Saturday 8th April: Ow

Dgym

We went through some lovely places today, especially Kimbridge which had some nice watery bits including two rivers. The roads were straighter, longer and all in all less tricky so we actually got somewhere today, all 80 miles to Sturminster. Salisbury was a little unpleasant, we had to go right into the the center to cross the river there. Coming out involved a large hill, a narrowish road and plenty of traffic, but once we got off that one things soon picked up again. I got the first puncture of the holiday, not a big problem as I carry spare inner tubes for road side fixes and a repair kit to use when more convenient. After that we went into Shaftsbury, which is on a famously (featured in a Hovis advert) big hill. Thankfully our route was a steady shallow climb and we were still in good shape at the top. Comming down was hard work on the brakes for the first bit, but then the road opens up and it is a lot of fun, weeeeeeeeee.

It was great to arrive in Stur, a hot bath and a good dinner soon sorted us out, and we were ready to fall asleep early again.


Hel

We left the B&B at about 8:30am and reached Sturminster at about 7:15pm, absolutely exhausted after 80 miles of pedalling.

I definitely underestimated how much the extra weight would slow me down, but have now managed to lose about 4lb in the new magic "lose loads of weight by ditching all the stuff you don't need out of your panniers" diet. Items removed included a pot of porridge oats, a lump of Wensleydale (we had to empty the fridge before we left, and I hate throwing stuff away), an inflatable pillow and Nicholas Crane's classic "Cycling around Europe". Which does contain lots of vital info like the best way to carry a baguette on a bicycle (well, there is none, just get them to cut it in half) - but ultimately not useful enough.

The tent turned out to be pretty light and compact, a little short for dgym but it'll do - and he was happy enough to add it to his headrest arrangement.