Day 54- Newquay to Truro
Proposed distance 23.98km or 14.9miles (or the length of 95,920 hedgehogs)
Total Ascent 428m (or the equivalent of the 87.88 times the height of the spring tide in Truro today)
Staying with 18th Truro St George’s Sea Scout Group
With an improving weather forecast and a short ride planned we didn’t rush to leave the 1st Newquay (though we still managed to leave by 11 so pretty normal for us!). We left in warm grey cloud and headed down a lovely hill only to be seriously tested by a big ascent out of the town!
Stopping to remove layers (in summer!), we pushed on through some fairly busy traffic until we reached smaller lanes that wound towards our first stop for the day. The mizzle quickly progressed to rain but the steep hills meant we kept warm despite the conditions!
We arrived in St Newlyn East slightly ahead of our 12pm ETA to meet up with Rachel who runs the local shop, and James, her son, who is a Beaver with 1st Newquay Scout Group. They ensured we were refreshed and well fed with very tasty pasties and hot coffee. We chatted before reluctantly getting back on our bikes for the push on to Truro.
More steep hills were in our way, but the months we’ve been travelling have made us stronger and we dispatched with the 12% gradients with ease without getting off (mainly)! The final 10km was ‘generally down hill’, with the exception of the scattered sharp climbs. We also met a fun road diversion and relatively heavy traffic due to this.
We made it into Truro and headed to the 18th Truro St George’s Sea Scout HQ, arriving ahead of schedule. We stopped for a drink and ice cream at the cafe next door to celebrate being another day closer to the finish. Whilst we were waiting for the day hire of the hall to finish we decided to chance our luck and head to the BBC Radio Cornwall studio we passed on the way in to see if they would help share news of our adventure. Happily they said yes and we had a quick impromptu interview which will hopefully to be aired on Sunday! Stardom sorted we headed back and met the team at the 18th who treated us to hedgehogs- a Cornish delicacy of (yet more) ice cream with frozen clotted cream on top dipped in nuts and decorated with chocolate buttons and sweets- very yummy!
We settled in and started cooking tea whilst the kids headed out to the amazing local park. An evening of blogging, games and chatting followed. Only 3 more days to go!
The ‘amazing’ playground by the 18th Truro
