Stephen and Kate end to end

 It rained in the night. We ate a couple of muesli bars and a yoghurt for breakfast. Very healthy. Chocolate muesli bars. Chocolate yoghurt... We picked up Clare (Guildford sister) in Clevedon and headed off. We may have cycled through some exotic sounding places such as Clapton in Gordano  but we also cycled through over and round things such as the Bristol and Avon Bridge (see pic) the M49, the M4, the M5 and both the Severn bridges. Our sat nav did a great job of helping us negotiate a skein of cycle paths which took us over the Avon bridge (head for heights required) and I'm sure the sat nav voice got increasingly excited as we neared this significant land mark. It felt like moving from the pointy out bit of Britain to the main body of the country, and we were welcomed to this new leg by being taken through sewage works, cement factories, land fill tips and more. The air was often violently fragrant....  This was another day when the map suggested a day void of refres...

 We just wanted to explain that we don't seem able to reply to people's messages on this blog. So we're sorry if we haven't replied to your messages of encouragement. They are all very much appreciated! I might have learnt by John O Groats....

 So it was Somerset sister yesterday and it's Guildford and the rest of the world sister today. I promise that's it for sisters as I'm now all out of them. Having said that, Guildford sister, Clare, is also joining us for the next two days on her bike. We met this evening, and to complete the slightly surreal aspect of the day, we dropped in on some friends of my family who now live in Clevedon but used to live across the road from me when I was a boy in Shrewsbury...... Anyway! We left our lovely room in a quaint cottage near Taunton, complete with Peacock (see pics) and stopped four miles down the road to buy food for the rest of the day because as far as we could see that was it for civilisation until the end of the day. And we're in Somerset! We hit a canal tow path which was fun and peaceful but the unpredictable surface was something we were happy to leave after about 12 miles.... also, as it approaches 10:55 I start to get twitchy. Every day. At 10:59 I start to ...

 Today, we left the opulence of our Wetherspoons accommodation (I'm not joking!) for day 3. This is the final day that cyclists suck their teeth at and say "ooh, Devon and Cornwall- they're killers. And killer though it was, we were also conscious that we have more or less finished going along that bit of the UK that sticks out on a limb at the bottom left hand corner. There is a feeling of nearing the more 'mainstream' part of the country, for better or worse. But we will miss the smell of summer which you can only find emanating from the hedgerows of the south. Where crocosmia and hydrangeas and agapanthus and honeysuckle grow wild and rampant and crowd in on you as you cycle through impossibly narrow and deep cut lanes at impossible gradients. Today we met my Somerset sister, Jennie, brother in law, Richard and nephew Luca. We met in a village and sat in near perfect picnic weather under an oak where they lavished a delicious spread on us complete with Richard...

 Today was the day which has caused me sleepless nights. For months. It's the hardest day of the trip in terms of climbing. 5,420 feet. I'm not sure whether I've ever done that before. That's partly because I never use a bike computer. Last year, a young bloke came up beside me on his bike and was so bowled over by the fact that I was using a paper map that he told me I should go all the way and wear a tie and plus fours. The cheek! Anyway, even if I have climbed that much before, I'm sure that we've never done it on a tandem that we can hardly lift. Apart from, and due to, the feet climbed, the other stats are an embarrassment. My tattered pride is saved only by the fact that we never walked  despite horrifying gradients. Kate remained impressively positive throughout. Only at one point did I hear her mutter under her breath that she was surprised that there weren't defibrillators in every village. But we eventually arrived in Okehampton after 8 hours in th...

 Ooh, I can't wait to have a towel! (Kate) No towels were supplied at the Land's End youth hostel but what it lacked in towels, it made up for by being in a stunning location and we watched the sun setting over the extreme Western point of our Isle. The clientele at the YHA created a beach bum  surf shack, earthy Bohemian vibe which we quite enjoyed. We probably fondly imagined that we fitted in perfectly whereas in reality, I'm sure we weren't 'down with the Boho'. The weather was kind in that it didn't rain on us and the sun didn't beat down. Actually we would have been happy if the sun had done a little more beating. We needed our wind proofs on. It was hard riding. Well over 4,000 feet of climbing on a bike we can't really lift even when we both try together. Plummeting down a hill was something we learned to fear for as we all know, what plummets down will inevitably 'plummet' up again. Nevertheless we arrived at St. Austell before 3pm w...

 No but honestly  it's the end of so much! The end of endless hours in front of the computer. The end of planning routes to the smallest detail. The end of this end to end thing consuming my every waking moment. The end of talking at Kate of nothing else. The end of wondering whether we should even be contemplating this.  And suddenly we're here. Our daughter, Helen and her friend Alana have brought us down here in our car and are driving back after a few days r and r in a hotel. Thank you so much- we couldn't have even started without you!  I wasn't expecting to comment on the journey down but the whole thing nearly ended before it had begun when we passed under a height restriction barrier which we all considered high enough to be of no threat to the tandem on the car roof. So it was with surprise as well as horror that we heard the crunch of bike and bike rack and came to a halt. Traffic was redirected and we disassociated the tandem from the barrier. We parked, t...

 

 Hello readers  As requested, below is the justgiving page address for our chosen charity, MIND (a mental health charity) Www.justgiving.com/stephen-price58  Thank you in advance for any pledges. We have already exceeded our target which is amazing but MIND won't turn down extra donations!  'See' you on the 26th😁