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Day 1 – Land’s End to Altarnun
Weather – Steady drizzle and Gale force winds
Dr Pepper – Sparse: Too many shops not stocking our favourite beverage.
Terrain – Long hard hills.
Campsite – Recommended: Traveller's rest campsite Nathania, Altarnun, Launceston, Cornwall PL157SL. Fairly basic but cheap.
We knew today was going to be a long one because it is supposedly one of the most hilly and also our pre-booked campsite was further along the way than our average distance. To make sure we got going as soon as possible we got up at 6.30 and made it out of the campsite all packed up at 8am. At least the directions were pretty simple, left onto the A30 and straight on till morning. Unfortunately I don’t have any mileage or speed figures because by this time we didn’t have either of our speedometers working (my magnet fell off and Lister forgot to pack his computer bit) or a compass that worked. We thought the compass might have come in handy but we found out this morning that it was pointing almost exactly 180 degrees off course which had confused us at Penzance yesterday.
Yesterday the hills were short and sharp but today there were less steep but huge endless daddy-eating hills which seemed to go on forever. The photo (above) fails spectacularly to show just how big the hill was that we were looking at when I took it. Strangely it never seemed like we were going downhill. Rich was having trouble with his knee, a situation not helped by him not having any low gears on his bike, well they worked when we left home… and yes that green dot in the distance is Martin, using his stupidly low gears to best advantage. Fortunately (for us) in a couple of days he lost his bottom cog so that slowed him down a bit, but credit to him after having difficulty on the practise run he never struggled on the real thing and was never behind at all throughout the trip.
In the morning we were making good progress and getting 20mph average according to the handy roadside markings but by 4.30 when we arrived at our campsite we were crawling up the hills. All day we had had the wind behind us which was a big advantage except when we turned and it went across and we had to hang on for dear life. At nearly lunchtime we stopped at a service station for lunch and found a bench outside because we were so hot. Lister and I sat on one side, Martin sat down on the other and promptly broke the seat. I think it was rotten because there was another one broken nearby but that didn’t stop us laughing for 10 minutes. Here is the aftermath of Martin’s vicious attack:
We hastily moved on up the A30, which kept turning from single carriageway to double seemingly at random, until we turned off into Bodmin. There was no problem with traffic, they seem to have a different idea of what an A-road is like down here. In Bodmin (an attractive place on an enormous hill of course) we visited the bank and looked for a shop to buy dinner. We passed a couple of places but thinking a place this big must have a supermarket we carried on. Sure enough we passed some Somerfields bags and followed them for a bit. We looked like getting out of town so Martin asked directions, and was told carry on up the road. Another big hill later and it turned out not only had the Somerfields we were directed to failed to materialise but we had taken the wrong road out of Bodmin and had to take a detour to get back on the A30. Not wishing to descend the hill again we carried on and hoped there would be a shop in Altarnun, our destination on the other side of Bodmin moor. There were some spectacular views over the moor, none of which came out well on the camera, before we pulled off into Altarnun at about 5pm.
This was a beautiful small place with cottages and rivers and scenic hills everywhere. Our campsite was right up behind the church up a huge hill on a single track road. Once we got there we met a friendly elderly gentleman who showed us around, which didn’t take long. The campsite consisted of a field, a toilet and a basin only, but we weren’t complaining especially after we were charged just £3 for the night. Lister volunteered to put the tent up and Martin and I walked down to the village to try to buy some food. This is the view from the campsite:
Not surprisingly on a Sunday everything was shut so the only option was to go to the pub, which was not in the village but in nearby Fivelanes, which we had passed on the way in. Again we walked up the hill, which was a struggle itself, and collected Rich. By this time it was 7.30 and when we got to the pub they had stopped serving food at 7pm. With hindsight we should have stopped there and had some crisps and nuts, but we foolishly decided to try the next village, and the next, and the next until we had walked about 4 miles. We headed to the A30 and fortunately bumped into a service station, complete with expensive junk food and possibly the most miserable man at the counter I have ever seen. Having walked about eight miles in total we finally got back to our still windy campsite and had a good night’s sleep during which we rolled downhill and woke up on top of each other in the morning.
This is our field and as we left in the morning we met two more elderly gentlemen different from the last one who wished us well on our journey. Overall the campsite is highly recommended as it was friendly and the cheapest night of our trip.