Bike Route: Truro to Penzance 32mi 2200ft of climb
Accommodation: Lovely 1-Bedroom Apartment (Airbnb); hosts Phil and Chris. Spacious lounge with smart TV. Free wifi. Separate bedroom, king-size bed, en-suite walk-in shower room with handbasin/toilet. Completely separate fully equipped kitchen, with fridge, microwave, full size cooker, utensils, crockery and cutlery, oven, kettle and toaster Tassimo machine (please bring your own pods). no washer; laundromats in town
Geoff and Ali provided a plate of fresh fruit, milk, coffee and tea, cereals, juice, and yogurt--everything we could have wanted for breakfast. It had rained all night, was expected to clear a little from 10:00 to 14:00, and was going to pour and thunder and blow from 14:00 to 21:00. We put on rain gear, packed up, and gingerly walked the bikes down the long, wet, slippery slate sidewalk to the street. Geoff and Ali waved us off, and we were on our way.Dinner: Seaview Fish & Chips. Neighborhood take-out place just a few blocks away. Good.
The rain ended after about a half hour and it warmed up a bit, but it continued to mist and sprinkle. Our route took us mostly through farm fields, including a few sections on gravel and dirt roads. It was nice to be completely off highways for a while.
By noon it was raining hard, the wind was blowing, we were wet and cold, and we were hungry. It was a Monday and a Bank Holiday, and we had been cycling through tiny villages and hamlets with no services. We finally reached the market town of Camborne and saw a little cafe that was open. We chained our bikes up in front of the window and sat at a table just inside, ordered bowls of potato and leek soup with bread, coffee, and tea, and warmed up nicely.
By the time we left the cafe, it was really, really raining. Undaunted, we fired up the navigation tools and the bike lights, zipped up the raincoats, and pushed off. Happily, we had done most of the climbing in the morning, and the afternoon went a little more quickly with more downhill. Unhappily, the day's route had not loaded on Ken's Wahoo, my Wahoo was continuing to crash and not show complete information, and the constant rain meant we had to keep our phones tucked in our waterproof bags--so navigation was a bit of a challenge. Despite all that, we actually made it to Penzance and found our apartment on time. A few blocks before we got there, we passed a fish-and-chips takeaway that was open, and we also passed a laundromat. What more could we ask for?
Chris and Phil met us at the door, helped us store our bikes in the hallway, and showed us around our home for the next three nights. A spacious, comfortable apartment on the ground floor, with everything we could want. We dropped our bags and headed right back out to the fish-and-chips place, and brought back dinner.
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| With glitchy navigation tools, we relied more on physical route markers, which were sometimes hard to spot. |
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| The countryside was just like a painting in the mist. |
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| We called the scenery atmospheric: dark gray stone buildings and fences, lush green hedges, and splashes of color from spring blooms. |
