Wednesday June 11, 2014

We had a lovely ride from Camelford to Launceston.  We followed the A39 out of Camelford and then joined the A395, both roads were fairly busy, but after Davidstow we took a lovely B road through Egloskerry to Launceston.

It was beautiful English scenery and had me singing the words from Jerusalem – fortunately Ralf was behind and couldn’t hear me singing. The scenery was rolling hills and farmland, every village we went through had Cornish stone houses and a beautiful Norman stone church.

The B roads are narrow with high hedgerows, which can be a bit of a problem as not only are there lovely flowers in the hedgerows but also blackberry brambles and nettles.  They can be painful if you brush by them too close, but after Ralf’s incident with catching his pannier on the hedgerow, we have been \’taking the lane\’.  We saw two rabbits today and a fox and these very inquisitive cows.

We arrived in Launceston at 10:45 and that is when the problems started!

We stopped for directions and then stopped at a supermarket to have some lunch.  When we came out of the supermarket parking lot, we got totally turned around and headed off towards Plymouth.  I knew we were heading in the wrong direction, but we couldn’t find the right B road to get us going in the right direction.  We carried on, and at one point knew we were totally lost, not just misplaced but lost.  Eventually, we ended up in Tavistock, we were heading for Okehampton.

We crossed in to the next County – Devon.

Once we got into Tavistock, we realized that it is a lovely Town and is also a World Heritage Site.

I found the Tourist Information Centre (TIC) and found a campsite – it was another 3 miles out of Town.  Ralf and I decided that we would book into the campsite for two nights – a rest day already.  The reason being Tavistock is a lovely Town and needs a day to explore.  We will try to get to Okehampton on Friday.

Our campsite (Langston Manor Caravan Park) is lovely, it is in the Dartmoor National Park, it is very quiet and the scenery is lovely and we got a reduction in the price because we are ‘eco-travellers’ – arriving by bike or foot you get a discount.  The site has caravans, eco-pods, a restaurant and a bar and plenty of level campsites.  Langston Manor received a silver award for their environmental practices, solar panels on the utility block, recycled rain water used to flush the toilets and an excellent recycling program, the site is planted with native trees and plants.  The facilities are exceptionally clean. Friendly and helpful wardens work very hard in keeping the grounds clean and tidy.

As we were getting ready for bed, I heard a cuckoo, it has been years since I heard a cuckoo.  The sound of birds surround us as we snuggle into our sleeping bags.

We can have a lie-in tomorrow as we have ordered croissants for breakfast.  The campsite ‘wardens’ make fresh bread, croissants and choc-au-pain to order. This really is a hard life.