For our route click here and here (73 miles; 2,000 m climbed)
Eleven campers and six day trippers set off on Saturday for this great ride to Bude organised by David for our cycle group. First stop at ten miles after some steep hills around Hendra was North Hill where we met up with our mobile café, in the form of Geoff and the horse lorry (for cream tea and cake).
From here, Ian kindly led our day riders back to Liskeard. They were unfortunate to hit a very heavy shower as they headed over the moor – just what you don’t really need but we hope they made it home safely and it was so nice to have the whole group together for the first part of the ride. Narrative continued below pics.
Our campers continued north from North Hill towards Altarnun via the pretty village of Polyphant and its new Three Cows on T’Green Café. Then we too were hit by a heavy shower although we were able to shelter under trees to avoid the most heavy rain before completing the last couple of miles to The Rising Sun PH and lunch. We emerged from the pub to find blue skies and sunshine fully restored as we cycled over higher ground with amazing views towards the north coast. Then through the villages of Hallworthy and Broad Langdon along a great gently undulating road and into Week St. Mary for an ice cream outside their community shop and post office before heading down the hill to the beautiful Widemouth Bay and along the coast to Bude and our campsite. Here it was great to meet up with Connie (yey!!!), Nigel and Geoff who were busy getting the tents up and preparing us a welcome tea. After a nice hot shower and a quick change out of our cycle gear we headed down the hill for a hearty supper at the Brendon Arms PH. Narrative continued below pics.
Day two started very drizzly and our cooked breakfast was eaten huddled under the gazebo – still very nice so thank you to Geoff for cooking it (and to Nigel for holding the umbrella!). Tents down and stowed (except for Anna’s which stubbornly refused to go back into its bag). Then off back up to Week St. Mary and along a great ridgeway most of the way back to Launceston and straight into Costa for a sandwich. 17 miles to go but we knew they would be hilly – through South Petherwin and on to Congdon Shop only to meet up again with Geoff for a cuppa. Then down to Rilla Mill and the last couple of hills up again to Pensilva. Here we said our goodbyes to those who were going home via more direct routes. A big thank you to Mary for coming to pick up baggage and bikes and for her support in general.
It was wonderful to have quite a few Liskeard Ladies with us for the week end – we were all remarking on how far Anna has come since she first started out on our Ladies’ rides and now she has managed almost 80 miles of cycling and over 2000m of climbing – brilliant!
What a great week end – thank you to David for organising us!
Ann enjoying Cornwall CTC (coffee, tea and cake?) 