Day 35 of Round Coast of Britain Tandem Ride

Brendon to Coombe Martin

 

Date: Saturday 17^th April 2010   Distance: 17.27 Miles

 

In the morning we had breakfast in a lovely function room looking out onto the garden. It was frosty! After our meal we were shown around an old church, now part of the hotel, forming a private little meeting room and with very thick walls making it even more private! The tartan carpets were a bit “busy” for the corridors and stairs.

 

Along the river valley, we rode to the sound of burbling water. We thought it might be a good spot for kingfishers as there were plenty of overhanging branches. Cycling down the Gorge into Lynmouth was exciting  and  here we visited the flood museum. In 1952 more than 30 people died when the swollen river Lyn cascaded onto the village below. There was a strange little tower in Lynmouth  harbour, with a brazier on top, perhaps one of the Armada beacons. We thought this a lovely place.

 

Up a long busy hill,at 25%. and with no pavement, Bob pushed the bike up yet again.  At the top of Lynton Cliff railway we had a really expensive cup of tea. From here we enjoyed views across to Wales.

 

We cycled through the Valley of the Rocks, where there are wild goats brought in to keep the vegetation down. Quite a surprise but they were very passive. It was past a Christian retreat, Lea Abbey, where there was a toll for cars. well perhaps bikes too but we didn’t pay. We planned lunch at the Woody’s Bay hotel, but it was “Residents Only”, so we continued a couple more hard miles to the Hunters Inn where we arrived just after 2. All of the bays along the route were lovely, and the ride here was exceptional. Hunters Inn was a very friendly place with everyone sitting outside chatting. Beer and food were good, Bob had Fish and chips to prevent an energy gap, ( he deserved it) and Pat had curried squash soup.

 

 Back on our way it was another steep up and an old gent at his cottage could not understand why we would go up there with a tandem. Half way up there was a little church, and it felt like we couldn’t go any further. But soon we had sea views once again. A Conservative candidate in large 4x4 roared past on this tiny road, along with a few other “speedies” sending up dust and disturbing the peace.We noticed steep banks of schist on the way down into Coombe Martin.

 

We discovered that Bob’s radar key to disabled toilets is very useful. All of the other toilets were in a terrible dirty state but the disabled one was immaculate. We found B&B by Sat Nav as we were too tired to mess around looking for it. Our  host said he though the tandem was arriving in May. Anyway we had a room at the top, so more climbing! They were friendly and had a disused tandem in the Garage which they used to ride when in Peterborough, but not now they are in the hills. We ate at the recommended Mariners Hotel, both having the spicy pork steaks, it was nice but we were really tired. Bob was knocked out by the local cider purchased from a craft shop.

Meanwhile the planes in Europe were grounded by the ash cloud from Eyjafjallajokull, a volcano in Iceland.