Day 19
June 29th - From Boscastle to Perranporth

With Jilly, Barry and Andy on their way down to Boscastle and not due to arrive til 11am it gave me the chance of a nice, relaxed start to the day. I didn't get up until 9am and at breakfast I met another end-to-ender who had taken a similar route to me except that his was even more round-the-houses. When I left the Isle of Skye and headed inland he went down through Arran and Mull and then east through the Yorkshire dales.
After breakfast I wandered up the road into the village to take some photos. By now the sun was out and there were loads of people milling around, in a way the flood of 2004 was great for the tourist industry here as the town got nationwide publicity. There was still a lot of flood-prevention work going on with bulldozers and diggers everywhere.
After taking some photos I went back to the hostel and started getting the bike ready. I couldn't believe that the back tyre was flat again. I used inner tube number 4 and was really careful this time. Shortly after fixing it Jilly, Barry and Andy appeared and after a few more photo sessions we set off.
The hill out of Boscastle was a real grind, a climb of about 1000 feet in 3 miles but when you've got company it seems a bit easier. Living in Boscastle Barry knew the route so we let him lead and we made our way through Delabole and towards Wadebridge. The route through the lanes was really good and it made such a nice change to get off the A-road for a while. It wasn't for long though and as we came out of Delabole it was back onto the A39 and into that wind all the way to Wadebridge where we had lunch.
Barry gave me directions for the best route to Perranporth and I carried on while the others turned back. There was a nasty hill out of Wadebridge to get back onto the A39 but, once on it, that road didn't seem quite as bad as the night before. I made one slight detour, turning right one roundabout too soon but realised my mistake fairly quickly and turned back.
As I neared Newquay it became obvious that I was in boy-racer land - I have never seen so many one-litre Vauxhall Novas with blacked-out windows, big exhausts and pointless spoilers and there were also plenty of VW Camper vans around too. Soon after I saw a sign saying 5 miles to Perranporth which was a nice surprise as I expected it to be much more. I stopped for tea in a restaurant as I knew the youth hostel at Perranport was self-catering and then carried on into the town. The youth hostel is perched on top of a cliff overlooking the beach and has superb views. Including staff there were only 4 of us in so I knew my last night away from home would be a quiet one.
I called Tony who would be meeting me at the finish and he said the weather forecast was grim - plenty of rain and headwinds lasting most of the day. I just hoped it would be dry for the photos at the finish.
Today's 44 miles made it the shortest ride of the whole trip and took the total to 1151. I don't think I'll make it to 1200 by the time I get to Land's End but it won't be far off.

The Routemap

The Speed (in blue) and the Elevation (in green).