Devon Cycling Adventure: Day I

Sarah, Pip, Deborah, Rob, Heather looking fresh at 9 am

Day one is done! I’m sitting in a little hotel in Lyme Regis digesting an enormous pork chop and potatoes and like to think I earned it after near 5,000’ elevation and 55 miles. I had a lovely send-off this morning. Pip made a chocolate cake with a bicycle wheel on it and Rob kept me company all the way to Bovey.

There were some spectacular views today with the sea my constant companion as I headed along the coast to Lyme Regis. But some of the most beautiful spots were quiet little anonymous lanes in the woods.

Andy R, and I met up at a café in Topsham, about halfway in. What a life he has had – climbing glaciers, roughneck on an oil rig, teaching in the West Indies right out of university, and now in Totnes.

Andy kept me company for a long stretch this afternoon

There were (of course) some stunning churches along the way. For someone with a Jewish mother and a Confucianist father, I’m sure a sucker for a handsome church.

This is so picturesque, it almost defies the imagination

There were unexpected obstacles along the way including a quarter mile of rocky single track…

Not fun, but pretty

…and a large ford.

Fun, but not pretty

I finally rolled into Lyme Regis tired but not destroyed: mission accomplished. This was the hardest day in terms of elevation, although the miles will start adding up later in the week. I was struck by the modernism of the battlement in Lyme Regis. The composition would not be out of place in an architectural sketch by Le Corbusier or Lou Khan.