dst. (km) Today 67.02 Trip total ?? Odometer 804.0
A grey day, a grey mood, a cold south-easterly head wind and about 10 km extra due to my inability to read road signs. Somewhere along the way I detoured off the A370 and ended up at Underwood, then had to retrace my steps as I was determined to not ride on the A38.
Felt rotten all morning, that the riding was just a chore to be finished. The A379 to Brixton, detour to Underwood and back, then A379 to A3121 to Ugborogough, turning off onto laneways to Totnes, then the A385 to Paignton, and around the bay to Torquay.
One bizarre event was stopping at a petrol station on the A379 for a mars bar and a drink. I could swear that I went through the same conversation with the same lady as I did three years ago when I rode through here.
I managed to get to the hostel in Torquay at around , just ahead of the rain, then sat around drinking coffee and chatting with the other residents and restoring my good humour.
Later on, around , went out to a nearby pub that had a PC with free internet access for as long as you had a beer nearby. I managed to somehow dispose of the more than 7000 emails that had banked up in my in-box! Some well-meaning person back at Monash has put in a vacation message for me and thus stuffed up half my mailing list subscriptions and automatic mailings. I did manage to send a second message to Jo, as well as catch up with Andy at Wide Open Road, and turn off all the cron messages from Monash, so it wasn’t a waste of time.
Spent most of the rest of the afternoon unwinding from too many days riding with too few breaks. Had a few pints, then a dinner and back to the hostel, before going back out to the pub with everyone from the hostel. It was good to be out with people for a change. The local surf band were nothing special, too loud for the venue, but full of enthusiasm. A fine cover of the Buzzcocks’ “Ever Fallen in Love” seemed to suit the singers voice perfectly.
Off to a club afterwards, but I was starting to fade at this point, a glass of water and all I wanted was to go to sleep, so I left — then managed to get lost on the way home and covered twice as much of Torquay as was necessary.
Where?
Plymouth(50.4,-4.1166667) Brixton, Underwood, Ugborogough, Totnes, Paignton, Torquay(50.45,-3.5)
