Stumble.Stop.Repeat.

I think the night at home made me lose my momentum. It was very hard to get organised this morning and I was daunted by the thought of packing for the next ten days. It serves me right for leaving it so late I suppose. All my concerns (and guilt) associated with work also resurfaced and for a moment I thought ‘I can’t go away, I’ll just stay here’, before realising it wasn’t really an option. I also had to squeeze in my Pilates class and a trip to the library before I could hit the road and start the long journey up to Shrewsbury. Most days I’ll be meeting Ben halfway, but since he had company on the ride today I drove the whole 120 miles in one go. I was feeling quite glum to start and the steadily increasing motorway traffic wasn’t helping (nor were thoughts of Cornwall). But once I was off the motorway and heading into Herefordshire I started feeling more positive. Ben and I have spent a few weekends around the Shropshire/Hereford area in the last few years, all for bike races. Usually I would see Ben off at the start and then go round exploring, so lots of the roads today felt familiar. The scenery is quite lovely and looked very dramatic with the heavy rain clouds rolling overhead.

Wenlock Edge

It is a great area for local produce and farm shops, especially apple juice and cider. I was tempted to pull over several times when I saw signs, but felt I should keep going in case the Bank Holiday traffic really started to pile up. I’ve never been as far as Shrewsbury and had a shock at the Brummy accents when I went to book in for camping. I blame the sat nav for my temporary loss of bearings, I’m unaware of anything outside the 2x3inch screen!

Now the van is sat in a sunny field behind a pub and I’m watching a few rabbits chase each other round the grass. This idyllic scene is soundtracked by the roar of the A5, so I’m extra glad I packed my earplugs.

Pointless piece of tat of the day: Which part of this, exactly, is therapeutic?

Perilous van moment of the day: Almost buying a 24v travel kettle.

Best driving song: Radio reception was intermittent –and therefore frustrating- most of the way. I did get a burst of 99 Red Balloons somewhere along the A44 which cheered me up, though they cut the German bit. Damn you, Europhobe local radio stations!

Home turf

I should try and remember that I’m not spending my days doing strenuous physical exercise, nor am I on holiday. Matching Ben’s eating patterns is not a good idea. I don’t mean the cereal bars (and certainly NOT the beef jerky), but the breakfasts, pasta and meals out…driving the van is hardly going to burn it off! Still, it was lovely to be treated to a pub lunch in Wiveliscombe after a long grey drive through miles of surface spray. Stopping in Wivey and in Cheddar distracted me from the task that is underway and being back in our house tonight makes it feel just like the past few Thursday nights- watching the debate and trying not to shout at the TV too much... Souvenir of the day: Very nearly Mist! If only we knew whether dog tents existed…
Best driving song: The Chaos, Futureheads
Should be reading: something, anything, to do with the PhD chapter I’m meant to be completing…

Hotel, Motel, Holiday Inn....

When we first discussed this trip I decided I would always take the fastest route to our meeting points and overnight stops. I thought this would be the most efficient. However, by doing so between Land’s End and Bodmin, I totally missed the Rodda dairy/museum. Ben spotted a giant churn of clotted cream somewhere near Penzance I think. Damn! I had also been determined to pick up a bottle of their milk, somehow imagining it would taste better and creamier than the rest. I can’t say for sure, but I bet they refuse to do skimmed. On our first night at The Lizard we saw a herd of dairy cows. They were so pretty and had such beautiful creamy-coloured hides that I was convinced they were reserved especially for clotted cream. Daft, I know. Anyway, the road up to Okehampton was scenic, even if it was also very fast and busy. It was Ben’s original route until he saw what he would be riding on our journey down. I was relieved he found an alternative route, but he won’t have such foresight for the rest of the journey so will have to stick to the maps already prepared. I think I’ll follow his course a bit more closely, just so I don’t miss out on any sights!

The Travelodge in Okehampton would not have met Alan Partridge standards. There was no mini bar or special drawers OR complimentary toiletries. Still, it was cheap as chips and there was a tv, so we were able to enjoy the sight of Jose invading the pitch like he’d scored the winner. Since we couldn’t face Little Chef for dinner and breakfast, we drove out to Sourton for our evening meal. Ben had spotted a fantastic looking pub called The Highwayman Inn. We entered through a padded red leather porch and it was equally bizarre inside. I wouldn’t have minded an evening there, pretending to be Bess, the landlord’s daughter (http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-highwayman/ -a favourite from an illustrated book of poems at home)

Smugglers and highwaymen…somehow I don’t think my imagination will be running quite so wild on the Shrewsbury/Preston stages, but we will see. I blame too much reading when I was younger. Unfortunately the pub didn’t do meals so we ended up at The Fox & Hounds, surrounded by hunting paraphernalia. Normally these places will have table mats or a few pictures of hunting scenes, but this pub had a full 12ft by 9ft mural on one wall which was pretty hard to ignore!

