At the beginning of September, Chris set out on his birthday challenge to cycle from Land’s End in Cornwall to John O’Groats in Scotland (aka LE2JOG). This is my attempt to blog along the route.
Well, rather than cooking on the camping stove for tea. Chris decided that we’d go out for food but given that he’d just cycled about 80 miles in one day the idea of having to focus on what to eat was a bit beyond him.
I made the choice that we’d go to the Wetherspoons in Street – I knew roughly where it was as the High Street runs along the Clarks Village and I knew that Street wasn’t too far away as I’d been there a few hours earlier. I was going to have a chicken burger but they were out of them so I choose lasagne – it’s very hard for it to go wrong – however, mine did seem like it had been microwaved to within an inch of its life – yum – not!! Chris has sausages and mash which he seemed to appreciate as I’m pretty sure he ate it down like I’d not fed him for a week. We also both had waffles for pudding. I had maple syrup on mine and Chris had chocolate sauce and banana on his.
We then headed back to the campsite. We arrived back and sorted some bits out. It was only then that I realised actually how foreboding the Tower on the Tor looked in the night. I half expected Orcs to come running down the hill towards us and then an elf or a dwarf come to our rescue – good job I’m not reading The Hobbit at the moment lol.
Comfort-wise sleep was a little easier but we were quite close to the main road so the traffic did make it a little harder to sleep. Yes I know I am picky and yes I am counting down the days until I sleep in a proper bed when we reach Birmingham!!
This morning Chris and I had a little disagreement – I think we’re getting a bit on each other’s nerves now and need some space – he headed off and I headed into Glastonbury and by lunch, we seemed to be a bit better.
I parked near the Abbey and then went for a bit of a wander. Then again I almost wished I hadn’t lol. I’m all for having your own beliefs but the whole town was like Wiccan/Pagan/Occult in your face-ness I think the only time I saw a bible was in the gift shop at the Abbey (this was the bit you could get in for free – the rest of the Abbey you had to pay to see). There were three bookshelves in the Abbey gift shop about Arthurian legend and the history of the Abbey and one tiny section with Christian books on – there were like 5 bibles and a couple of copies of the Book of Common Prayer. I wandered to a shoe shop that sold flip flops that benefitted a village in Africa – I had thought about buying a pair but I didn’t think that I could justify £25 on a pair of flip flops that I might only be able to wear for a few more days before retiring them until next year. I decided that I’d head towards my next stop.
I went to Wells and got some lunch. Chris’s lunch stop was at Farmborough but we weren’t sure about how much there would be in the way of shops etc. So I went prepared for lunch including bananas and oranges for Chris to carry with him to give him a boost of energy if needed.
I was heading towards Farnborough when my phone kept ringing – I couldn’t answer as I was kinda running late already (at least in mind I was even if I wasn’t really!). After the third time of hearing Supermassive Black Hole, I found a layby and answered the phone. Chris had something epic to show me and the meetup point for lunch was moving.
And it was epic and worth the miscommunication with the directions to get me there. He’d found a place called The Book Barn. Their tagline is “Millions of books, thousands of topics, ONE Bookbarn” and it’s very true. I spent about an hour in there but could have easily spent longer and not have got bored. They have thousands of books on display in one barn but they also have a computer system so that you look up through the stock they have in a second barn. I’d asked for two books from the system – you fill in a little slip and someone goes to look for it, for you. The two asked for were “The Left Side of Darkness” by Ursula Le Guin and “The Mysteries of Udolpho” by Ann Radcliffe (if you’ve read Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen you will have heard of it). They didn’t have the Le Guin book but they did have “The Mysteries of Udolpho”.
All the books in the barn you can search through in-person are £1 each the ones in the other barn vary depending on the “rarity”, which edition it is etc, so Mysteries was £5 instead of £1. I got 7 other books so in an hour spent £12 on 8 books – now to read them all, plus “Rebecca” by Daphne Du Maurier and the six Austen novels I have on my bookcase at home that I keep saying I’ll read plus the one I’m in the middle of now – okay mental note to self *must not purchase any more reading books until I have cleared at least 75% of this pile* – that’s 12 books – oh dear!!!!
I then drove from The Book Barn onto our campsite at Horton. Well, I almost missed it. We were staying at Oakfield Farm Campsite. The campsite was about 2-3 miles from Chipping Sodbury and was in the middle of nowhere lol. I wasn’t sure I was in the right place at first and when the first person I saw had a nose piercing bleached blonde Mohican (although it was deflated for work I think) and tattoos up both forearms I really didn’t think I was in the right place but I asked and he said yes it was the right place and it turned out that we were the only people booked in for the night.
I got to setting up the tent in one corner as there were bushes on two sides and I could put the car on the third side to create a whole bunch of shelter. It was a good idea I think. While I was setting the tent up the lady (who is part of the couple who own the site) came to say hello and point out where the loo was and things like that. I went up to use the loo and the lock was broken but as it was a portaloo I could use and hold the door closed (is that TMI?)
The site was really nice other than the broken loo door. We could hear some cows a few fields over but other than that it was very quiet. Chris said he didn’t sleep well and I said it must have been because of how quiet it was in comparison to all the other sites we’ve stayed at.
Tinned hot dog sausages, bolognese sauce and pasta for tea – I think I can manage it – might even read at the same time.
For the stressful, energetic half of the trip read Chris’s posts here.
You can read about the rest of the adventure here.
