Day 17
June 27th - From Shipham to Knowstone

After the usual huge breakfast that I have become used to over the last couple of weeks I left the b&b and got going on the A38 towards Taunton. I had thought about going through Cheddar but Steve at the quiz the night before warned that there was a major hill that way. The wind was now a westerly and doing its best to slow me down but the road was a lot flatter than I expected so I was still able to make progress. There was also a steady stream of lorries passing me whose slipstreams helped.
My bike had spent a few nights out in the rain during the previous week and the chain and deraillieur were now squeaking nicely. I hadn't brought any oil with me so I started looking out for anywhere that would sell some and it became more urgent when the chain started slipping when I was in the highest gear. I went through Bridgewater and didn't see any bike shops so continued on to Taunton. Around lunchtime I reached Taunton and clocked up 28 miles for the day which took me past the 1000 mile mark for the whole trip. I found a bike shop and sorted out the chain and then headed for the local Wetherspoon's pub. They have internet access and it had been several days since I had updated the website so I ordered a lasagne and got the laptop out. For some reason my ftp program wouldn't work so I couldn't update the site myself but I did send the files to Tony back in Torquay and asked him to do the honours. I didn't want to leave the gps on the bike so I took it indoors with me. This turned out to be a mistake as it lost its satellite link and threw a complete wobbly. I clocked up 11 miles while eating lunch and as the graph ended up being all over the place I left it off today's blog.
I managed to avoid a really heavy shower while indoors but it was still drizzling a bit when I left Taunton and headed for Tiverton and I had to get the waterproofs on. The road to Tiverton was a bit more up and down but fairly uneventful. I by-passed the town and got on the road to Barnstaple and, as time was now getting on, I started the daily search for a bed for the night. I knew that I wouldn't find one along the North Devon Link Road so I turned off into the lanes and found myself in a village called Rackenford. It had a church and a pub so it looked promising. I did a quick loop around the village and the only possible b&b was the pub. I went in and asked and the landlady said she wasn't doing it anymore. I ordered half a lager and while I was drinking it word got around amongst the four or five regulars in there that I needed somewhere to stay. It then became their mission to find me a bed for the night. 20 minutes and several mobile phone calls later one of them said he'd found a farmhouse b&b in a village 3 miles away with a spare room. Armed with directions I got back on the bike and headed for Knowstone. On arriving the lady who ran the b&b offered to make me some sandwiches which saved me going back out to the local pub which, she said, wasn't great anyway.
I did 62 miles today, most of which were in the right direction, so I am left with about 174 to go. I've now set myself the target of finishing on Saturday so I'm looking at 58 miles a day for the last 3 days.

The Routemap