Day 2 - Redruth to Nanstollen

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 with her. Her first comment is - she's a very nervous sort of person, she feels very judged when things go wrong with the kids in public.  We try to show a little non judgmental support.





On we go from Truro with many many ups and downs. We have been told Cornwall and Devon are the hardest riding on the trip. We plan to stop at the National Trust Elizabeth Manor house at Trerice for a nice afternoon tea. But when we arrive we are told that the entrance fee itself is 11 pounds 50 per person before we even start afternoon tea!  Tired as we are,  we ride on.  On through Newquay with more hills and on to Padstow. In the 19 century, ships brought timber here from Canada and offered immigrants passage back to Canada in the empty ship.

We are now even more tired.  It is 6:30 in the evening. But the light over the Estuary was entrancing. Thankfully we now joined the Camel trail – a well developed and pretty flat bike trail which was formerly a railway line. It travels  beside the Estuary waters for many kilometres.  Riding is fast and easy.  We stop at Wadebridge at a pub for a great chickpea Curry. Almost but not quite too spicy. Best meal in the UK so far this trip.

There is a folk festival on in this town this weekend. A group of singers are singing traditional English folk songs in a corner in the pub. Unaccompanied. In part harmony.  Exquisite. I stop and listen.  Also we bring our bikes in off the street to the outdoor eating area. We are and always will be very cautious about not leaving our bikes unattended or unlocked. A stolen bike or gear would be deeply upsetting and very disruptive for our trip. I am not sure travel insurance would cover our hired bikes.


And on we go, now in forest,  father up the trail as dusk descends. At about 8:30 pm we arrive at our Nanstollen BandB.  The house and location in the middle of southern English forest are very very beautiful.  Our room has been set up really nicely and thoughtfully. We are very happy to be here. We revive a bit but overall it has been a long hard days riding for us lasting about 10 hours.


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