10. Day 6 . 13th June . Shrewsbury to Crosby .

Antony Gormley statues on Crosby beach .


Bootle station



Woodside ferry crossing

Sunny start from Shrewsbury. B5476 to Wem and Whitchurch. The bloke Dave, had said that the way through Warrington was OK but looking at the jungle of roads to the north made me go back to my original plan for crossing the Mersey at Birkenhead. I therefore opted for the A41 for Chester. Mostly a decent road with a strip at the side.

After Chester it started to rain heavily. Approaching Birkenhead the road got steadily worse and I took to the sidewalk wherever possible. The birkenhead bypass had a two mile section of contraflow with no provision for cycles. I had a queue of cars behind me and I pulled in to let them pass - it was pouring down - this was the challenge part kicking in :) Anyway I made it to the ferry and felt I was experiencing a little bit of history. Got chatting to two girls on cycles who told me the way to Crosby.

In Crosby I went to 9 Elton Avenue Blundellsands where Martin the german bloke stayed in 1999 . The B&B was still there .

See http://www-public.tu-bs.de:8080/~wittram/reisen/endtoend99/english/end2end3.htm

Got the train to Bootle to find an eating place . Found a Wetherspoons and had Spag bol - a special birthday treat :-) This was not enough and I ordered Chilli noodles .

Stats for today:
Distance 71 miles
Max Speed: 30 mph
Total Distance so far: 450 miles

9. Day 5. 12th June. Tintern to Shrewsbury

Hereford Countryside .



Corn field with poppies .

Slow start due to hilly exit out of Monmouth - possibly because I chose to go on the A466 rather than the A40 .

Also felt a little jaded . Possibly the lack of sleep is telling - have been sleeping badly ever since Monday .

The day started sunny but cold . Later things warmed up and I put sun screen on the back of my neck but forgot about the knees . In the evening it looked like I was wearing red stockings .

Kept on the A49 and it was mostly ok with a white line border .

At one point my water bottles were almost empty and as I passed a beautiful little cottage decided to knock on the door . The gentleman who came to the door said he was happy to fill the bottles and then enquired whether a wanted a cup of tea . I accepted and his wife then offered a bewildering variety of different types of tea - I settled for an Earl Grey . She also insisted that I take some cereal bars . On leaving , they gave me £5 towards the fund . Their names were Diana and John .

Coming into Shrewbury , saw a young man and woman looking into a field . When I drew level I could see that the attraction was a corn field with a mass of red Poppies . After a brief chat , the young man whose name was Andrew Clarke donated £20 to the fund .

Managed to find a nice B&B .

Distance 84miles

8. Day 4. 11th June. Wheddon Cross to Tintern.

Tintern Abbey


Severn bridge

Severn Bridge

Looking over to the South bridge

Cycle&pedestrian crossing

Wheddon Cross B&B

Dunster church yard

Dunster church

Dunster high street

Coming into Weston Super-Mare

Weston Super-Mare

Left Wheddon Cross at 9.15 and headed for Dunster – a beautiful mediaeval village .
The day started cold but very soon I was down to a t-shirt for the rest of the day – the first really nice day .
The run to Dunster was easy and passed through ancient wooded valleys . After Dunster joined the A39 . Not an enjoyable experience . Heavy traffic on a narrow road .Was happy to escape onto  minor country roads just after Kilve .

Re-joined the A39 for a short while at Cannington and again escaped at Wembden for a while . After that , I joined the A38 and I made swift progress to Weston-Super-Mare . Then onto Congresbury, Yatton, Clevendon and Portishead .

I had read that the Avon bridge had a side track for walkers and cyclists . The bloke said that one followed the M5 signs and that eventually cyclists were taken away from the main traffic .
I saw the sign for the M5/A403 and followed it . I eventually found myself on the hard shoulder of the M5 going over the bridge . Too late to turn back – so I carried on and some public spirited drivers hooted at me .

Having passed the midpoint and speeding up on the downward slope , I heard some loud hooting and assumed it was another enthusiastic driver and ignored it . But the hooting persisted and on turning round saw that it was in fact Avon&Somerset’s finest in a motorway patrol vehicle .
So we had a wee chat about the dangers of cyclists on the hard shoulder of a motorway . They then escorted me off at the next exit , which was in fact the A403 which I wanted . We parted on the best of terms .
I then followed the A403 to the north Severn bridge which has provision for walkers and cyclists . Had hoped to get to Monmouth but time was getting towards 8pm and I decided to stop at Tintern where I lodged at the Wye Valley Hotel . There I met David Moore, another E2Ender , going north to south and he kindly gave me his maps of the ground that he had covered - more detailed than my maps .

Stats:
Distance 96miles

7. Day 3 . 10th June. Hartland to Wheddon Cross

Wheddon Cross B&B



Temporary refuge in sheep dip hut


Exford Church

Hazel with toy car .


Combe Martin bay .