Now its time to head back to Bristol, via Wiveliscombe and Cheddar. Ben has cycled off in heavy rain under the misty shadow of Dartmoor, fuelled by Little Chef pancakes. It will be good to have a chance to re-pack tonight and really get organised for the rest of the trip. These past few days have only felt like a rehearsal.

Souvenir of the day: A plant from Henry’s campsite. I’m hoping it will fare better than the other piece of Cornwall I have in my possession, a coffee plant from the Eden Project (2007?) which has yet to produce a bean or even look alive. Henry’s plant looks a bit mad and tropical; let’s hope it fares ok in the Bristol climate.
Best driving song: Like A Prayer, Glee cast(!)
Should be reading: Wuthering Heights. Yes it’s the wrong part of the country, but there is something equally brooding about Dartmoor.

Two Go Down To The Sea

Until about an hour ago, when I waved Ben off down the windswept road leading out of Land’s End, it felt like we were just on holiday or had run away! To travel down through the counties of the South West on a sunny Tuesday afternoon, smelling the rapeseed fields and taking in all the lush green scenery just felt like the most wonderful escape, as if we’d broken out of Bristol and were off for a long weekend. Last night as we watched the sun go down over the Lizard it was easy to imagine staying on for a few more nights and that our purpose was only relaxing, not gearing up for a 9-day epic ride (or drive!) up the country. Henry’s campsite was even more colourful and unique than the website suggested. It felt like a bit of paradise, a tiny patch of Glastonbury Festival, but with palm trees and pigs.

We walked around the Lizard and saw the most southerly point of the country (Note to Land’s End- the tackiness/tourist mess is not necessary!!). Then we settled down to share a jug of ‘Old Rosie’ cider and grill some sausages. Any campsite that serves cold cider by the jugful gets my vote! The sunset and twilight were just beautiful and as the hazy sky cleared it revealed a stunning full moon. I was reminded of reading Famous Five adventures which took place when the moon was bright enough to see by. I had been thinking about smugglers when we’d walked round the coastline earlier in the evening and also when we’d passed signs for Jamaica Inn. Actually, many of the places we saw on signposts during the day were rather Blyton-esque: Fingle Bridge, Polyphant, Gweek, Magic Faraway Tree (ok, I made the last one up!).

Anyway, time to get the van on the road and stop writing postcards. I need to catch up with Ben near Bodmin and then head on to Okehampton and find our Travelodge. It’s easy to see how Land’s End used to be – a few cottages, an old hotel and incredibly dramatic scenery. It’s a shame that’s no longer enough. Last time I visited John O’Groats it was certainly no theme park, I’m hoping the intervening 14 (!) years haven’t taken it too far down the tacky route.

Souvenir of the day: 15p shell from a cottage at The Lizard
Best driving song: Week Off, Malcolm Middleton
Should be reading: Anything by Daphne Du Maurier

Strange but Wonderful

The title of this post is taken from the website for Henry's campsite, our first stop on the LE-JoG adventure. It looks like a great little place and, fingers crossed, we should be parked up there by early evening. I've never been further south than Newquay and have heard wonderful things about The Lizard coast and Sennen Cove...needless to say I'm also excited at the thought of a proper Cornish pasty and possibly some Cornish ice cream, yum! Thanks to Ro & Jake for the sat nav, now I can totally enjoy just driving the van and not faffing about with maps (I do love maps, but I'd rather not try and navigate on my own while trying to keep a big van on the road). There is something about our van that I just adore, the feeling I get when driving it -even round Bristol- makes me instantly happy. When we bought it last year it had clearly been cherished and used for lots of fun adventures and I think we have continued in that vein. The van's inaugral trip to Scotland last year, our Belgian holiday and lots of weekends away in between mean it has a permanent 'holiday' air about it!

May 2009-buying the van in S.Wales

Ben's route will take us back through Bristol on Thursday night so thankfully I can put off most of my packing til then. I only got back at 9 last night after a long day forcing kids to articulate their opinions on war crimes, justice and the Nazis. I could just about handle Glee, nothing that required more thinkng! So, with a Madonna soundtrack looping round my head, now is the time to get out of my pj's and get organised for the next few days. Land's End, here we come!

On countdown...

We held a barbeque last night to raise funds for Ben's ride. Thanks to our generous friends we raised over £80! It was great to get everyone together and the weather was fine. It's always strange being the hostess though, I think I managed one burger all night and kept losing my drink. Probably a good thing because I have a headache today anyway, it would only have been worse if it was also a hangover.

It feels like there's lots to do before the big 'off' on Tuesday. I want to think about it properly, but I've got a day of teaching in Swansea tomorrow to get through first. So while I'd much rather be making lists of what to pack and looking at maps, I'll instead be selecting choice quotes from the transcripts of the Nuremburg Trials and hoping the students aren't as unprepared as me.