Bike Ride Blog - Day 3
Sponsored Ride for Romania, 29th - 31st July 2024
Day 3: 31st July 2024
Lifton to Land's End - 94 miles
Land's End to St Just - 5 miles
Today we ride the length of Cornwall, arriving at Land's End in the early evening. Exhilarating and totally exhausting; it's been an amazing three days. Andy observes that we managed it because everything worked in our favour: a window of perfect weather, no headwind to battle against, no injuries or accidents, no punctures or mechanical failures, and a worthy cause to motivate us. Blessed in every way.
After breakfast (full English) we leave the Arundell Arms Hotel and head to Launceston. After ten minutes we come to the border with Cornwall. This triggers a childhood memory of our long car journeys in the sixties when we would visit Mum's best friend 'Auntie' Bar who lived near Bodmin. On this very road, as our Ford Cortina approached the bridge over the Tamar, me and my brothers would begin chanting (with rising crescendo) 'Devon, Devon, Devon, Devon' ... and then 'Cornwall, Cornwall, Cornwall, Cornwall' as we crossed over the other side. Old habits die hard and I find myself doing the same.
We pass through Launceston and head southwest. Garmin tells us there are thirteen climbs today and as we reach the first one, we decide we will push our bikes up the steepest ones. Andy says he has never pushed his bike up a hill before (I have no problem with this, in fact my mantra is 'no shame in walking'), but as his back is a bit tired and sensitive he doesn't want to risk putting it under too much pressure.
It is hot and humid and we are sweating profusely. Horseflies bother us when we stop which motivates us to keep moving. So it is a relief to cross the open stretch of Bodmin Moor and head towards Truro. Andy is pleased to spot two yellowhammers, birds you don't often see around Hampshire. But as the morning wears on we find the frequent hills and our accumulated tiredness make for slow progress.
Our plan is to meet Robert and Janet in Truro but they call to say it is impossible to find parking. So they will go on and meet us at Land's End this evening. When we get to Truro ourselves we see signs saying, 'Park and Ride Only', no help to Robert with his wheelchair needs.
This makes me reflect on all that able-bodied people take for granted and just what an undertaking it is for Robert and Janet to make this trip. They ride together on the motortrike towing a trailer that carries Robert's wheelchair. Janet is an expert at putting the wheelchair together when they reach their destination and transferring Robert into it from the bike.
Many of you reading this will know Robert and Janet, but perhaps not their story (which they have given me permission to share). It was in 2009 when Robert was waiting in a queue of traffic on the motorway. A car travelling at 70 mph failed to stop and rammed into the car behind Robert's. In an instant his life was changed. He was paralysed from the neck down. Rehabilitation over the next few years allowed him to regain use of his upper body but he was now a permanent wheelchair user. In 2013, he was undergoing treatment at a rehabilitation centre when he met Janet. She was staying there looking after her husband who was in the last stages of muscular dystrophy. Robert and Janet became close friends and when her husband died they decided to marry. Robert's previous marriage had come to an end before his accident.
In 2017 they moved to Fleet and began attending our church. Janet was baptised soon after. Our service times make it difficult for them to attend in person, but they like to watch online. And on Friday mornings they are always in the church hall where Robert practices his bagpipes! Robert works for Boeing as an Airworthiness Engineer.
For a while we ride parallel to the A30 and, just when we are feeling the need for a coffee, we spot a service station in the distance. We head over there and park up our bikes. We grab a coffee and sit at a table. A woman opposite us asks us about our ride. She is with her son and they are on their way to his graduation ceremony at Falmouth University. We tell her where we've come from, where we're headed and the reason for the ride. As they get up to go, she asks if we have a 'just giving' page. We are later touched to find a £35 contribution from 'The Service Station People'. A wonderful gesture.
After Truro we head for Redruth. By now it is 5.30pm and still very hot. I am exhausted. In fact I feel much as I did yesterday with absolutely no energy left. Andy is also tired but handling it better than me. Seventy miles behind us but still a way to go. We find a grass verge where we crash out, eat some sandwiches and a Belgian bun, and glug down a bottle of coke. Right. The final push. Fourteen miles to Penzance. Ten to Land's End. We can do this!
Just like yesterday, with energy restored everything feels different. We find ourselves on a cycle path that takes us to Camborne on the north coast of the peninsular, before cutting down to Penzance on the south. We can ride side by side and talk, and as we follow the coastal path from St Michael's Mount to Penzance in the late afternoon sun, it is beautiful.
Here I need to take a moment to thank Andy for his hard work prior to our trip. He not only made the hotel reservations, but also preplanned the route using Garmin, a navigation device for bikes. As a result, we have enjoyed a combination of country lanes, cycle paths, and cinder tracks along disused railway lines (along with a few A roads).
When I used Garmin in Europe I found it would glitch quite often, leaving me stranded. But it seems to be working well for Andy. Could it be that I'm the problem? Andy laughs when I show him photos on my phone of my paper road map. I trust these more than Garmin!
I am also grateful to Andy for being mad enough to want to do the ride!
The final stretch to Land's End is exhilarating. A slight downhill gradient, the wind is behind us, the end is in sight, and we fly. Rosie messages me. She is following my grey dot on her phone as we race along. 'Almost there!' she texts.
Land's End is shrouded in mist with the milky evening sun just breaking through. It is 8.10pm and we have made it. 290 miles in three days.
We find Robert and Janet and take photos at the iconic signpost. Although we didn't meet up with them as often as we had hoped, it is good we could start and finish together and I am so glad they were part of it all.
Though we've reached our destination we still have to get to our hotel. So we say farewell to Robert and Janet and bike the five miles to St Just. As we near our destination cars coming down the hill slow down to warn us that there has been a car accident and road is closed. It's getting dark, but in the distance we can see a police car. We get to the top of the hill where a young women is directing cars back down the hill.
We ask her if we can get to St Just by another road and she tells us there is a footpath over the hill, but we'll have to lift our bikes over stiles. Hmmm. Do we have the energy? Just then a policeman waves and comes over in our direction. 'They can come through,' he shouts.
We get to the scene of the accident where two cars are well mashed together with just a tiny gap to get the bikes through. Fortunately no one is hurt and the people standing around say hello. 'Make sure you don't scratch the car,' a woman says wryly as we lift our bikes past the crumpled metal. Andy replies that he suspects his bike is worth more than the car (especially now). Fortunately they see the funny side. Humour is definitely a gift in difficult situations.
We get back on our bikes and five minutes later we are at our hotel. The kitchen is closed so we go down the road and bring back a Chinese take-away. A shower, bed and tomorrow a seven-mile ride to Penzance in time for the 10.20am train to Fleet.
Thank you to all who have supported us and prayed for us. It's been hard work and we've had to dig deep, but a real blessing.
