Bude to Rock - Day Four - Bristol to Cornwall round trip

As usual Mick had taken very little interest in route planning, observing that as I was the one with a map case on my bar-bag I should plot the route.
"Oh, you choose, I don't mind," he would say cheerily, "you're the one with the map!"
This morning as he prepared to point his bike back the way we had come, I corrected him.
"Oh, we're not going that way," I said, "I thought we'd take the coast road. It's more scenic."
"Ok," he said nonchalantly.

To start with the route was gently hilly. On our right the blue Atlantic rolled in breaking into white crested waves as the sea met the beach. Between us and and sea, yellow gorse lined the road. Behind us we could see Bude receding into the distance. We coasted through Widemouth Bay where a gust of wind blew a whole load of sand in my eye and I hastily donned my sunglasses. Soon afterwards we turned a sharp bend and were confronted by a large hill.
"Ooh, time for a break," said Mick.

We ate some of the food we had bought in Bude before setting off and watched a car come round the corner, look at the hill and promptly execute a three point turn. We made a half-hearted attempt at cycling the hill before getting off and pushing the bike up. Mick was blissfully unaware that the next inch of road on the map showed half-a-dozen black arrows. Although I knew they were coming up, I had no idea quite how steep the road was about to become. We met a couple walking up the hill, puffing hard although they looked relatively fit and experienced walkers. Then the road tipped steeply downwards. I promptly got off my bike. The road was so steep I was too afraid to cycle down it. Mick disappeared around the corner and I walked gingerly down the hill for a while before gathering enough courage to climb back on my bike and roll down, clutching my brakes hard all the way.

At the bottom there was an equally steep hill up the other side. At one-in-three (or for Europhiles30%) there was no way we were even going to attempt it.
"Well I would have cycled up if I hadn't got panniers," said Mick, "but it's a bit tricky when fully laden."
"Liar," I said.

We spotted some magnificent zig-zag folding in the cliffs along the coastline, part of the Crackington Formation - thin layers of sandstone and shale created by tectonic plate movements at end of Carboniferous period; the same movement that created  the tors on Bodmin Moor.

Looking at the map, splattered in double arrows I chickened out of the next section of coast through Crackington Haven. Instead we detoured briefly onto the A39 before coasting down the magnificent hill into Boscastle.
"This is great!" I shouted as we whizzed down the hill.
Suddenly Mick skidded to a halt. He had spotted a sign for a fish and chip shop.  Unfortunately it turned out to be an advert for a chip shop twenty miles away.
"We don't need fish and chips, we've got sandwiches," I pointed out.
"Yes, 'spose so," said Mick, trying not to look sulky.

We wandered down the street alongside the river. This was the first time either of us had been to Boscastle and in the warm sunshine the River Valency trickled along looking thoroughly benign. It was hard to imagine that this river was the cause of such devestation in August 2004 when on 16th of that month a violent downpour caused the river to rise by seven feet in one hour sweeping away buildings and cars. a hundred peeople were rescued from rooftops by helicopter. Now the visitor centre and car park have been rebuilt as well as a new bridge. We liked Boscastle very much, with its attractive slate grey buildings. The road up the hill out of Boscastle was not as steep as it looked from the bottom and before long we were headed into Tintagel. We didn't linger long though, just enough time to look at the castle from afar. It was tackier than Boscastle we thought.
Mick, having until now paid little attention to the route planning, started to grumble.
"The scenic route is all very well, but shouldn't we get a move on? Where are we going to stay anyway?"
"Uh dunno, I thought Padstow or somewhere," I said.
"Padstein? Won't that be rather expensive?"
I agreed it might be. I looked at the map.

"Why don't we head for Rock instead?" I suggested. Being on the other side of the estuary we thought it might be cheaper. We rolled into Rock resort filthy dirty and tired having been on our bikes all day. Thank goodness I had now got the hang of the Whiz™ or I would have been smelling of piss as well. Even so, our hearts sank as we cycled down to the sea front. Rock was clearly very posh. How were we to know it is known as Chelsea-on-Sea? Or Costa-del-Sloane? Or that when they were younger Princes William and Harry were often spotted here during holidays from Eton?

Unsurprisingly there was a marked lack of B&B's. We called in at one premises that advertised accommodation and asked if they had a room for one night.
"Um, I'll just go and check the diary," said the rather snooty man that came to the door.
"That'll be a no then," hissed Mick. "Why would he need to check the diary for tonight, it's six o'clock now. He knows whether he has vacancies."

Sure enough it was a no. We began to feel dejected. We headed back up the road and then spotted a low white building which advertised acommodation, Tzitzikama Lodge. There was a sign asking guests to phone which we did, and the proprietor confirmed that there were vacancies. At £76 per night it was a bit more expensive than we normally like to pay but it did look nice, and the owner helpfully gave us a room where we could park our bikes outside. It was a lovely room and as we were feeling weary we appreciated the comfy bed, hot shower and plentiful cups of tea which we indulged ourselves with over the next couple of hours. We also took the opportunity to do some washing, making good use of the heated towel rails to hang out our kit to dry overnight. All in all I think you could say we made good and thorough use of the facilities available. And naturally I popped the complimentary shampoo and showergel in my bag for use at a later date.

Miles cycled today: 40
Total miles: 194

Today's route is here