Ride the UK

Day 0 - 2 nights in Saint Ives. Yesterday we arrived in London from 7 days in Japan include a 5 day self guided walk on the Nakusendo Way. Today we get the train from Paddington Station in London. We are heading for Panzance and Lands End. But today just as far as  Saint Ives. We decide to get an earlier train than we have booked.  We are told that this is no problem. We are not told that the trains are generally overbooked. So when we get on the train   I need to stand for the first 2 hours of the journey. Later I can sit. It is a nice day. The English countryside looks very nice as we zoom along. We get off at St Erth and get a 20 minute local bus up to the famous and very pretty seaside town of St Ives. Unfortunately it is Bank Holiday weekend and the end of the school holidays so most of England has come to St Ives for this weekend. To save money we have booked 2 beds in a 6 bed dorm. 3 of our room mates return to the room at 3am in the morning  drunk and noisy. One is ver

Day 1- Lands End to Redruth. We leave St Ives by the smaller local 10.15 train for Saint Erth - where we had come from 2 days previous.. Waiting for train from St. Ives Our train connection to Penzance and our hire bike pickups is supposed to be at 11:00 AM. But the train is delayed by 30 minutes. The official reason it is delayed we are told is   - “it was late coming out of the station”. Really!!  At 11:30 we board the train to Penzance.   Then to get to the cycle hire shop we're told it's a 20 minute walk. But it looks much longer with our heavy panniers etc. So we wait for the 12:05 bus to take us along in the right direction. Then we have another ½ mike walk. Peter Rivett, who we are hiring the bikes from, gives us a friendly welcome. However he had forgotten that we would bring our special Jones handlebars from New Zealand so we proceed to work together on getting the old hand grips off the normal bars so we can take the brake and gear levers off and re-insta

Day 2 - Redruth to Nanstollen. Day 2 and our first full day. Start to build our routine. Weather is nice. Back on the road we ride past the train station we walked to last night to get our taxi home, then on with our route. Today we need to catch up the part of yesterdays ride that we did not complete due to starting late and then complete a new section.   It takes a surprising amount of time and energy to get to Truro, the capital city of Cornwell. This was supposed to be  the finish of yesterdays section. The guide has a picture of the cathedral that I had looked at often back in New Zealand. It looked great. In reality it is a wonderful church.  Full of spirit and soul.   We buy a Subway vege patty 12 inch roll (cut in half) for lunch and sit outside to eat it. 2 kids with mum sit near us. When the young boy drops his Coke bottle and Coke goes everywhere mum gets mad with him   for a short time before consoling him. She seems pretty distressed. Zita has a little chat w

Day 3  - Nanstellen to Holsworthy. At this great home stay in the forest for our included breakfast we have - cheese, yogurt, croissants, toast, jam, banana, tea, and coffee. What a treat. What a different universe from yesterday. This is a really sweet place to stay.  Down the hill we go as we leave and then  we take a wrong turn into the little town of Nanstellen itsef. There's a small ancient church.  We have already seen many  small ancient churches  in Cornwall.   Typically for many centuries, life for people here has surely been work and family. And the overarching church provided a framework for life, a   guide, a hope for the future,   contact with something bigger and deeper than daily life. Now for most,  the church is gone. How are those spiritual needs now meet for people. We reverse track and find the right turning. We turn right, back onto the Camel trail that we had cycled on from Padstow the previous evening. The old railway line ascends slowly b

Day 4 - Holsworthy to Barnstaple Not many photos today. The heavy rain keeps the phones away in plastic bags. The White Hart hotel where we stay was built in the 16th century.   It feels like it with its pokey little rooms, low ceilings and rough finish. But we have a good night's sleep. In the morning,  as is becoming our routine, we repack everything ready for the bikes.   At 9:00 am Peter Rivett from Lands End Cycles arrives with a new bike for Zita. Peter and I spend 40 minutes swapping the handlebars. He's driven 100 miles to get here. Which is fair enough considering the hire cost of the bikes and the trust we have put in them.   Once the bike is set up the gears seem good and during the day Zita is very happy with the new reliable stable gear changing.   The forecast is for rain. It has been threatening to rain since yesterday afternoon.  It starts to rain. Really rain. We have toast and tea / coffee for a simple breakfast. Then reload our bikes at the back of t

Day 6 – Dulverton to Glastonbury This will be our longest day so far today. 104 km.   Some hills to start and then mainly down. After a fulsome breakfast we leave by about 9:15 am. Similar riding to previous days. A mix of very quiet and narrow country farm roads,   generally with high walls and hedges on each side. Very occasionally we have 5 minutes on a busy road.   Coming to another small village every 20 minutes or so. Each village with its own beautiful old church. At one point we come to a four way intersection. No sign of a route marker. There is a house being renovated. Scaffolding. A truck and trailer in front. We finally find the marker behind all of this. People can be thoughtless of cyclists. We eventually arrived in the city of Taunton and buy some lunch and eat it by the canal. It is all a bit busy, loud and wild.   I feel suddenly exhausted. After lunch it is off following the canal. 20kms   to Bridgewater. Beautiful flat, fast, pretty riding beside th

Day 7 – Glastonbury to Bristol A straight forward day today (we hope).   Our BandB host makes us very nice breakfast. We are off by 9 and take the back way to Wells, the smallest city in the UK.  It is famous for its cathedral complex and also it has a residential street from the 14th century in great (more or less original)  condition. It is supposed to be the oldest of its kind in Europe. We also go to a bike shop here and buy 2 new tubes and a seat spongy cover for Zita. She had been experiencing discomfort. But she takes a lot of convincing to get this extra seat support. It ends up making a big positive difference for her. We have our first Cornish (vege) pasties for lunch here.  While in Wells there is a major downpour but this has cleared by the time we start cycling again.   It is a steep climb out of Wells up onto the Mendip Hills with great views back over the Somerset Levels. We cycle across the relatively level upper plateau and then down t