2nd day - Tavistock to Bridgwater

I've just read yesterday's blog (which I didn't manage to post until just before we left this morning, because I was so knackered last night) and realise that I really didn't do justice to how hard yesterday was. It was certainly pretty long at over 90 miles, but it was the unrelenting up and down nature of the day that was so hard. The downhills were cold, because they were fast (and it was a cold day), and the uphills were not only pretty long, but all of them were steep. We were lucky we stayed dry all day.

Not so lucky today, although from the forecast it could have been a great deal worse. We woke up to steady rain and very low cloud - couldn't really see very far out of the window. But by the time we were ready to go the rain had stopped and within an hour the sun had come out.

Tavistock Town hall

After a long climb out of Tavistock, we were then up on top of the moor and pretty much stayed up there for most of the morning. Lovely. Sunshine, the wind behind us and some nice flat(ish) roads.
We met Mary for the 2nd stop of the day at about 2.30 at a garden centre for coffee and cake but when we left the rain started and kept up pretty steadily for the next hour or so - not great.

We made good progress nonetheless and reached Bridgewater by about 4.30

(We may give up on doing these photo's soon!)

....and arrived at our B&B at about 5. Lovely pub this evening and good food and a reasonably early night. Day three is the day your legs compalin apparently, so we'll see how we feel in the morning. 

Tomorrow's route takes us through Bristol, under the Clifton Suspension Bridge and over the old Severn suspension bridge before stopping just short of Hereford.

 Oh, and just in case I haven't name-checked Mary enough yet, our driver's had a tiring day too. We all needed a cup of tea when we arrived!