St Austell to Plymouth!

Thursday 28th January fresh W sunny AM, sunny intervals & light showers PM

A day of cycling to get beyond Plymouth ahead of me, I set off on the cycle – push route from St Austell to Plymouth. The morning is sunny and the sky cloudless. It is so warm that a painted lady butterfly flutters towards me across the road. I beg it to land and it almost does, on my bike but it heads off over a tall hedge.

Before Liskeard I see a group of eight ravens circling together and further along the road a flock of around twenty fieldfare fly over. Winter thrushes have been very thin on the ground.

Hill after hill, the road is a tough one with few opportunities for cycling any prolonged stretch. That changes at Liskeard where I go on the A38. The next ten miles whizz past.

The ride through Plymouth to get to the house of a great friend, Lee's Mum and Dad, Lynn and Alan, is up and down again and complicated. Luckily down one stretch of road I am alert as someone has taken the heavy metal grill of a drain hole and there is a deep chasm left in the road!

The evening is spent in the fine company of Lee and his girlfriend Kate as well as Lynn and Alan. A family meal up to a table is the first one I have had for years and much appreciated. A fabulous evening spent with lovely company.

43.36 miles 3838 feet elevation up 3830 feet elevation down