Day 12 - Hilly Mc'Hill Face

Another late start mainly due to my faffing and feeling sorry for myself. But the sun was shining so our moods (my mood) got better. The feeling of freshly washed bib shorts was sensational!! Comfy, fresh and fitted. Everything was putting me in a good mood this morning. We packed up and headed off out the awesome campsite, past some fluffy chickens and onto a fairly quiet A road. Because of the time and miles we needed to makeup, we went off-piste with our route so we could complete the ride on Saturday and meet our friend Mike at the end. We knew today was going to be hell hilly, so we took our time and road up them slowly. We found a Premier to grab some breakfast, mainly junk food and carried on with the hills.

After it took us nearly 2 hours to do 10 miles,  we really felt like we have made a mistake going off-piste and taking the 'quicker route' curse you Google maps. I shouted that quite often when we turned off a down Hill Road onto an up Hill Road. I swear Google is like apple a listens to you and some human somewhere on the other end of Google maps going "YOU LIKE THAT HILL DO YAH? BOOM, HERES ANOTHER ONE! YOURE WELCOME" (obviously said in an American or Indian accent... You can decide that one)

After one massive hill, we decided to stop for some early lunch, had a chat with the barmaid about what we were doing, who for, etc. And listened to a group of Toffs talking about national trust and politics. I swear some toffs don't even like each other, they seem to constantly argue and talk over each other. It was uncomfortable to listen to but I found small pleasures knowing they had to smell my stale sweat while they ate and complained about life.

Up and down the hills went on. Through Exmor National Park and onto Dartmore. We ended up doing nearly 6200ft in elevation over just that day. In meters that is 1,889m and not too far off cycling up Snowdon TWICE. I honestly can't believe friends of mine have Everest. That's where you cycle up and down the same hill till you reach the height of Everest in elevation. No, I haven't done it, and no, I don't think I can.

The sun was hot and my CRISP sharp cycling tan lines are on point because of it. It was a completely different experience doing the hills in Devon than in Scotland. Scotland we had fresh legs but cold weather. And in Devon, we had more strength and hot weather. All in all, it was a good day and my knees anger the whole of it without popping out, shattering, or giving up completely.

Before calling it a day, we cycled through a place called No Man's Land. I couldn't believe it was real? There wasn't anything there. Maybe the odd farmhouse. I just expected more. Like a barren desert with the cliche tumbleweed or something. Throw a cowboy in there and you're sorted.

We found a campsite on the far til of dartmore and had only one more big hill to go up before we could shower and set up camp. My heart sank when I realised I still had to sleep on my broken, deflated camping matt... Thanks, Becky... 🥺👀