Bike. Check! Cycling shoes. Check! Hair conditioner. Check! Face pack. Check! Cycling helmet. Doh! And so day 1 started with the Tickle Monster reaching for that piece of kit and realising that, whist he’d remembered all his beauty treatments, he hadn’t actually packed that most essential item. Not for us then, a meticulously planned route that would have taken in the beautiful, sun-kissed Atlantic Ocean. Oh no. Let’s tour Cornwall’s grimmest industrial estates in search of a Halfords instead! Onwards. A coffee and photos in Marazion overlooking St Michael’s Mount made up for the detour.
Then inland, with hill after hill after hill. Carrying panniers which feel like towing crates of lead, tank commander Hinde, bringing up the rear with a bike that weighs more than a couple of dead cows. Into a 20mph headwind as well. Brutal. As the Tickle Monster and his new helmet vanished into the distance, we were left wishing he’d left his legs behind, and not his head gear. A ferry across the Helford Estuary and then a brutal dual carriageway climb to St Austell, where, I’m ashamed to say, the boss, the beast, bonked. Only one thing for it, beer and Cornish pasties.
Another ferry and another horrible climb - they never stop here - saw us close to journey’s end. Seaton. Incredible digs with a sea view. Brutal, but magnificent day. Another one tomorrow. Can’t wait….