We left our friendly Airbnb host Russ at nine and began the slow steep climbs which eventually took us onto Exmoor. We groaned at each descent, knowing that we’d have to claw back the lost height. The route took us along some very narrow roads and past thatched cottages and a lovely Victorian postbox, and on deep sunken lanes, gouged out from centuries of agricultural horse drawn movements
The Sustrans route 3 goes into Taunton and into Bridgwater along the canal, ours missed out the town and took us up to Bishops Lydeard, the terminus of the West Somerset Railway from Minehead, formerly a Great Western branch from Taunton. We were fortunate to see former Llangollen resident 7822 Foxcote Manor in the platform and I grabbed a quick photo, expecting the locomotive to run round it’s stock to return to Minehead, but it reversed out.
We weren’t finished with the hills, a few late steep ones tested our legs before we reached the Old Vicarage Hotel, showered and had an excellent vegetarian kebab at Green Olive.
Today’s distance: 59.5 miles (95.8 km)
Today’s ascent: 1571 metres
Cumulative: 211.9 miles (341.2 km), 4979 metres