LEJOG day 3

 A super early start this morning, on the road at 6:55am. We wanted to get on the road and avoid as much of the heat of the day as possible. This meant no time for breakfast though, which was a mistake in hindsight, as Tracy got hangry a couple of hours in.

Leaving Launceston 

Looking back at Launceston 

A steep uphill out of Launceston just to go back down again - expected from Cornwall. We soon reached the Cornwall Devon border, leaving the brutality of the Cornish hills behind. We realised quite quickly that they were just replaced by brutal Devonian ones instead, with a few being tackled in lowest gear, ie walking. The climb up to Lidderton Down was particularly hard, with both of us sweating buckets, even with the cooler temperatures of the early morning.

It was a welcome relief to reach Lydford and the start of the granite way, an old railway route that took us all the way to Oakhampton. Tracy decided to take an action photo whilst on the move. I didn't expect this to end well, as Alex has inherited his mother's dexterity. Almost immediately, she crashed into me and fell off. Luckily nothing was damaged except her dignity.  "Never doing that again" she said. A wise decision, I hope that she remembers.

Lydford castle

Granite way

Lake viaduct on the granite way

Granite way

View of Dartmoor and Meldon dam

On Meldon viaduct

It was sad to see that the Dartmoor railway that used to run alongside the granite way has closed - I think that we went on it as a family about 12 years ago. 

We had coffee and cake at Brothers coffee shop in Oakhampton - toffee and apple slice. Lovely welcome and other customers were very interested in our trip (we were wearing the LEJoG tops now they were dry after day 1)

Grabbed lunch from the bakery next door, with Tracy demanding another cake to make up for missing one yesterday - Rhubarb and cherry slice.

After the welcome break, we had a long climb out of Oakhampton, and despite the steepness and heat, we both avoided the "lowest gear"

The hills after Oakhampton were less challenging, although the roads were busier. This meant that we were able to go faster, with Tracy being particularly pleased with her max speed of 36mph. 

We stopped for ice-cream on route. We had both been so focused on cake that we had forgotten that they existed. We struggled to find shade to have lunch, sitting under a bush instead of on the bench next to it.  We managed to find a slight detour to avoid 400ft of climbing on the afternoon, so arrived in Exeter in good time. 

Tracy having a sneaky check on the Olympics 

Google maps meant that we were able to navigate the city cycle paths to our hotel in superquick time. At last, some technology that I actually like!

We went to the dustbin lid pizza restaurant "On the Waterfront". Not been there for 26 years maybe - the night that I proposed. Our daughter, Rosie, thinks that we were mad to get engaged after only 6 months! I think that we were lucky.

The bridge where we got engaged

Dustbin lid pizza. Not sure what Tracy is going to eat

Nice food and a reminder of some excellent memories. Another good day in the saddle.

Distance covered : 48 miles

Elevation: 3500ft

Cake of the day: Toffee apple slice

Tracy whinge factor: 3/10 for morning hangryness

Total miles: 162