Day 2 St Austell to Moretonhampstead and Day 3 Moretonhampstead to Taunton

Golly, I barely know where to start, what tone to adopt or what details to include! I will start with the bald statement that I have decided I cannot forgive Cornwall its hills. Cornwall is a b*****!
We set off from our hotel yesterday and almost immediately faced a 10% climb. I am not sure what the 10% stands for but it was flippin steep. Well pleased with ourselves we were and met by John at the top for a high five all round. If I had realised then that we would be earning high fives all day long without respite I may have just gone back down the hill and rested up another day or two! But luckily John decided to keep ahead of us with pasties and pointers to lunch. There isn't really much to say about the rest of the morning other than its a bit like childbirth......painful and you'd rather forget the details as soon as possible! And it got more so as the day wore on and we climbed up onto Dartmoor. Which is incredibly beautiful with pretty sheep, churlish ponies, cute foals and remarkable rock formations. All of which I would love to go back and re visit when I have the use of a car.
Trusty was an absolute star today. He kept us all motivated and moving.....mostly. I must confess to getting off just before one particular summit and pushing my bike up the last 150yrds or so. It was no easier but I was using a different set of muscles! And my team mates didn't hold it against me. By gum the moors go on a bit.
John drove ahead and rode back to join us about 10miles from where we were finishing. It was getting quite late by this stage and we were all pretty exhausted, tired and emotional. John took the decision to go and fetch the van and meet us in Moretonhampstead to ferry us up to the b n b (it involved a 2 mile climb). So he was a hero too. Cycling all those hills just to face a very grumpy me (and tired co-cyclists), then hurtling back to the b n b and meeting us in the town. It was gone 8pm by this time and a Sunday evening in a sleepy Devon town. Worried that we might not be fed we were rescued by none other than the local White Horse! So the bikes were secured in and on the van and we repaired to the pub for pizza and chat. But not for long as we were dead on our feet. We did a pretty illegal trip with five of us in the van up to the bnb. And were greeted by owls hooting madly which was lovely. Quick shower, no signal or energy to blog and sleep! We cycled 55miles today in 6hours 53minutes. What a day! Average speed 7.9mph. Did I mention that it was hilly?

This morning we had to go back to Moretonhampstead and face the climb back up to the bnb to say we had covered every mile by cycle. Trouble was it was pouring rain so we faffed about for a while or two. Finally we had to face the fact that it was set in for the day and so off we went. The climb wasn't too bad actually (even on sore quads) and the downhills quite treacherous due to the rain. But we made it. We had another climb or two before we made it to Exeter absolutely soaked through. The thing is, once you're wet, you're....well....wet! There is no getting wetter! So we amused a few locals in a pub and had a coffee outside in their shelter then made our way through the city. From here on in the journey was reasonable regarding hills but the rain didn't really let up at all. We met John again at a services for coffee and pastries then we hotfooted (wetfooted more like) the next 16miles to our bnb. We are in the middle of the Somerset countryside in a local hostelry for the night. Showered, warm at last and looking forward to a relaxing meal and an early night. Today we cycled for 4 and a half hours and covered 45.7 miles. Average speed about 10 or 11 I think.
If anyone hasn't checked out Beths blog, do! It'll give a different account of the same trip so you will get an all round picture of the days events. She is at http://www.le2jog.wordpress.com/