A weekend in Somerset for the 3 Amigos

Last weekend the three Amigos decided it was time to test ourselves with 3 days cycling in a row in the west country, so we arranged to stay with John Mc Donald and his lovely wife Gill who turned out to be a fabulous hostess attending to all our needs, she didn't sit down all weekend. It was like staying at a really good B&B.


This Mare and foal are also staying at the top B&B.


We were stuck in some bad traffic on the way down on Friday so our first ride was rather short 16 miles, but goodness me there are some killer hills round here not least of which is the first half a mile to go up out of Johns driveway. After that it was down hill for a while and then a continuous uphill stretch for 3 miles. The rest of the ride was shorter ups and downs, and all in glorious scenery.








Day 2 again of course starts on the very steep 1/2 mile out of the driveway a long stretch down hill and then a killer, or so we thought, we were glad to get to the top where Sally had her seat adjusted by John, only to turn the corner and see this.





Not only did it start off very steep, but it continued for another 2 miles or so. John kept saying Tim looked like a policeman on his bike, and looking at this picture I can see why, all dressed in black with pockets full of kit, he had just climbed a very steep hill in this picture though.


















It was always worth the climb as you get scenes like this at the top.



For lunch we stopped at a lovely pub by the river Exe and the chip score on this occasion was 4 saddles.


The afternoon proved to be much harder than the morning, but the scenery was fabulous. I was defeated by a hill on Exmoor near the end of the ride, this is the first time I have walked the bike up a hill for months and it rather upset me, so John said we will do a shorter ride tomorrow and you and I will cycle down it and up again .











So here we are at the top of said hill, having a rest while Tim sucks in his stomach claiming to have a six pack and I show off the fact that my legs are still white as the driven snow even after weeks of exposure to the sun.






Day 2 was 44 very hard miles after which we had earned a glass of wine while one of Gill and Johns dogs, called Henry cuddled up to his teddy bear on the setee.


Day 3 was to be 24 miles, bsically back to the hill where I failed in some rather wet drizzle, then to the pub and back again.





You can see here in the picture of John how much quicker he is up the hills, I am the tiny speck in the distance behind him, and the other picture is me looking very happy at having made it without dismounting this time.





We met some carriage drivers on top of the moors who had met at the pub for a drive around the hills.
When we reached the pub just as it opened we were told they were fully booked and that we could not eat there, the next pub was 4 miles away in the wrong direction. We must have looked very fed up and disappointed because the Landlord went off to talk to the Chef who kindly agreed to let us squeeze in, so in the end we had a lovely roast beef lunch, much needed after all that rain.




A massive thank you to Gill and John for their hospitality, and I must say that John put us all to shame with his speeding up the hills. He thought he was unfit until he met us. Our average speed over the weekend was about 8mph shameful, I know its hilly but John apparently averages 12mph around there. We have just 5 weeks to go, will we be fit enough? John will.