Sunday, July 11th
The sun came out and cycling continued to be "lumpy". Morning tea (Elevenses here in the UK) was at a delightful tea house in the small town of Minions.
Rob and I were joined by Teresa this morning because her husband Peter had done something to his back on the first day's ride and had to withdraw. Teresa eventually stayed with us all the way to John O'Groats. We were also joined by Andy for "tea", and probably his riding buddy Hugh, who is nowhere to be seen here.
A few more "road crosses river etc" later, and we cross the River Tamar bridge (1437) where we cross from Cornwell into Devon (and the road, naturally, climbs steeply)
The bridge is typical of most medieval European stone bridges with strategically placed bays for pedestriand to wait for passing traffic (wagons and carts, I suppose, not bicycles):
And on the other side, the proof that we have indeed made our first county crossing, of many:
Morning tea today is in the lovely town of Tavistock, which is on the western boundary of Dartmoor. Knowing that a climb was coming, we ate well and stocked up on drinks.
The cafe was on a corner opposite the church and museum, and a lovely square looking towards the entrance to Dartmoor:
I'm not sure where Teresa is at this point, but Rob and I were putting on a brave face for Tony's (BA support) camera as we neared the top of the climb into Dartmoor proper.
In the middle of summer, even on a slightly cloudy day, Dartmoor is very pretty, and the population of small horses is well known. I guess these pose the same danger to speeding cyclists as our kangaroos do.
But I imagine that in winter these places become bleak, and certainly no place for cycling (or even small horses?).
Our stop for the night was in a small town called South Zeal, and this was the first of many nights where the small superior" accommodation group of seven was separated from the larger "standard" accommodation group of twenty. They were in a motel or Ibis hotel about 5 km up the road. While we had baths and slate walled renovated bathrooms, and in my case a room to myself. Luxury!
The town is very picturesque, albeit at the bottom of a short, but steep road, and nowhere near any place called North Zeal, that I could find.
But the hotel itself is clearly very old (that's my room over the main entrance):
And the bar very typical of English country pubs. It was in the "snug"of this hotel after dinner that we watched Spain defeat German in the 2010 football world cup (Que Viva España).
After another 90+km and over 2000m of climbing, I nice meal, and ample beer and wine, I certainly slept very well, again.
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