140 km Elev gain: 1977 m (87 miles / 6486 ft)
4 °C (real feel 0 °C)
This morning's breakfast is last night's leftovers. Lamb biryani, cold, straight from the foil tin using the lid as an improvised shovel. I'm really living the dream.
Leaving my AirBnB, I follow the Camel Trail through the woods out of town, before the climb up onto the windswept Bodmin Moor, double taking and doubling back to gawp at the macabre skeleton family in a garden on the hill. The owner opens a window and we have a friendly chat while the assorted mannequins that peer out of every door and window give me their glass eyed stare. "I just can't help buying them" she says.
Up on the moor it's another battle against a 9 mph constant headwind. It's beautiful up here, but not a place to hang about on a day like this, even if the beast is a myth.
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| View towards Brown Willy, Bodmin Moor |
I arrive at Launceston, the former Cornish capital and find the friendly Liberty Coffee cafe. Non cake options are limited so I snaffle up a couple of their excellent home made sausage rolls.
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| Launceston |
Shortly after I cross the border from Cornwall into Devon and follow the rolling country lanes to Oakhampton where I'm in need of another cafe stop. This is turning into a long day. I'm behind schedule arriving at my destination in Cullompton after dark. This is slightly off the beaten LEJOG track, but it seemed to make sense at the time. Shame I didn't notice the brutal 16% climb up Cullompton Hill when I booked.
My AirBnB for the night is "The Nook", a garden room that couldn't be more nookish. It's has a bathroom, kitchen and bedroom all ingeniously squeezed into a tiny space. You couldn't (and definitely shouldn't) swing a cat in here.
Tonight's dinner is a Tesco ready meal. Accompanied by a bottle of Devonshire Otter Ale - it would be rude not to.
Running total: 252 km Elev gain: 3676 m (157 miles / 12,060 ft). 13 hrs 44 mins
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