Day 14 – Wednesday – June 16th

The longest hundred miles

After a good nights sleep at Trowbridge – (No fire calls – no disturbance!) we were once more getting ready to get on the road again this morning. A big thank you to all the station personnel at Trowbridge for making us so welcome – It was much appreciated!

After a lot of planning & adjustment the night before to the route, to ray and lessen our time on some of the busier routes, Bob and Kev (Orville) imparted the new simplified route to us. Simplified is not a word most of us would have used, and after having written the route down on various arms, and thighs (Danny has a very interesting set of route instructions on his upper thigh), we then proceeded to see how quickly we could get lost.

Just to keep the repair theme going, Laonie decided to have a puncture as we left – it was fine when she wheeled it out 5 minutes later, and then flat as a pancake. Finally on the road for around 9.15 after another photo shoot, and on the road towards Somerset.

Pete’s first puncture of the trip had to happen sometime, and mid way up a nice big hill was where it was. Having spent 10 minutes trying to get the tyre off, losing the tyre levers in the grass and after much general frustration, Julian finally rescued him and the rear wheel from the Dep’s bike was soon on the rear of Pete’s……

First brief stop was at the Haynes Motor museum, at around the 30 mile mark. Thanks to Danny’s connections we were invited in for free, and offered tea. Those of us settling in, could see Bob getting twitchy and ready to go, and atthe end of the day we could see why! Onwards and upwards, (literally), back out on to the Somerset hills.

Fair to say today, was a hard slog for everyone, and finally after some brilliant down hill sections and some very long hard slogs back up again, the next stop today was for lunch at the 57 mile mark at a farm shop type / café just outside Chard. By this point it was pretty warm and getting warmer still, but after a fairly short lunch, we were off for the final push at around 2.30, of around 43 miles to the Fire Fighters Charity Centre at Chudleigh.

After several long climbs, we were on the A38 which has to be the fastest flowing road so far (except for through Birmingham City Centre!), and a fast 10 miles or so ensued. Finally we came to Exeter, and fair to say confusing was just one of the words to describe it. The plan to head simply to the south and pick up a back road to Harcombe rather than take the fairly well signed A28 seemed good in principle, but several variations were undertaken. Several groups went quite a way in towards the city centre, and ended up battling almost stationary traffic on the way out.

Finally after lots of phone directions, and meeting up with Kev, everyone made their way in through some of Devon’s smallest villages, but not before having to tackle what seems to be the longest and most gruelling hill in history. Several of us chose to walk a bit – purely as we were on the point of around 95 miles and it wasn’t going to happen. A few sturdy souls made it all the way – Big cheer for Josie who made it, and a small one for Pete & Toby who stopped, took their shoes off, and walked most of it in their socks!

Finally we were all at Harcombe house by just after 7pm, and we are all pleased to say we had a cracking hot dinner of Chilli & rice followed by Mincemeat sponge & custard!

Everyone is feeling the distance today a little – some more than most, but we are almost there!! We have bungalows to sleep in tonight courtesy of the Centre, and everyone has a bed to sleep in! Hurrah!