Day Three – Taunton to Corsham

Today’s Weather Gods: slightly annoyed (bright spells and intermittent rain).

Today’s Bottom State: slightly numb.

The drowned rats from yesterday emerged from their holes this morning after yesterday’s drawn out and wet ride, although how ready we were for the day is open to debate: I must admit, when I looked in the mirror first thing and saw this tired and drawn face staring back at me I did wonder why the medical profession bang on about the merits of exercise.  Today’s leg: Taunton via Glastonbury to Corsham, a bite to eat at Paul and Sarah’s and a night in our own beds.

I had ended up staying with Tony and Louise last night, which under normal circumstances leads to a hangover and that recurring ‘note to self’: ‘never again’. But last night I did not have enough energy to lift the wine glass so sore legs and tiredness were my only ailments, and indeed the same applied to John and Paul when we collected them from Street. Geri then kindly dropped us off at 7.30 at Taunton Rail Station from where she had collected us the night before and after a cardboard cup of First Great Western’s finest coffee, and repairing a puncture that had appeared overnight on John’s bike, we headed off towards Glastonbury. 

The Somerset Flats are rightly named: we made an average of 14mph at the start of the day compared with the paltry 5mph going up, up and up onto Dartmoor yesterday and the weather was dry, which was cheering. We stopped off at a great little burger van in a lay by on the A361. Stuart, the very friendly owner of ‘Food 2 Go’ (we said we would give him a plug on the web) had only been there a few weeks so was quite pleased to see three very hungry cyclists turn up for breakfast. Fortunately we had already ordered before he told John about his super-whopper-mega-fat boy burger otherwise we might still be there waiting for him to finish it.

Breakfast!

We made Shepton Mallet in good time before the Fates and Gods started having their wicked way with us once again. Firstly John had another puncture, which took us down to one spare inner tube.  Then, no more than a couple of miles down the road, I had one so down to none. It then bucketed down throughout the last 20 miles to Corsham and I can only think that it was on one such afternoon in the 80s that Marti Pelow had the thought: ‘Wow! I have a brilliant idea for the name of my band.’

Roadside Repairs

The foul weather of the last couple of days has made me start wondering about the sort of clothing provided for cyclists. It seems none of the clothing can be washed in a washing machine, or with regular washing powder, or tumble dried.  So on a very wet and horrible day you turn up to a cold and draughty hostel in your dirty and wet cycle clothing to look longingly at the washing machine you cannot use to wash them and the tumble drier you cannot use to dry them. Inclement weather clothing that is not easy to clean and dry: I can only assume it was designed by either women who have never gone on long and wet bike rides or by men who have no idea at all about clothes washing. I am sure we will all have our own views on which one it might be.

Despite the weather we were buoyed up by being on ‘home ground’ and arrived at Corsham in our own homes for hot showers, washing and bike repairs followed by a hearty dinner at Paul and Sarah’s. Many thanks to Jackie and Sarah for laying on such a great spread to see us off on the next leg of our trip.  In the last three days we have travelled through Cornwall, Devon and Somerset; one county each day. Tomorrow we head off to Kidderminster and until now we have cycled in areas that are familiar to us from previous shorter trips.  Heading north from Corsham will, I believe, be the wake-up call to the fact that we are now heading all the way to the top of Scotland.

An early start this morning to drop the boys back off at Taunton station and then I jumped on the motorway to head for home and take advantage of my own shower and washing machine. That would have been okay except for the hour sitting on the M5 due to an earlier accident. However we eventually reached home and Clover thought she was in heaven! She bounded around the house and garden seeing all her familiar toys and playthings. That only lasted an hour before we were back on the road again to have lunch with my friend Helen and her daughter Mila to introduce them to Clover. It was a lovely respite of normality and then a quick drive over to Corsham to finish the washing and prepare for the journey north. Paul and John’s wives then produced a lovely spread (it was intended to be a BBQ but the persistent rain prevented that!) and we all enjoyed a nice relaxing evening. Then early(ish) to bed ready to get on the road again in the morning. All in all, a quite nice, easy going day. 

Geri and Clover (clean and well fed!)