Day 1 - Penzance to Mary's Well

Did you know that peacocks wake up and start calling to each other 2 hours before dawn. 0330!! It was a miracle that I slept until 0530 but along with a couple of others I have up, packed up camp and headed out back to Penzance. Found a cafe doing breakfast and treated myself to a veggie breakfast and a cup of tea. Had a lovely chat with Pete as we shared the same table. He used to be in TV and we had some great conversation around the Falklands as his production team was the first to report on the dangers of the Exocet middle.

I left the cafe very motivated for the day ahead. Little did I know that today was going to be the brutal and hardest cycling I have done on a long time.

The ride around to Mousehole via Newlyn was a delight. St Michael's mount was clearly visible (unlike last time when driving rain obscured everything and made my last day a misery). The hill out of Mousehole was wicked and a portent of what was to come. Lumpy doesn't do it credit as it was uphill and downdale all the way to Lands End

Lands End was closed, well at least all the shops they had there. Set off for St Ives and it was a very hard ride indeed (which is an understatement) when you consider I am doing this with a Brompton carrying maybe 30kg of gear. Pushing my little bike up all the hills was exhausting and checking my Fitbit my pulse was pretty constant at 150! Google maps also had me going down some wierd routes which were not roads!!!

Had a break at St Ives, was so tired I just grabbed the first menu and ordered my food which turned out to be from the children's menu!! Actually the portion was good, no wonder there are so many fat teenagers!!

St Ives is lovely except the climb out is horrendous and takes forever. I tried to keep in the shade but the temperature was upmat 29 and it was scorching, thank goodness I had factor 50 otherwisw I would have been burnt to a crisp. 

I honestly don't know how I made it through the afternoon. Constantly stopping, drinking (btw Lands End wtf was in your water it's undrinkable) pushing my bike up endless hills and the amazing scenery

I have spent way too much time moaning about the hills and haven't mentioned the scenery.  The Atlantic to my left, sweeping vistas and the constant reminder of the Tin mining makes this part of the coast an amazing place. Add to that the villages and the history they represent really brings home to me what it is to be part of this land. I was born in Devon which is the next county I am entering, Cornwall is my mother's home, this whole area sings to me

The afternoon passed in a blur of me cursing the weather, the hills, the heat, the hills oh and the hills. Around Portreath I decided to call it quits (80 km with 1.1km of uphill). However the first campsite had no internet so I relocated to another which had amazing showers and a pub 10 mins walk away. So hear I am in a local pub listening to the locals having a jam session and chatting to the barmaid who has only left Cornwall to go to Cardiff

I love my life

Check out my activity on Strava: https://strava.app.link/EubuCuITLrb