Day 2 - The Sting in the Tail

Ride stats: 96.3 miles, 4,560 feet of climbing (as per the garmin gps), 7 hrs 54 mins

After the never ending hills of yesterday today started out really well.  The girls got chatting to a couple of guys at breakfast who are doing the Devon Coast to Coast cycle ride and they very kindly donated £40 to our cause - thank you Steve and Jonny.
Meanwhile Jeff and Ian started with a gentle climb out of Okehampton and then enjoyed a really nice ride apart from getting a soaking on the way to Crediton, on mostly undulating roads all the way to Tiverton.  Special mention has to made here of Mick F from the CTC Forum for sharing the route through Cornwall and Devon and he came up trumps again today with a detour from the Crediton to Tiverton road called "Robs Passage" that meant we were able to skirt round what would otherwise have been some tiring hills.

Our first stop today was at Julie's bother Keith and his wife Lindsey's house in Wellington, 50 miles from Okehampton.  We had a really uplifting surprise when after a really long climb from the M5 at Tiverton we passed a "Welcome to Somerset" sign at the top of the hill. It was only after passing that we realised there was another sign alongside it that Keith had put up to welcome us so we turned around and rode back up the hill. Amazingly the 4 guys we met at Lands End yesterday had also stopped there for a photo call so we asked them to take a snap of us. They were the ones who took the team photo at Lands End and are quickly assuming the mantle of official photographer.

We passed another LEJOG welcoming sign and arrived at Keith and Lindsey's to a warm welcome of iced mango and lychee tea and lunch. It would have been so easy to have stayed sat in the sun enjoying the company but we had to get on. One last photo call to receive our "biggest cheque" yet from Keith and Lindsey and we were off - we then passed another LEJOG sign on the road saying next stop Bristol. Thanks guys for such a lovely welcome.

Passing through Taunton we arrived on the Somerset Flats and were able to really get a nice pace going for the next 25 miles until we met the girls just before the Mendip hills.  Which brings us to the title of this blog.

The first few hills were pretty comfortable compared to yesterday but just as we thought we had cracked the day we hit a monster (well it appeared that way to us) which we had to do in the afternoon sun - this was the sting in the tail.  The other sting in the tail was the precious state of both Ian and Jeff's derrière regions but the less said about this the better!

Tonight we had dinner with Ian's cousins Sheila and Bruce - these really are their names and they are not Australian, they are a lovely couple and we had a nice evening. They also left us with a nice donation for the cause.  During dinner Jeff took a call from a close friend of his Leo who had travelled down from London with wife Sarah and their children Keira and Leo (jnr) with the intention of surprising us on the road and to give us their support.  Unfortunately the Glympse tracker stopped working at Cheddar so they were left chasing shadows. We hope they enjoyed the adventure and can go home happy in the knowledge that we have been truly touched by their efforts.

One last point concerning our Base Camp Comander Robin who has been providing us with invaluable daily weather and traffic reports. He had organised a trip to Bristol with his mum Aileen to surprise Ian and Jeff after having been booked into our accomodation by Joy.  Unfortunately Robin was not having his best of days and had to cancel at the last minute.  The whole team were devastated (as was Robin himself) when they heard this but he knows he is with us all the way in spirit.