D49 – Okehampton to Launceston
Actual distance 39.64Km or 24.63miles (or 243.2 lengths of Meldon Viaduct)
Total Ascent 647.87m (or 14.1 abseils off Meldon Viaduct)
Staying at Dartmoor’s Edge Campsite
What a busy day!
We started out and headed directly up to the station in Okehampton (a very, very steep hill) to meet up with Linda and some of the 1st Okehampton group who joined us along the Granite Way. The Granite Way was a lovely easy ride which took us over two viaducts through picturesque countryside. The Leaders and younger members from 1st Okehampton left us after a few kilometres to head back home, but Zeak (one of the Scouts) happily joined us all the way to the end of the Granite Way then turned around to go back home!
At the end of the Granite Way we met up with a Scouting family from 47th Coventry who are here on holiday. They had hoped to join us when we were in the Midlands, but sadly the dates didn’t work. It was lovely to welcome the Ots today instead! We headed off and instantly hit a fairly steep down, followed by some fairly massive climbs which was quite an introduction to our adventure!
The kids liked the idea of a little off road cycling, so we chose to turn on to a path leading through farm land (still on the national cycle route!). Unfortunately this may not have been the best of plans as we rapidly found some serious off-road with some very technical riding (especially for Phil on his slick tyres). Hattie came a cropper and fell into a stoney puddle causing some grazes and very wet, muddy clothes. Impressively she got up and kept on going despite this!
We continued onwards up another couple of hills until we found a bench where we stopped for lunch. We continued, with the promise to stop in the next pub for a drink and a rest! Following a fairly fun descent we stopped in the Lifton Hall Hotel. We were then fortified enough to push for Cornwall, our final county of the JOGLE!
As we approached Launceston we realised our planned finishing point and the point where our support car had be dropped were in slightly different locations, each on opposite sides of a very large hill! As we were running out of time to make it the car at Tescos (where there was a 3 hour free parking window), Phil was dispatched up the road (it was definitely very up) to try and make it in time whilst the rest of the group continued to the planned finish point.
Day successfully completed, we had ice lollies courtesy of the Ots then we said our goodbyes and headed back to Okehampton to collect the vehicles before driving to Dartmoor’s Edge campsite where Immy and Adam invited us in for a delicious meal, warmth and internet to write our blog!
