Day 10 was Okehampton to Land's End

Hello - we made it to Land's End on Tuesday after the cycling the furthest distance of the 10 day ride. We left Okehampton by about 7am as we were keen to get to Land's End before sunset. We had found the previous day that Okehampton was seriously hilly (the youth hostel was on top of a very steep hill!) so we decided to follow a disused railway line that had been converted to a cycle track to avoid some of the inclines. This was a good choice of route and quite scenic, passing over a large viaduct. After a while we had to leave the track to follow the route of the old A30, now bypassed by the dual carriageway trunk road. This was a good modern road with very little traffic and our progress was fast. At one point we passed over the top of a hill and the temperature dropped dramatically and it felt like we were riding in the winter! We made it to Launceston, just over the Cornwall boundary, to warm up with a tea and bakery breakfast by 9am. After a short break we continued west the A395 to eventually meet up with the A39 near Camelford. Temperatures were getting very hot now in the sun. The A roads were busy but not unbareably so and we made good time on these roads. Our aim for lunch was to get to Redruth, however after a while we decided this was too ambitious (it would have been 78 miles from Okehampton before lunch). We decided to stop in Goonhaven for some lunch at 2pm. Once stopped we could feel how hot it was with no cooling breeze, the temperature must have been in the high 20s. We set off for the final leg of our journey at 3pm, roughly following the route of the A30 using the secondary A roads and bypassed sections of the old A30. In Redruth we picked up a few supplies before continuing on to Camborne. Here the A30 becomes a single carriageway roads so we decided to join the road. The road was wide enough to allow us to cycle along the edge strip and most of the traffic gave us a wide berth. Eventually we reached the Penzance roundabouts and sped into Penzance to get something to drink at Lands End. We then pushed as hard as we could to cycle the last 9 miles to Penzance - 7 miles of which were very hilly! Finally we made it to the Finish Line at about half 6pm to be meet by my parents and to enjoy a well deserved glass of sparkling wine!

Day 10 was 115.6miles in 8 hours and 30 minutes, average speed of 13.5mph and 9500 feet climb.