When they were up, they were up and when they were down, they were down

And when they were only half way up their legs were protesting violently!

First fact of the day - Devon is hilly

Second fact of the day - riding east to west across the grain of the country will maximise your ascent

Third fact of the day - closed roads can usually (9 times out of 10) be safely negotiated on a bike.

We started the day on a rather bizarre note (even by our standards) when we discovered what appeared to be a punctured silicone breast implant on the bedroom floor (???). Since it didn't belong to either of us we eventually realised that it was part of the gel pad from the Mechanic's padded cycling shorts - the glue on the pad had failed and it was shedding filling. Thankfully it can't be sewn back in so I am off the hook. We replaced it carefully, but it could make for interesting times in he launderette.

As previously hinted, today was a lot hillier than yesterday. We did 60 miles from Taunton to Merton, which is somewhere north of Okehampton, with more hills than we had bargained for - every year we forget how much difference it makes when you hang 24lbs of kit on the back rack. 5 miles from Merton we were faced with a road closed sign and a potential diversion of around 15 miles. We debated what to do, as we could see from the map that it was steep downhill to a river crossing and if the problem was a missing bridge ( which has happened twice before) we reckoned we would have to push the bikes back up before tackling the diversion.  In the end we decided to risk it and managed to sneak through as it was Sunday and the men and equipment weren't in place.

Met the cyclist below in Bampton - her shirt pronounced that she was from the Axminster 'Puff and Pant' cycle club, but she seemed remarkably laid back when I chatted to her, although not overly communicative