I am an individual!

More rain. Lots and lots of rain. Leaving the flat swamp lands I could see the drainage ditches filled to within a few centimetres of the level of the road. I suspect the rain today will have covered them. Scary is that once the road is covered in water, even if it is just a centimeter deep, you can’t tell where the road edges are. So you can happily cycle into the ditch on the side.

Up in the hills, the situation wasn’t much better. Crossing things like this takes a bit of faith as you dont know what is under the water, and while clipped in, falling sideways will be disaster. FYI, it was deeper than my pedals.

Trying to avoid the puddles gets pointless after a while once your clothes are saturated with water.

And the roads turn into streams.

Today I was trying to find some more old railway lines.

They did minimal changes to the lines. Here you can see an old station. In other places they didn’t even dig up the stone railway sleepers, just chucking more rocks on top.

Riding along the rain line, the route takes me up to this bridge.

The road on top is so flooded…

people started to taking their canal boats along them.

I am promised no rain tomorrow, but I am getting a bit of a cold, and riding in waterlogged clothes soaked to the bone didn’t help. Tomorrow I will do Salisbury to somewhere past Southampton.

This years plan is to get to Southampton from Plymouth. First step was to get to Plymouth and with all Kings Cross trains cancelled I managed to get to there at 11:30PM.

Onto day 1.

Leaving Plymouth takes you through a nice park which is really is mountain biking route, but the winter tires did their job.

The paths next to the stream are nice as because it has been raining a lot, the streams are lively and there are plenty of waterfalls.

The water was far away at this point, this was nice. Later the lively water was annoying as it was over the roads.

The trail tries to use as much of the old train line as possible. Here is where the remaining track ends and the cycling trail takes over.

To get on some, you have to ride through them before riding up to the start. This is nice because you can see them from both angles.

The route has many many viaducts to go over the vallies

There was a lot of moisture steaming off things like benches.

Entire fields were steaming. It was quire impressive.

And of cause tunnels. If you ride through tunnels, you will get wet as the ceiling dribbles over all who dare to pass through.

Then came Dartmoor which was beautiful, but it has hills. Dear god, so many hills. 20% gradients. Sharp corners on descents.

Now, this is a road. Not some dodgy unmapped road. It is a real road on both Google maps and open cycle maps. Both suggested this route. But OK, I can still use the foot bridge.

But 200m further you come across this. No, There is no way you can ride through that. I did manage to find a foot bridge that got me to a footpath. Generally the roads were crazy. Covered with mud, rotting tree branches and streams flowing down them on gradients.

Finally got to Exeter with the rather scary cycle routes right next to the river..

Exeter seems to be obsessed with guns.

But more annoyingly, they really like cobble stones on roads with 15% gradients.

The day started pretty icy. Leaving at 7:30, way before the sun rose, I managed to get quite a way out of Newcastle. It is good to start in the city in the morning as you have street lights to help you. I was hoping the ice would clear up as it took a lot of concentration to not die and stuff. The wind was horribly northerly and icy. Was getting very cold around by 10am, and then the sleet started. I was aiming to get to sea houses by 12 and infact I got there early as, even though I really wanted a tea, I couldn’t really stand in the rain drinking one.

Went to a great friendly pub called the old ship. Then back on the road. I decided to go on the A1 for a sectin as I was keen to get there before more downpours. Had slight drzzle on the way but then just before I got into Berwick there was a trumendous shower of hail and rain. I was just 20 minutes from my destination, but I found a little pub on to shelter in before it stopped and I could finish the trip. By this point, I was completely soaked. Wearing two pairs of socks did not do much good for the cold as I just has more water on my feet then. I could’t even leave the hostel easily as my shoes were soaked. Luckily Berwick hostel was pretty much empty, served nice food and had washing machines.

The day started well with a nice tail wind. Was very easy to mentain 35kmph right to scarborough. The weather was just as reported with westerly winds but a constant low hanging sun keeping me warm. Thenthe clouds came out just as I got to the beach, so I got inside a pub for a fish lunchen. When I got out it was’t much better with a couple rain drops hitting me. The trip to the bay goes along tops of hills with steep winding slopes to tacle. Up here it started to snow sideways. Not nice. Got to my destination very cold. Took 5 minutes to be able to unclip my helmet.

A much less stressful day today. Got a taxi to Boston to get some more inner tubes. Then the day started with a nice ride by the riverside towards Lincoln. The original plan was to take a look at the cathedral but after yesterday I was keen to get to my destination before it got dark. So I turned north just before Lincoln and headed to Market Rasen. A bit of lunch and then it was time for some hills. The climb was pretty steep but it all levelled out at just over 100 meters. Got to Barnetby by 3pm and even then it was starting to get dark. I demand more sunlight hours. Tomorrow York directly againsr a 20mph head wind.