With an earlier start than the previous two days, fuelled by a breakfast at the golden arches, we were on our way again. We were joined by Peter Norman (a school friend of Andy and Paul) for those wondering who the fourth bloke on the photos is.

We made the conscious decision, after the hills if the previous two days, to change our route and avoid exmoor to save our legs. We choose a route a little further south of Exmoor, which started pretty normal on the A39, and then got a whole lot better as soon as we turned off. There were some awesome views north of Exmoor as we rode and some great long down hill stretches which were the nicest of the trip so far.

We made good time today and arrived in about 4.20. Nice to have a bit more time in the evening and a bit more of a relax before our first long day tomorrow.

So lack of phone coverage and longer rides than anticipated have impacted the blog updates a little.

Day 2 was a bit of a mixed day. Some amazing scenery and a couple really nice stops in Tintagel, for a spot of afternoon tea, and then Bude for lunch.

The hills were immense – we climbed a total of 5,000ft, even though we ended up changing the route to try and avoid hills. The highlight of the hills, if you could call it that, was a 20% decent followed by about an 18% up hill. Need less to say we were all pushing by the top.

It would appear that avoiding the traffic on the A roads really does mean that you do all the hills in the county.

We arrived in to Barnstaple way behind schedule at about 6.30. A quick turn around and then into the town centre for dinner at the aptly named ‘The Panniers’ for steak to help with recovery.