Day 3

Day 3

Steps Bridges near Exeter to Street YHA near Glastonbury.

The day started with two tough climbs towards Exeter. We got stocked up with provisions from Tesco Express in Exeter - Snickers, Mars bars and Lucozade. We had a 9:30 comfort break at Weatherspoons where we were greeted with some strange looks from the locals as three sweaty Lycra clad athletes wobbled their way up stairs.

Today was our first day with sun giving us all a chance to perfect a Tour de France tan of a burnt nose, red forearms and brown shins.

We made good progress to Honiton despite the ongoing battle between paper maps, GPS and iPhone.
We met family friends Ken and Margaret for lunch at the Boston Tea Party cafe in Honiton. They moved from South Manchester to Seaton,Devon a couple of years ago and are enjoying life by the sea.
Unfortunately lunch was cut short as I had miscalculated the mileage for the rest of the day by 20miles.
The ride out of Devon on the A30 was the worst of the journey so far.
The A30 and A303 is one of main roads out of Cornwall and Devon. We were passed by hundreds of caravans, lorries, horse trailers, boat trailers and coaches. We spent 15 miles on a road you would try and avoid in a car.
If cycle use is going to increase across the UK there has got to be more driver education on how to pass a cyclist safely. Some drivers allow 2 metres and more when passing cyclists and others less than 30cm. 2 metres is enough distance for a cyclist to have a wobble without being hit 30cm could possibly kill the cyclist.

For any cyclists planning on following our route you should either avoid the A30 out of Honiton or prepare for a horrific 1hr of cycling with wobbles.

After the A30 we turned off to the fantastic Somerset lanes. Virtually traffic free and flat. The perfect cycling was slightly spolied by us managing to find Somersets roughest pub whose name I can't remember.
The crisps and pickled egg washed down with lime and lemonade did compensate for the loud music from a van in pub car park.
After getting supplies for our evening meal we were on schedual to get to our destination at a sensible time of six o'clock. Unfortunatley disaster struck 3 miles from home when Mike's chain snapped. However, Mike is made of pure Sheffield steel and managed to push his bike the rest of the way where Dad mananged to fix it with the help of Paul from Huddersfield's chain breaking tool. Paul a newly qualified teacher is following main roads to John O'Groats covering over 100miles a day. Good luck Paul.
Tomorrow we will be cycling over the Severn Bridge to the country of my wonderful wife, Wales.

Stats
64 miles cycled
3400feet climbed
Calories consumed 30,000+

Sent from my iPhone