On advice from the hostel warden, I'm up early this morning to do the stretch to lands end and back before breakfast. I can blast this out with no kit then pick it up on my return through Penzance. Truth be told, it wasn't a great nights sleep and by 6am I was getting up and ready. The first 5 miles was hard work, short but steep hills were in abundance combined with still being abit tired and only fuelling myself on a banana and a cereal bar made for tough going but before long it flattened out and I was breezing along. A taxi with 3 guys and their bikes past me near Sennen and I met them again a short while later fiddling with their bikes and sorting their luggage at the lands end car park. Already one guy was complaining he had too much weight, people don't learn. Save for a surplus fleece I don't think I'm doing too badly so far.
Amongst the buildings, past The Last Pub and Last House in England, I find the infamous signpost marking the end of the UK. 874miles to John o Groats and just over 3000 to New York. There is a pedestal for a larger slightly more prominent signpost here but I understand that only comes out for tourists paying for official photographs. Seems abit of a con to me but I'm sure someone is making a lot of money out of it. The ride back to the hostel is quicker than the outbound was, the temperature has comfortably just picked up a fraction and I'm whizzing along. Really must be careful not to completely zone out else ill end in a mangled pile of limbs and bicycle forgetting I'm clipped into my pedals. As a final thought for now, I go up to my room to get my breakfast things and the guy on the lower bunk is shaving his toes? Bonkers! Is this common practice?
Before i leave, i meet the father and son again ready in all their expensive cycling gear. the boy asks me if ive been training for this to which i said a little but not for long. I shoot one back at him asking how long he's been riding, before quickly clarifying I meant cycle touring rather than ditching the stabilisers. Probably a similar answer though. I set off again at 0855, in earnest now, heading North all the way. The going is pretty varied, a couple of unavoidable dual carriageway bits near Penzance and Truro but otherwise it's country lanes and a few A roads. I pass the father and son for the first of many times today, I next see them around 10am when I'm stopped for a doughnut and they cycle past. Practice really does make perfect in cycling and there able to slowly pedal up hills which with the extra weight I'm carrying compared to them, I find myself walking up part of them. The doughnut stop village has such a perculiar name but it eludes me at the moment. It did, however, mark the start of some serious hills and the next hour and more or so until Truro was characterised by such, spaced it with a few fast flat sections. The unfortunate thing about the hills here is the inherent danger of going all out on the downhill runs as I usually like to do so to make the next ascent that bit easier. But alas in Cornwall there's always a tight bend, cattle grid, junction, animal or elderly person crossing the road so no free uphill miles can be earnt. Shame.
After a slightly disappointing Cornish pasty in Truro, it spat with rain and I pushed on. The hills soon made another appearance much like a not-quite-extinct Dr Who monster and were relentless. The only real route from Truro to St Austell is via a busy A road which wasn't all that great to struggle up hill on. Tiredness starts to really kick in on this stretch and the other road users seem to get less considerate culminating in one lorry driver in St Austell pulling sharply in towards me when trying to overtake on a busy street. I've got his license plate though and depending how moany I feel later ill give the company a call and send them a (polite) piece of my mind.
The yha at Golant is another mansion overlooking the valley up to Lostwithiel. The Fowey River (I think) flows past and its all very serene. Tonight is all about relaxing and recovering, I have to. Tomorrow I will have to top my distance from today to get to my booked B&B near Tiverton and today was a new personal record for me. If only the hills will be friendly but somehow I have my doubts. The American lady at the hostel seemed really impressed with my profess today but I'm already thinking about tomorrow. It'll take at least one cream tea to keep me going.
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