Left Bursdon Farm B&B at 8.15 . The landlady gave me £5 towards the fund .
Stayed on the A39 to Barnstaple . Diverted to Combe Martin to call on Hazel and Pete . Extremely hilly . Left Combe Martin and headed for Exmoor via Blackmoor Gate /A399 and B3358 to Simonsbath and then B3223 to Edgcott and B3224 to Exford and Wheddon Cross .

Roads were nice and quiet and fabulous scenery but the weather was always threatening with a strong headwind . Found a nice B&B at Wheddon Cross - Sundial Guesthouse .
Stats for today:
Distance 61miles
Total Distance so far: 198 miles
61 miles

6. Day 2 . 9th June . St Agnes to near Hartland .

Leaving Padstow


Arriving at Rock

Departed St Agnes at 8.45 and cycled country lanes via Mithian, Goodharvern, Fiddlers Green, Newlyn East, Lappa Valley,St Columb Major, St Eval to Padstow. The Place was heaving with tourists , so I made a hasty exit to Rock via the ferry.
At Rock , stopped for a cup of tea at a wonderful shop full of lovely food - Di's Dairy& Pantry .Was given a generous donation for the MS fund by Di Dunkerley .

Continued to St Minver and then the B3314 and A39. 

I was aiming for Hartland but after cycling through heavy rain for two hours I was getting cold. My forearms were getting cramp. I was really happy to see a B&B sign about four miles before the Hartland turnoff. The lady who owned the B&B wasn't planning to take anyone that night as she had to leave the house early the next day but she took pity on the drowned rat standing in the doorway.

This B&B was the nicest so far. Ate at the local pub where I had a monstrous Steak & Ale pie.

B&B was ;

Bursdon Farm ; Mrs Margaret Phillips

Hartland

Ex39 6HB

Stats for today:
Distance 72.02 miles
Average Speed: 10.0 mph
Total Distance so far:137 miles

5. Day 1 . 8th June . Lands End to St. Agnes .

Some images en route to St.Agnes

Portreath from Tregea Hill


Tin Mine

St.Ives

First Pub

Some images en route to Lands End from Penzance .

Minack open air theatre .

Mousehole Harbour .

Some images of Penzance .

Official start at Lands End .

Retired at 00.30 and barely slept a wink . Seemed to wake every few minutes . Eventually got up before 6am and took my camera for a walk about an almost deserted Penzance . This town has a massive statue of Humphrey Davy in the town centre . His explosion proof miners lamp made mining a lot safer.
There is also a strong Pirate theme to be seen in various guises .
Left Penzance at 9.15 am on a very minor road through Mousehole .
Proceeded towards Porthcurno to visit the Minack open air theatre built on the cliff by the sea . Very beautiful .
Carried onto Lands End . Had a quick look around and had my official photograph taken beside the daft direction indicator .
Then started the end to end proper .
B3306 to St Just and then Pendeen, Zennor and St.Ives. Onto Hayle and the B3301 to Portreath . Then got a bit lost and was heading for Redruth when I noticed that the compass was showing me headed south . Consulted a few local folk and eventually got back onto the road to Porthtowan and St.Agnes . The reason I got lost was that the sign was missing . I flagged a motorist at a junction which gave no destination info . He pointed at two metal stumps which once had carried the sign . At Porthtowan I descended a steep hill and as always to be faced with the same to get out of the place but this was the steepest and longest hill of the entire day . I was completely exhausted . Then remembered the Lidl cereal bars in one of the bags . Sat on a stone wall and ate 5 in a row – and they tasted fantastic .Then had the energy to push the bike to the top of the hill . Cycling towards St.Agnes and just before descending to the town , spied a B&B . A nice old house covered in Ivy . Decided to stop there , rather than chance my luck in the town as it was getting towards 7pm . Nice big shambling mansion with an old and eccentric landlady and a reasonable £27.50 .

Distance 65m .

4. Monday 7th June

7th June
Cycled to Bognor train station at 13.15 to catch the 13.39 to Barnham .
In Barnham I waited on platform 2 for the train to Cosham .
Due to a fire at Cosham there was some disruption to services and as a result a train bound for Brighton arrived on platform 2 and there was a lot of faffing about while it was being split into two sections .
The upshot was that the Cosham train was delayed and eventually we were told to go to platform 1 . I ended up going to the exit instead . By the time I corrected my mistake and hurried to platform 1 , the train had locked its doors and I couldn’t get
on .
Got the next train to Cosham knowing that I would miss the connection to Westbury . The Guard suggested that I get off at Havant in case there was a route via Guildford and that I had nothing to lose as the next train to Westbury from Cosham was 1 hour later .
The ticket clerk at Havant gave me a new time table .
So , I eventually did go to Cosham to catch the Westbury train .
Eventually got to Penzance at 22.30 .
The B&B people at Richmond Lodge kindly stayed late to show me my room .