all day. After waving them off and watching them take their missed turn we felt a little bad that we didn't point out that the way they were going originally would have been A LOT shorter and would've been down hill all the way, the benefit of local knowledge! Oops.

At Congresbury we met up again with the Wooden Spoon Crew and as they were heading to Gordano and the route they'd arranged took them up Tickenham Hill (not very pleasant) and we, as locals, knew a much nicer way, we joined up for the last 10-15 miles, we even went out of our way to drop them at Gordano to meet their support vans.

Thanks to Jago who thoroughly lifted spirits by meeting us on his bike (in his flip flops) with his little girl on the back for the last few miles! It means a lot to have the support, the morale boost is priceless! Finally made it home. Aaaaaand SLEEP!

Stats

108 miles, 15mph average, 7h11min moving, 10h21min total

Food Diary

Gareth

Breakfast - Little Thief Fry up
11's - Grandma Sally's home made cakes
Lunch - Half an Egg Mayo sandwich & Cheese and Ham Panini
Dinner - Dirty chinese takeaway
Other - Hmmm, more cake and one energy gel

Deb

Breakfast - Little Thief Fry up
11's - Mum's home made cakes
Lunch - Half an Egg Mayo sandwich & Cheese and Ham Panini

Dinner - Dirty chinese takeaway
Other - Cake