LEJOG Day 2 – Penryn – Okehampton
Miles: 70 | Climbing 5950 ft. | 7 hours 31 minutes
I accidentally stopped my GPS at lunchtime so apologies for two separate maps for day 2.
Day 2 started in poor weather as we rolled down to the King Harry Ferry to get across the river Fal, avoiding the busy A39 / A390 around Truro. Once off the ferry, the owner of which kindly waived the fare for us when he found out what we were doing, we encountered our first real climb (tip – wait for the cars to unload off the ferry and disappear up the hill and you’ll then have no-one trying to pass you on narrow lanes). We rejoined the A390 near Hewas Water where we met Roshan who hadn’t taken the ferry route to find another LEJOG team in the same lay-by from the Royal Navy. These guys looked super fit, young, and well organised so as we set off we wondered how long it would be before they went past us. We were to see them again – but more on that story later!
We were glad of a break in the van for lunch in Lostwithiel before the toughest section of the entire ride for the afternoon. We were either going up, or down. There was simply no flat! There was a significant milestone to enjoy however as we crossed the river Tamar near Gunnislake – we’d done Cornwall. One county done. We climbed up onto Dartmoor, and enjoyed the beautiful A386 that skirts the western edge of the moor all the way to our rendezvous point just to the west of Okehampton.