So, with reference to this post, we fucking went. Despite my misgivings, it actually turned out to be fairly painless, even with a severe weather warning over two of our days of cycling. It would seem that we’re part of a growing trend; this article in the Guardian says that “Britons spent £120 million on dedicated cycling holidays in 2006.” I’ll definitely not argue with the comment about it being an expensive game; the trip turned into a tour of the B&Bs and hotels (and of course their cooked breakfasts) of Southern England.
We took the train to Reading on the Friday night, and stayed in the Beech House Hotel (enormous tables at breakfast! Kyla and I were fully one third of a mile apart, separated by an acre of fried food.) On the Saturday we followed the National Cycle Network Route 23 down to Basingstoke, then headed onwards into the Test Valley, finishing in Stockbridge. Stockbridge is as picture-postcard-pretty as most of the Cotswold villages I’ve visited, though don’t be fooled by the pubs claiming to have “riverside gardens” - there are many small tributaries of the Test running through the town, so “ditchside” might be more accurate. We stayed in the Three Cups, which was very nice, though the breakfast room was built for people no taller than 5′.
The following morning we cycled to Salisbury, partially along a National Byway. The National Byways say that they are open to all traffic, however I think it’s fair to say that the section we travelled was more aimed at mountain bikes than the tourers we were riding. Potentially we could have found this out if we’d bought the information packs available from their website, but after buying a load of OS maps we didn’t feel like spending any more, so risked it.
From Salisbury we cycled to Shaftesbury, which turns out to be at the top of a large hill, and stayed the night at La Fleur de Lys. This was definitely the winner out of all the places we stayed at: free internet access in the room, which also came with a cafetiere to make proper coffee, home-made biscuits and a sofa to slob out on.
It was in Shaftesbury that we found out about the severe weather warning that the met office had issued for the South West of England. We decided not to risk it, and the next day cycled to Crewkerne, where we took a train to Exeter; if the holiday was going to be rained off, we may as well be stuck in a big town where there might be something to do. We stayed in the Hotel Barcelona, which is in a Grade II listed building that was once a hospital, and uses this as a theme for some of its decoration. They were even having a “green” promotion, so we got 10% off the price of our room for arriving by bike.
The weather had calmed down by lunchtime, so we headed a short distance out onto Dartmoor, to South Zeal, where we stayed at the Oxenham Arms. The next day we headed up to Okehampton so that we could join the Granite Way, which is part of the National Cycle Network’s route 27. From there we headed South along the edge of Dartmoor to Lydford, then onwards to Tavistock. Contrary to what people will tell you about Tavistock, it isn’t worth visiting. Don’t even slow down. Certainly don’t stay the night.
Leaving Tavistock, we headed a short distance West, over the county border and into Cornwall; destination achieved! It took us six days to cycle two hundred miles, though we did 130 of that in the first three days. All told, it was quite enjoyable, despite the iffy weather, and I now have thighs of steel. Of course all this exercise now entitles me to spend the next month on the sofa watching my muscles atophise, so don’t think that there’ll be any long-term health benefit.
