Day 1 - Dedicated to Kishan (male-) - 4 yrs old - Kolkata

Kishan has been living at Howrah Station, he has no dad and his mum is a drug addict and can not look after him properly. He is a gorgeous little boy who now because he is at the children home has a future to look forward to......

DAY 1 ........ Lands End to Bude 105 Miles

6.30am Richard and I were both up and itching to get away, but there was no way Graham was letting us leave before we had porridge Cornish style with clotted cream and strawberries. Crickey i'm going to have to go on a diet when i get back.




Speedy, Me and Graham before we left this morning


Just after 8 ish we left St Just and made our way through some beautiful Cornish Villages, i've never been to Cornwall before and i have to say i'm most impressed, so its definitely on my places to come back to list.

We arranged with the support team (dad) to meet in Stithians for our first stop which we both managed to navigate to although it took me a while to get used to cycling the Cornish Lanes ...10ft hedges either side and only wide enough for one car. I did start to worry about dad and what he would do if he met any oncoming traffic, after all he's only just mastered driving the van forward never mind reversing it ;-)   Psychologically the lanes were quite weird to cope with ....its like being in a maze, you cant see anything left or right or even that far ahead so you never feel like you're getting anywhere, it was nice to experience but not a way i would like to spend too many cycle rides. Next we arranged a rendezvous for lunch....but it didn't really work ...Dad was in St Austell and we were nearly in Newquay, lets just call it teething problems.

We eventually met up with dad he was full of  stories of this person he'd met and that person he'd met and he'd been to get his hair cut and he went for a wee shop and and and and and and  .....i'm thinking i'm going to change the name of the blog to Big Al's UK road trip.... he's seem to be having far more fun than us cyclist !!

Anyway, after lunch we decided to join the A road to Bude and try and make up some time after a slowish hilly morning, and that we did, even if there was the odd vehicle slowing us down...

Regardless  it was much easier cycling than being in the lanes and not even that busy. We arrived at Bude another lovely Cornish town and were meet with by yet more amazing hosts Howard and Coral and their two lovely daughters.

Highlight of the day ...probably just getting to see so many pretty villages, low point ...losing my cadence sensor. Ii know i shouldn't grumble but i'm such a stat geek and i'm a bit gutted i wont be able to record all my totals for the journey. Anyway the two things it is recording are mileage and time which i guess are most important...so on that note

Mileage today  cyclists 105 v support 117

1-0 to the cyclist..........


All in all a good first day, beautiful sunshine but not too hot, lovely scenery and great hosts. I'm ready for day 2, a new ride and a new challenge.... next stop Cheddar ...bring it on ....