Mary!

Went to pound land and got some cable ties to hook my bike up to the roof and we set off home

On the way home I was in the middle of the minibus and the top 40 from 1965 was getting a bit loud so Claire behind me asked me to ask them up front to turn it down a bit. The girl in the front seat was Irish and I'd been talking to her all weekend.
'Helen...Helen...HELEN!'
Tim beside me: 'her names Mary'
'MARY!'
I didn't care that everyone was laughing at me, I was just glad to be shouting Mary like Lloyd when he crashes his limo.
Sorry Mary, and sorry Helen

Paul dropped us off to Osterley tube station and it was nippy

Still had 6.5k to cycle to get to the district line. Found that out on the way home that you can take a bike on the district line, that would of been handy to know when i first set out cause it cuts out a good bit of the city. Handy to know for the future for going on a cycle out to essex or down to Surrey too. Never been so happy to be back in my own bed in a warm room with a duvet that covers all of me. Got a nice souvenir too that will take pride of place in the hall cause we cant find replacement bulbs for the light there

A little place called Cafe Irie

Someplace warm, where the smoothies flow like wine and beautiful waitresses instinctively flock like the salmon of Capistrano.
Special mention needs to go to Cafe Irie. Feck the surfing, this is the best reason to go to Newquay. Its just the most chilled out place in the world where we tend to flake out all day long after a surf.

 A coconut in a bird cage on top of the sound system

They even made lucky Luciano a traditional cake for his birthday, which he made a meal of

 Sounds good, I'll have that

We started thinking of other trips I could get going on and started writing a few of them down

One of the surf instructors Mike had an exhibition for his paintings in the Cafe on Saturday night. No charge in and as we were walking up the stairs waitresses handed us plates of finger food to pass around to people upstairs. How laid back can you get when randomers play waiter for the night? A bit of free wine flowing around too and even Alan from The Hangover showed up to help with the tunes

Later that night in Belushi's hot Cafe Irie girl actually talked to me! Oh yeah, like a laser beam, sucked me right in. I was like 'you remember me?' Didn't have time to talk long cause the bouncers were pushing us out, damn if I had a bit longer I could have been whipping out the dumb and dumber quotes non stop.

'You cycled all this way just to eat at Cafe Irie?'
'Well I I wasn't really doing anything. I've come a long way to eat there the least you can do is level with me'

Surfing in February, who are these sick people?

Good morning Newquay!
£64 for two days of lessons, all the gear, two nights accomodation, two breakfasts, an art exhibition, 10% off food and drink in the bar, and meeting 20 odd sound fellow surfers has to be the best deal ever. Yeah conditions weren't exactly ideal but it was good craic all the same. You might look at me and see the messy hair and the baggy clothes and think I might be a proper surfer but in reality I'm just really skinny and too lazy to get a hair cut. The first day was unbearably cold and miserable but the second day I had some great surfing so will most likely be back soon

nice views from room 8

I knew it started with an "S" though

Ummmm scrumpy camping

We're there!

Treyarnon to Newquay: left around 1.05pm arrived around 3.30pm. 19.6k/12 miles, avg speed 12.5kph, max ?

1:33:58 cycling time, I'm a little slow

A little further on and with 3 miles to go I knew where I was. I’d gone for a run up here the last time so knew it wasn’t far and more importantly there weren’t any more massive hills left. What was that feeling creeping up inside of me? Feels like…joy. This felt good. The weather was lovely, my hands weren’t freezing and I’d made it from London to Newquay. OK I’d skipped a tad but it was still something of an achievement, right? I’d miscalculated how much I could cycle a day but like you’ve never made a mistake Mr Perfect! Yeah the cold was unbearable and there were a few low points but I felt grand now and stronger for it. Feeling the muscles in my legs when I tensed them was satisfaction enough. Some people have an instinct that automatically tells them not to do a trip like this. Others might do it but would have to plan everything out first. I have neither of those instincts and that led to some problems but I still made it in one piece. The sign at the hostel said it all

OK not so much “live your life stay in a hostel,” but you know go for an epic cycle, go surfing in Baltic conditions, you’ll probably enjoy it in the end. One more for the things to avoid list: waking up in 30 years and realising I didn’t do enough stupid cycles like this, it was definitely worth it and I still hadn’t gone surfing yet.

