Distance : 24, Cumulative : 148
Location : Holsworthy, http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=50.80928,-4.35368
Day 5 started with more hills. The B3227 had been good to us yesterday so we stuck with it today.
Yesterday I had a flat whilst doing a short stretch of A361 and so was down to 1 spare inner tube. The next big town was Great Torrington so we planned to try & get a couple of spare inner tubes there.
We got to Great Torrington after a mass of steep hills & headed straight for the tourist information centre. They told us of a bike hire shop outside town down a very steep hill. The TI phoned the bike hire place for us & checked they sold parts.
Steve & I then grabbed lunch from a bakery & ate whilst walking to the bike hire store. We got about 5 minutes down the road & I decided to ring & make sure he had the right size tubes, which he did.
After a 20 minute walk I popped in the store whilst Steve investigated an old railway station next door. I asked the chap for the tubes & upon looking he tells me he misread the box & he has the wrong size. We say no thanks & spend 30 minutes walking back up the hill to town, get on our bikes & head on to Holsworthy where we will try again.
More hills follow including many so steep we get off & push up them. Stop to fix a puncture in Steve's rear tire in a farmyard.
A while later on I notice a bumping coming from the bike & get off to check. It is then I notice a split in the tyre with the inner poking through.
I tried riding a bit further but there was a bad bumping & I did'nt want to risk a blow out whilst whizzing down hill so we pulled into the car park of a country club in the middle of nowhere.
The nearest town was Holsworthy & the map said they had a bike shop, now we just had to get there.
I tried phoning various people but all I got was answerphones. We were in big trouble.
At this point I noticed a chap stopped his landrover which was pulling a smaltbox trailer. Figuring I had nothing to lose I asked him if there was any way we could get a ride to Holsworthy to which he immediately said yes.
We dumped our stuff in his trailer & got a lift to town where we put our bikes back together & then found out about a B&B from the fish & chip shop.
The chap at the B&B then the only bloke ran a nearby bike shop who reopened at 7 just to help us.
I now have a new tyre & we have some serious catching up to do. Tomorrow could be about 38 miles to our next stop.
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