Poplar to Hook: left close to 3pm, arrived at 8.14pm. 78.5k/48 miles. avg speed 19.5kph. max 37 kph .
4:01:09 cycling time – the rest was stopping at lights etc
Went down through the estate and got to number 9, what a fucking gaff! Johnny’s doing well for himself. Inside it was like Kevin McCallister’s house. Then saw a young girl and a massive boxer dog and a baby gate at the bottom of the stairs. Shit I’m no good at talking to families. Turns out the girl wasn’t that young and herself, Johnny and a couple others are boarding there with a sweet old lady and the baby gate is to stop the dog getting upstairs. Johnny took my bike around the side and I went through to the kitchen, dinner was served-salmon and chips, lovely! First thing I did was look at my phone and see the temperature. Well suck me sideways! 0 degrees with a low of -6: that explains a few things. Had a long shower and got into some ice cold clothes. There is nothing worse than getting into a cold pair of boxers. Moisturize-this baby face won’t last long in that weather without it. Then had a long stretch. When I was reading a route a guy made for cycling to Brighton he said you should stretch. Stretch for a cycle? You’re avin’ a laugh mate. Actually he said “strreeeettcchh!” so I tried it out and it works a charm, who’d a thunk it. When I took my bag of sultanas out of my camel back and saw they were vacuum packed with the cold I decided to take my panniers in in case they froze, I don’t need any extra weight.
Got to work on a plan for tomorrow aiming to do the 70 miles a day I decided on. 69 miles down the road was Wincanton, perfect. Shit, no hostels there. I could push it out a few more miles to Yeovil, that’s the name of a football team so surely there’s a hostel there? Nada. Check out the map of YHA’s in the south west, there’s a straight line in the direction of Newquay with no hostels between Sailsbury and Exeter. Serious gap in the market. Potential business idea Conor? Checked all the nearby towns between Yeovil and Wincanton and nothing! Then it hit me: couchsurfing. Searched Yeovil groups. 12 people, some of which were looking for a place. Most people hadn’t signed in in months. Only one couch available with Family Doyle. Said they lived 20 miles from Exeter. Was planning on spending my second night there cause Yeovil is about 50 from Exeter so not sure where they thought they were. Sent a request anyway.
Reply: “hi realy sorry but we are not able to put you up wed night. hope you can find another bed in yeovil. good luck on your bike in this freezing weather.”
Fuck this anyway, I got no hostel, I got no jobs, my fucking fingers are going to fall off. I got to get out of this town but have nowhere to go next. Johnny suggested getting a train part of the way – ‘get a train from Basingstoke to Exeter, do your 70 miles from there. There’s no shame in that.’
‘Go on.’
‘Or you could just get the train from Hook.’
‘Now you’re talking.’
1.4 mile cycle to the station, train at 07.19, change at Basingstoke, get to Exeter for 10.45. Cuts out two days cycling in this Baltic weather. Genius Johnny, sheer genius. From there I could do a 70 mile cycle to that place with the YHA near Padstow. What was the name of it again? Umm I know it starts with T-R-E, Treburrick..Trenance…Trencreek..Trevarrian..oh here it is, Treyarnon. I knew it started with a Tre though. Have a look at a map of that region, there was a serious lack of imagination from whoever came up with those place names. Anyway, spend a night there and head to Newquay after. Hostels only a tenner so might as well check out that area. OK I’d be pussying out on the full cycle but it’s still a good effort.
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