Days 1 to 2

Dear all,
Sorry it has taken me so long to update the blog but I haven't to get a good enough internet connection in which to do so.

Day 1
Start: Lands End
End: Near Tregony (stayed in London Apprentice near St Austell)
The first day starting with a large amount of "faffing". We had spent the night in St Ives in a wonderful hotel and were all looking forward to the off. Due to a lack of driver for the camper van on the first day we had to drive to the campsite with the van and the jeep. The campsite was situated just south of St Austell and here we finalised the bikes, our equipment and drinks and piled into the jeep and drove to Lands End. Here, there was the traditonal photo plus video shot. A final look at the route and then we set off. We started to make our way to Penzance along the B road. The ride was pleasant with a few hills but all in all a good start to the trip. We made it to Penzance for lunch by the harbour. After a short lunch stop we decided that we needed to make a move in order to make good progress. Our route had been planned to try and use the B roads and the white routes to try and reduce the amount of cars that would be going past us at high speed. We made good progress along the roads and the bikes were working well. We followed the roads along until we came to a village called Feock. Here we took the King Harry Ferry which was a 10 min ride. A large hill followed this and when we got half way up we decided to take a left turning. What a mistake this proved to be because no sooner has we wizzed down we realised that it was a dead end. So we slowly trundled back up the hill which looked like a railway track that had been paved over. We finally made it to the top of the hill and decided to ring Radek who was driving the jeep and meet us in Tregony to pick us up. However it was now getting dark and cold. We got as far as we could but realised that we weren't going to get there. So about 6 miles from Tregony we stopped and stood in a bus shelter. We tried to ring Radek but the mobile phone signal down in Cornwall is so poor that we struggled. My mum hitched a left so the rest of us were left in the cold in a tiny bus shelter. The sun was going and the our bodies were beginning to sieze due to the cold. Luckily, the jeep soon arrived and we quickly put the bikes on the rack and left. The journey back to the campsite not too long but with all of us extremely worried about the cold we turned the heat. When we got to the campsite, the food was cooked very quickly, the heating was put on and the beds were half made. The food was eaten and very soon we were all sound asleep.

Day 2
Start: Near Tregony
End: St Ive Church End (stayed in Peter Tavy near Tavistock)
It was not a good day on today. The night before my mum had broken the key to the outside storage compartments and so this needed to be fixed ASAP. Radek and Simon then picked up Tom C's parents, who had arrived last night. Tom C's mum had kindly agreed to drive the camper van and we extremely grateful for her help. However, due to the things that needed to be done we didn't start cycling to around 12. We were driven back to the bus shelter and set off from there. We made excellent progress to St Austell and we had lunch the east side of the town. We had fish and chips and sat on the grass. We soon started on our way again and made slow progress. We were aiming for Tavistock but we could only manage 36 miles in total on this day. The reason for this was also a technical reason because just outside St Ive Church End I encountered my first puncture. We therefore had mend this and come and be picked up once more. We were driven to the campsite but we got there to find Tom C's parents just about to leave for their B and B. They had kindy driven the van to the site, plugged everything and all was well. We all had a bit of time to relax and then we had dinner and once again, the bed beckoned to be used. Once again, it didn't take long for all of us to be asleep.