Stef had come down early too so I met up with her and had food with a couple of guys she knew. One of them offered me a lift. Oh that pisses me off, that pisses me right off, I’d only just paid for the non-refundable minibus.

Back in Templeogue

After that there was a nice few stretches of flat road and finally I was home. After 4 long days I’d made it all the way back to Templeogue.

Wait hang on a sec, I thought I was going to Newquay? Squint eyes, oh right its Trevelgue. This got me thinking about a cycle around Ireland. Yeah I saw some nice scenery over the last few days, seen some nice places and all but Ireland is just so much nicer. A cycle around Ireland is definitely one for the future.

Near miss

Along one steep climb I was walking up the right side hugging the edge with my bike on the inside. Most people took a wide berth going by me but for the more cautious looking ones I’d stop and make it look like I was making the effort to get off the road. One guy drove towards me fairly slow right along the yellow line then just budged a tiny bit going by me while I sucked my chest in. He continued down the hill with his left wheels over the yellow lines and then came within inches of rubbing off the parked cars further down. It’s true what they say, old people are slow and dangerous behind the wheel.

Best decision so far

Went back in and got changed again and got back on the bike. Made it to the end of the street and stared at the signpost for a good 5 minutes.

4 miles to Padstow, 11 to Newquay. It was 1.15pm. Possibly get to Padstow for 1.45, food til 2.45, 15 miles to Newquay would have me potentially rolling into town at dusk again. Over the mile before that sign I really wasn’t feeling too good and my right knee cap was especially sore. Not sure if I hit it when I fell or if it was just the week’s wear and tear but it was screaming for me to turn right. I’m going to go with my instincts on this one, Padstow...no Newquay. After I clipped into my shoes and then clipped back out cause I was on a hill I knew I made the right decision. From then on I was just given more and more reasons for taking that turn. Along the coast was the hilliest part of the journey by far. Nothing but drops from the clifftops down to the beach then straight back up to the cliffs. Too steep for cycling, too far for no cycling. Had to get off and walk to get down safely then cycle the width of the beach for a good ten seconds then get off at the bottom of the next hill and walk up. Then repeat.

I did go fast down one hill but I got a fly in my eye. I had to take a picture to make sure I got it out.

Country walk

Alarm went off for 7.45 but I never felt so glued to the bed before so couldn’t get up til half 9. Good morning Treyarnon! Got out of bed, and saw a sign “please leave your laundry in the basket at the bottom of the stairs” anything else you’d like me to do? Had some brown bread, PB, sultanas and peanuts for breakfast. Plan was to go on the computer for a couple of hours then head to Padstow for lunch. My old boss also told me of a guy Rick Stein who owns a ton of restaurants in Padstow and he also had a patisserie that was calling me. Computers were £1 for 20 mins, fuck that, just went on for 20 minutes and booked the package for Newquay and the minibus home cause a space had just opened up. Put on all my cycling gear under my jeans and decided to go for a quick walk before setting off. Ended up walking for 3 hours up the coast cause it just felt so much better than cycling. Got as far as a lighthouse and back.

Treyarnon Bay

 Booby bay. Tee-hee

Along the way I started to get warmed up and the padded shorts were really making me uncomfortable again. It had to be done, right there on top of a cliff I had to strip down to my boxers to get them stupid shorts off.

One: this isn’t a car park, its grass. Two: there’s nowhere to pay. Three: can’t you just go for a nice walk without this bullshit?

About 20 yards from the hostel I slipped in the grass. The way I was going I should have just landed on my back but somehow I spun around and landed in the press up position and wrecked my only jeans. Nice, my only pair of jeans were filthy for the weekend.