Early morning start today and a 50+ minute cycle ride to Bristol Temple Meads station.
We have booked a train and have carefully booked separate tickets for our bikes, but we can only get them as far as Tiverton, and we want to go on to Exeter.
There was a bit of a panic at Bristol as all of the carriages on the train were mixed up. We were waiting at the right place on the platform for the cycle coach, but it was a ten coach train and we had to run the full length of the station to get to coach B and I was the last person to jump onboard.
The GWR website said that someone else had already booked the bike spaces from Tiverton to Exeter, so we expected to have to get off and wait for the next train, but no one got on so we stayed on board, and got there earlier than expected. All a bit chaotic really.
With this little stress out of the way, we started our holiday.
Straight away the route was very pretty and we cycled along the Exe estuary down to the coast.
It was lovely easy cycling, and we stopped for coffee at Sidmouth which was packed with tourists and Morris dancers.
Then our easy day turned into a mountain stage of the Tour de France and we climbed three hors category peaks in quick succession - thank heavens for the e bikes, they helped a lot, but they were still really hard climbs.
Towards the end my battery was almost completely flat and there was still another half mountain to go, but we got to the top and reached Seaton.
After a nice glide downhill we checked into the Premier Inn and went to explore. Seaton was very nice with a long pretty beach, but it was eerily quiet. However, we found a nice and sunny beachfront bar and refuelled.
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