Miles: 47.9 miles

Time: 5:03

Elevation: 3696 feet

After a pleasant breakfast in my room, at the Dock Inn in Penzance, I readied the bike and set off at half past 10. For the first mile – along the Penzance beachfront – I enjoyed the warm air as the sun started to break through the clouds, but there was a fiendish 17 mph headwind that clearly objected to my plan to reach Land’s End, and so did the hill at the end of the beach. The road up to Newlyn was unrelentingly steep, narrow, and littered with parked cars. At first I had to stop to let traffic clear in front of me, and then, as my heart rate soared, I had to get off and push. Not a promising start to a 1000 mile journey, but then, the reason I was here was to rebuild some fitness, so good to know that there was plenty of room for improvement!

Over the top of the hill, the route meandered along some quiet back roads as I battled on into the wind. Secretly I was pleased; after the 12 miles to Land’s End, I would be retracing my steps with a stiff tailwind to whisk me along. I passed through pleasant St Buryan and then over to Sennen Cove where the stunning sea views told me the beginning was nigh.

I rolled along the start / finish straight to Land’s End, stopping for the obligatory sign photo before realising that I didn’t really want to have to queue for anything else, so back I went towards Penzance. Reaching Newlyn, I prepared to career down the steep hill into Penzance, and was heartened to find a 16% gradient sign at the top of the hill I’d struggled up, that would always be a challenge.

Picking up a huge Cornish pasty from Warren’s bakery, I set off, back along the Penzance seafront, continuing round to Marazion and the impressive (and familiar looking) St Michael’s Mount.

Soon the road turned inland and I passed, for a while, along narrow country lanes, lined with hedges and well off the beaten track. The weather closed in and there had been a persistent light drizzle for a while, when I started pondering the problem of where to spend the night. Phone reception was extremely patchy and there was no way of stumbling upon a campsite on these quiet back roads, so I pressed on, keen to get a little closer to civilisation. By 20 passed 6 I was within striking distance of the Cosawes Park campsite, so giving them a call, I was relieved to find they had a space for me. Buoyed by this information, the final 6 miles flew by, and after a hard hilly day, the campsite’s hot showers felt fantastic.

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