Day 2 – Monday 23 July

Launceston to Taunton

This was a longish day at just about 80 miles. We tried to keep off the main A30 but that put us onto hilly country that was exhausting. The south west of England is harder going than Scotland. We met up with Liz for a pub lunch at Bow, just west of Crediton and then struggled on through Tiverton, reaching our campsite near Thornfalcon just east of Taunton early in the evening.

Mick had rather foolishly taken off his shirt saying that it was too hot in the sun. Consequently his back got burnt and over the next few day he peeled like a banana. Liz plied his back with after-sun and he carried on stoically, wearing his shirt.

At one point we heard a fair-ground organ in the distance and made a detour to locate it. The music was coming from a barn containing a number of renovated organs that were on display to the public.

There is thought that for the first few days of a tour, walking or whatever, the going is tough, but as the body gets used to the effort gradually things get more comfortable. Training is important and we had been doing half-day rides for some weeks but the shock of full length days back to back was something we struggled to come to terms with initially.