Woke up at around 5am creeping around packing my stuff/getting organised, managed to leave at 5.55 - it was a cloudy but warm start to the day. I was riding in the new clipless cycling shoes which for now at least felt ok. It was a relatively flat with just a few noticeable inclines to Land's End. Got there at about 6.45 and the place was deserted so I found the sign and had my breakfast pasty whilst waiting for someone to show up to take a photo with me and the bike next to the sign. Luckily before I'd finished my pasty a delivery driver drove up and kindly took a few photos. I set off shortly after 7, and on my way back towards Penzance found a wallet by the side of the road. It had a bank card and drivers license inside and on the drivers license had an address on. The address was en route so I decided to try and find the owner's house to return the wallet. I didn't manage to find the exact house but found a nice guy in the same village so gave it to him. The remaining first section of the day was nice - easy to navigate flat and relatively smooth roads. I stopped for a short while in Newquay, tried and failed to find an internet cafe that was open and had a small bit of cake before heading off. The next section of the day was worse - got my first puncture of the trip after less than 100 miles of cycling on brand new 'puncture proof' tyres (a small shard of glass had somehow found it's way into the side wall of the tyre which is not puncture resistant only the section of tyre that is in contact with the floor is puncture proof). Not a major setback though as was back on the road again about 20 minutes later. I had also not really eaten enough earlier and hadn't bought any snacks to have whilst riding so had to resort to my emergency energy chews to keep me going until lunch. At around 85 miles I found a petrol station and stopped for a big lunch and bought a large Lion chocolate bar to have whilst riding later. By this time my legs were exhausted (more so than I would have expected) so I decided to change the clipless cycling shoes for my good old tried and tested yellow running trainers. The improvement was massive - I'm not sure if it was because I wasn't used to the clipless shoes or whether the clipless shoes (an ebay purchase) were not suited to my style of cycling but the running trainers were so much nicer to ride in. A few hours later I'd realised i'd taken a wrong turning so had to adapt my route. This added some extra miles (not just miles but very hilly miles) to the day which concerned me as I was knackered and still had maybe 40 or 50 miles still to go. By about 6.30 I finally found somewhere selling snacks (a pub in an isolated village). The Landlady was very nice and after a few glasses of tapwater I had a few Mars Bars and a toffee cornetto (amazing). She and another guy in the Pub also talked me through the route remaining section of the day and I made some notes. I left at about 7 with maybe 2 hours to go (according to the guy in the pub). Thankfully the last section of the day was relatively flat and not too hard to navigate and I managed to make it to Wellington by 8.30. Then spent about 25 mins trying to find my B&B as there was no sign outside and no street names signs. After eventually finding it I put my bike down a locked side alley and went inside to my room. I had a quick shower and headed out straight away as was very hungry. By this time the only places serving food were a Kebab house, Chinese takeaway or an Indian restaurant. I opted for the Indian and had a massive curry. I walked the short distance back to the B&B and went to bed.
Reviews
B&B (Mantle Cottage, Wellington). 9/10. Friendly service, safe place to keep bike, very nice room, was served breakfast (jam on toast, cereal and strawberries and cream at 6am), reasonable value. Only downsides were poor water pressure on shower and hard to find as no sign outside.
Indian Restaurant - 8.5/10. Good service, nice atmosphere, massive portions, decent value.
Lessons Learned
Always give new shoes a good test ride before using them for a trip. Take more time when navigating to ensure you don't take a wrong turn. Don't waste ages looking for internet cafe's.
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