Day 3 - Moreton Hampstead to Glastonbury 70 miles

Once again the day started with hills, I would prefer a warm up first, but short of cycling round the postbox a few times that wasn’t going to happen.  However, after a mile and a half of up I was  rewarded with a fantastic down just to get my adrenaline going. We then navigated through Exeter which also kept the adrenaline going as it was pretty busy!

The morning continued with ups and downs, and ups and downs…and then eased off slightly before lunch, however as the road eased out, the rain started falling and before long we were absolutely soaked to the skin. Me, Rachel, Sue and Sharon were cycling together and making good time. We cycled through some lovely villages...think thatched cottages.

Just before lunch, at the side of the road we spotted a big cardboard sight welcoming Chicken to their village, with a donation in a plastic wallet...no idea how they knew he was going to be riding through their village but it was brilliant!  Lunch was at a pub called The Drewe Arms, Honiton and was the friendliest place ever, especially as we were dripping litres of rainwater over their beautiful wooden flooring.  And the chili...amazing, thank you it was very much needed!

We set off again for the afternoon, having put back on soggy gloves, jackets etc to head for Street near Glastonbury.  We had a ridiculous climb after lunch which was steep and long, the chili wasn't so welcome at that point. However, after that we reached a lovely flat plateau for some easy miles...and the jackets came off as the rain had stopped.

With about 10 miles to go, my right knee started really hurting on any climbs and I fell back from the group a bit, however I made it to the Youth Hostel, glad to be at the end of the ride.

The Youth Hostel was interesting and without a bar so we phoned Graham in the support van begging him to stop at an off license for beer and wine.  Graham is so obliging and the Youth Hostel crowd love him very much for tending to the alcohol needs!!

Chicken's welcome sign

Roadkill by size – 1 x deer, 2 x badgers, 2 x hedgehogs, 1 x bit of carpet, 2 x squirrels and 1 x bird.

Roadkill by putridness – 1 x badger

Punctures – none

Mechanicals – One broken spoke for Ron

Weather – rain, not rain, rain, not rain…

Chicken feathers – what chicken?