Day four started with a short sharp shower of rain as I left Bude to head towards Barnstaple. The route initially felt like more of the same with one narrow country lane with high hedgerows seeming much like another with the familiar short, sharp, steep climbs followed by precipitous descents where you had to hang on to the brakes in case the local maniac was speeding around the corner towards you. Quite early in the day, I left Cornwall behind finally and moved into Devon.

 

I knew things weren’t going well when I had a disagreement with my bike at a gate that I was trying to open when the bike decided to fall over. I regretted the harsh words that I spoke to it immediately, realising that we still had to be friends for quite a bit further. I had a conversation with a delivery driver in the village of Cookbury. He thought that I might be able to give him directions; when I asked him if he knew where I might get a cup of tea, his reply was – “you are in the middle of nowhere, mate”

 

It looked like there was going to be no opportunity for that cup of tea or anything else until I reached Barnstaple. The next place on route went by the name of Sheepwash, which the guide book had very little to say about and didn’t have any little cup of tea symbols but in reality turned out to be very quaint with thatched roof houses and more importantly, a great little pub called The Half Moon where I had a drink and some lovely leek and potato soup.

 

Cornwall and Devon has a labyrinth of roads and lanes and Sustrans has done a great job of plotting a route that uses the best of these and if you enjoy being on a bike then it is a great place to be but a feeling of sameness was starting to prevail until I got to the Tarka Trail just after Sheepwash. This made the route a game of two halves when the route suddenly became a flat, former railway line that you could bowl along at a sensible speed with no danger of being flattened by white van man. The Tarka Trail covers around 180 miles on the disused North Devon railway line and visits places that were associated with the fictional character, Tarka the otter.

 

Bideford was an interesting spot on the way to Barnstaple with little boats bobbing on the water between sand banks with brightly coloured houses lining the shores.

 

Day four covered 50 miles and took about 5 hours with another 2,200 feet of climbing. I managed to get my average back up to 10mph thanks to the super fast Tarka Trail.