Day 1

Saturday, June 10
Land's End to St Columb Major
93km

The first three days of this trip are supposed to be the toughest, but I didn't find the riding today too bad.

It was cool when we woke up thid morning and there was a fog so thick that I couldn'( see more than two other tents...and there are 18 people camping on the trip, as well as 4 tour leaders.  There are also 20 people staying in B&B's on the trip, making a very large group. Not sure if we'll get to meet or know everyone this time around.

Breakfast was put on at the campsite by Kevin (the tour operator) and company.  Cerel, fruit and bread.  Unfortunately, no peanut butter.  I did put in a request, so perhaps we'll get some in a couple of days.

After eating we packed up our tents and rode down to Land's End for some photographs.  There were some nice cliffs rising out of the water which were picturesque but didn't allow any dipping of wheels.  Unfortunately, the fog made it tough to get any scenic photos.

Riding on the left hand side of the road has not been too hard to get used to.  I have to thiink a bit when we turn, especially onto busier streets, but we were mostly on small lanes with little traffic.

The roads here have no shoulder at all.  In fact, most have short, steep "hedges" on each side - almost as if the road has been sunk into the surrounding landscape.  Not only do they take away your emergancy stopping area, but they also make it touger to see what's ahead of you on the twisty roads.

The scenery was quite diverse today. There were steep, rocky cliffs that fell away into the Atlantic; rocky green hills with short rock walls dividing them; sandy beaches in the little valley inlets; and, patchwork faming fields with a different colour in every section.

Roe and I mostly cycled alone today, although we met up with a few other little groups along the way.  We stopped for lunch at a beach, where Roe took off her shoes and walked into the water.  By that time the fog had burned off and the bright sun was out.

There were several steep climbs towards the end of the day.  They were steeper than the climbs in France, but shorter.  Roe and I didn't find them too tough and the ride was pretty short as well. 

Fish and chips for dinner at a local pub tonight.

Roe's comments:
I found the hills steep and I had macaroni for dinner.  The little village where I walked in the water was called Portreath.  My face got sunburnt.  Hi mom.