Eventually we were all up and ready to collect the bikes from Wadebridge at 10:15, the plan was to cycle from there to Padstow and back again, a round trip of about 12 miles. The weather was sunny with fluffy clouds being blown along by a stiff wind, it seemed cooler than the past couple of days.
Once we were all fitted out with bikes we headed off down the Camel Trail, the dog strapped tightly in a trailer and Helen’s mum being towed on a two wheel tandem conversion by T. It was a gentle flat ride to Padstow with several stops to adjust the dog, then for a coffee stop where a guy tows his coffee making equipment to the half way point, including all the water needed for a day making hot drinks.
We parked up the bikes at a secure bike park (50p per bike/trailer) then headed into Padstow town. It was Sergio Ramos, the car parks all had “car park full signs up”, god knows what it is like at the height of the holiday season? We headed through the town, and out to the war memorial just up the estuary. We passed the flat helen and I stayed at (next to the public loo’s above an art gallery) some years ago.
We sat for a while on the benches over looking the Camel estuary, while the dog was worn out by throwing a ball down the hill. On the other side of the estuary is Rock where all hooray henri’s spend there summer holidays, and money in the shops and rental prices for the lovely looking riverside properties. Next stop was the pastie shop.
We purchased our pasties from the Cough Bakery www.thecoughbakery.co.uk which had featured on one of those TV programs where they take a troubled business and turn it around. You can’t fault the location, it bang on over looking the harbour an a junction which affords it longer than usual frontage. If I remember correctly it was a family run business but they could not all agree who should do what, and the mother would not let the kids do anything different from they way it had always been run. They certainly have customers now we had to queue to buy our lunch.
Suitably refreshed we went to recover the bikes from the secure storage shed and were soon back on the road. The wind was behind us and we made really good headway, so decided to pass though and and past Wadebridge to add another hour to the days activities. However it involved passing through Wadebridge center and it busy public roads. We got through with only one minor mishap when one wheel of the the wide dog cart hit the curb and almost ejected the dog. Just when some of us had cycled far enough we came across a vineyard that sold wine by the glass on a terrace over looking the valley, unfortunately dogs were not allowed. The girls decided to cycle back to Wadebridge while T and I took the olds up the hill to the terrace where we enjoyed the Camel Valley Baccus and Atlantic Dry. The wine was good you can buy it here http://www.camelvalley.com
Next was a sprint back to Wadebridge to catch up with the other who were waiting for us at a bar near the cycle hire shop. We joined them for a swift half then headed back via Tesco for something to eat. They explained that at at around the vinyard point a couple of young guys had cycled past Helen’s dad then as they passed the girls one said to the other “That’s the coolest thing I have ever seen an old fella smoking a pipe on a bike!” . Later C cooked her famous Tomato risotto with veggie meatballs. We are up early tomorrow for a Sea Kayaking session at Polzeath Beach.