The day started with a breakfast in the Little Chef, Sanj was last to rise, I think he has set his precedent for the rest of the trip. The view from the breakfast table was across to Dartmoor and a depressing sight of horizontal driving rain. Luckily the wind was in our direction. We had a fast descent and managed to average over 26mph for a few miles, but alas we soon came across Richard Bachelor’s territory of single-track lanes and grass growing down the middle. Sanj had the 2nd puncture of the trip. The roads steadily got hillier and hillier and after a couple of hours we looked at the Garmins’ to discover that we had only done 20miles.
A decision was made to alter the route to better roads and progress became much swifter. As we came out of Tiverton towards Taunton, Tony mentioned that his mum lived a couple of miles away. At this stage the boys were all flagging and the Stop and Frank & Mary’s house was like an oasis in the middle of a desert. Mary had made toasted sandwiches and mugs of tea. It was a really welcome stop with fantastic hospitality, the neighbours even came round to see but were met by Richard in Lycra with his hands down his pants holding his bum.
Leaving Frank and Marys we were back on the fast roads and the sun came out. So much so we need to put the rain gear back into the van. Sanj managed a superb move of throwing his rain gear through the window of the moving van the boys doing the Tour De France would have been proud of that one. With the sun out and the wind blowing behind progress was swift and we arrived at the base of Cheddar hill. With only a mile to go Richard and Si both experienced the phenomenon of ‘bonking’. Sanj went for glory and reached the hotel 1st with his 10 meter sprint. 85 mile s covered today, taking the total to about 180 miles.
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