Day 2 - Monday 30th July - St Austell to Okehampton

Weather - Cloudy and damp to start, sunny and hot later

Distance - 67.0 miles

Camp Site - Okehampton Rugby Football and Social Club, Oaklands Park, Okehampton

I slept much better last night - the site was much quieter than that on the previous night and I think that I must be getting used to the air bed. The secret seems to be to ensure that it is well inflated and very firm so that when you turn over it does not throw you off. I woke at about 6.45 am to hear other people moving about outside so got up and went to the toilet and washbasins before it got too busy.

After breakfast and packing I was ready to leave at about 8.45 and left the site along the cycle path alongside the main road to St Austell. This route was not very clear in places but I was soon on the edge of St Austell and in the company of several other cyclists. The weather was slightly overcast and there was the occasional drizzly rain in the air, the only good thing was that it was cooler than yesterday making the effort of cycling much easier.

We passed through Par where we were harassed by the china clay lorries on the main road before climbing the steep hill to the edge of Fowey. Somehow a group of us missed our way at the bottom of the steep hill into the centre of Fowey and we arrived at the Polruan passenger ferry instead of the Bodinnick vehicle ferry. The boatman seemed pleased with the number of bicycles which he was able to charge for and was very helpful in assisting us to load and unload them on arrival at Polruan. This deviation took us out of our way on the other side but we eventually rejoined the main route to climb up to the edge of Bodmin Moor near Darite and Pensilva before stopping at the Swingletree Pub at Kelly Bray for lunch. We all became rather apprehensive when the lady who brought our lunch indicated that this was not a good place to start from when cycling to Okehampton due to the steep hills in between!

After lunch we soon came to Horsebridge the site of the 1437 stone bridge crossing the River Tamar and the border between Devon and Cornwall. We had completed the crossing of our first county and the first major landmark!

Some six miles further on we passed Brentor Church sitting on a high rocky outcrop to the right of the road. Unfortunately it was closed to visitors due the foot and mouth restrictions on people going off the roads onto fields and open ground. The remaining approach to Okehampton was fairly hilly and rather uninteresting until the relief of the long downhill into the town itself. I was most disappointed at the end of a long and hilly day's ride to find that the campsite was just out of the centre of Okehampton but up a short but steep hill. Just when I thought that the hills were finished for the day!

A much bigger disappointment however was to find that the van containing all our luggage and tents had not arrived! It turned out that the site at St Austell was quite wet in places and when they came to leave and drive the van off the site another vehicle had got in the way forcing them to stop in an area of very soft ground. When they tried to move the wheels just spun and the van became more and more bogged down the more they attempted to move out. Various tractors were tried to tow the van out and in the end a large breakdown vehicle was called in by which time it was well in to the afternoon. Luckily for us the Blue Van had arrived and tea was ready so we were able to have our refreshments and to relax and discuss the second days ride.

As this was a Rugby Club there was one set of communal showers available and the "boys" and "girls" took it in turns to use them once the luggage arrived. It actually worked well in practice and everybody had a good hot shower before dinner.