Lewdown to Okehampton
Very steep climb out of Lewdown past lots of sheep. It began to rain and we dawned our rain gear and once again tested its effectiveness. We stopped at Lidford to see their carved bench ends of people like Dr. Livingston. The castle in Lidford looked more like a fort than a church and at this point the rain began in earnest.
We then took a rail trail over a tressal where we stopped to enjoy the views and spoke to other bikers and hikers who were also enjoying the lovely trail.
We rode on through rolling hills full of sheep in the pouring rain. The bike trail was wonderful paved for the most part with some sections in gravel. We rode through forest and farmland until we arrived in Okehampton where we discovered Wetherspoons a fantastic chain of hotels. They purchase old buildings, or pubs and turn them into lovely rooms with a good pub below. This particular Wetherspoons had bike lockers in the back parking lot where we could safely store the bikes.
Rainy Day
Very rainy day.
Good news, we got to try our all our raingear today. The waterproof gloves worked surprisingly well. Grace’s gators kept her shoes mostly dry. The neoprene covers I had were gave some water protection but when it started to pour water did get into the shoes.
We kept today short intentionally, to catch up on sleep, photos, notes, gopro videos, camera settings, iphone issues, etc.
Started with a fairly big climb up a hill and then down into Lydford. Spent a great deal of time at the castle and church, then road our bikes over to the gorge. Turns out you can’t take bikes on the trail, and everything was a bit slippery so they advised against us going with our shoes. It was a rather steep climb coming out of the gorge, I apologize profusely to Grace, she must really love me because she just smiled and said “We soldier on”. (I think the British sense of duty is strong with her).
The ride from Lydford to Okehampton was fantastic. We saw about 20 other people out adventuring in the rain along the dozen miles, and stopped on the ????MENLONALN??? NAME??? Bridge to have snacks and chat with four other cyclists. Although it rained most of the day, Grace was loving every minute of it. I enjoyed the scenery and the churches we passed. The Granite Way path was a former train route, and the sign posts where stops used to be are still present along the way. Highly recommend this route for anyone passing near here.
