They say that the second day of Land's End to John O'Groats is the hardest. We certainly hope so...
Although Simon had been up fairly early to 'borrow' access to an open wireless network, we took our time over breakfast (Simon succumbed to his first full English for the journey). At just after 9, we started our way towards the scenic coastal route recommended by the Lonely Planet Cycling Britain guide. Although very hilly, the views out to the sea between Gonvena, Tintagel and Boscastle were amazing. The +850 foot climb out of Boscastle was quite a slog and, at some times, we were cycling so slowly that our GPS (which has an arrow based on direction of travel) told us we were going backwards. We celebrated our arrival at the highest point as though we had done the lion's share of the day's work. Little did we know....
The scenic route soon turned nasty, with the gradients of descents and climbs becoming more and more severe. 15% gradients had been the norm earlier in the day, but this quickly became 20, 24 and then 30% (at which point we got off the bike, photographed the sign and started walking). Brittany kindly reminded Simon of his decision to take the scenic route instead of a busier A road several times over the course of the morning.
By 1 O'Clock, it clear that we both desperately needed refuelling and we stopped at the first pub we came to. It was quite posh, and Brittany ended up having a Miso and vegetable soup with local scallops – Simon went for a Sunday roast with a (well deserved) lager. Disheartened by the fact that we had not even done half the day's distance, we decided to head to the nearest 'A' road as soon as possible. This gave us brief respite from the worst of the hills (we managed 44 miles/hr on one long downhill section) before we took some B roads towards South Molton.
Nothing could really prepare us for Cornwall and Devon's B roads. Every second hill seemed to be a 20% gradient, and we were permanently stuck in our lowest “granny” gear at about 5-6 miles/hr. We completely ran out of energy at Torrington and we thankfully found a local supermarket to stock up on sports drink, icecream and a mars bar. The final section to South Molton was more of the same. We knew that our B&B was slightly outside South Molton – we hadn't realised it was on the top of another bloody hill!
The owner of the B&B was outside enjoying the garden, and helpfully pointed out that we both looked absolutely exhausted. The offer of a jug of water and some lemon drizzle cake was eagerly accepted before we headed into town for a quick dinner.
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