Stage five: Camelford to Penzance…’Let’s Work Together’

 What a sight for tired eyes- no, not me, but the pile of laundry alongside some breakfast that the fantastic host of Chandlers B&B left for me. Oh yeah, he also wrapped a couple of slices of last night’s pizza for me. If Carlsberg did hospitality…

Laundry…cereal…get in!

Sorry bike- we go into the grimness once more!

Defo in Cornwall now.

Long live! Trying to get the ferry…

The cunning plan was to get the Rock to Padstow ferry: it actually worked! Six quid though…but worth it to avoid the detour. No sign of Capo Stein- he’s probably largeing it in Monaco or similar, hah-hah! Padstow looks pleasant, like quite a few places have so far…must return in a more civilised manner.

Six quid!

The Stein’s lair…

S’alright.

Post-Padstow it was a trundle on all manner of roads, gradients, traffic, civilians etc…no issues apart from the racket coming from my rear brake. Fair dos, it has seen some action over the past few days but the pads were new only three weeks ago. By chance there was a bike rental place before Portreath. Bloke there was helpful and put some new rear pads on, but did say that because of the metal-metal contact from the worn-out pad, the disc was scored to f**k and would need replaced…he didn’t carry a spare but did recommend a shop in Hayle, just before St Ives. And he didn’t want paying for his time either!

Bike shop #1

Bike shop #2

One trousered rear disc.

So I ummed and aahed about whether to bother stopping at this second bike shop- the pads would probably be okay and get me to flatter days, and time was only ever going one way. Snap decision as I passed it…stop! Good job I did: mechanic bloke could see time was tight, so dropped what he was doing and had a look. He said that not only was the disc terminal, there was a risk of it breaking altogether which would not have been optimal. He could have flogged me the same disc again but said he had a barely used disc which would last longer than Shimano’s Ice Rotor bollocks. So he gave me a spare set of pads and put that disc on for £20. Again, no labour charge. Blimey!

Blue skies at last!

Still feel it..just a little less.

Novel to have effective brakes innit!

The one order of business was to get to Land’s End before 5pm- reason being that their official photographers would finish then and because this is a charity thing (don’t like to talk about it much), they would take a photo at the sign gratis. And again, they were onside…even though they aren’t meant to through in some extra photos using the punter’s iPhone, that’s what they did. Nice one!

Nice to see you etc.!

And the official effort. Cheers Guv…

He looks a bit miffed. Scary.

So that left about 10 miles to Penzance and the obvious choice of The Pirate Inn for tonight’s acco. Tragic, I know…

Told you.

Bit of pod action!

It’ll do nicely.

The pub itself ain’t great but the bonus ball was a firm of Morris Dancers doing their unhinged thing in the beer garden. Take a bow, England!

Rehydration protocol was identical to last night’s.

The warm-up. Fearsome.

Post-dance debrief/lash-up happening!

Just the two items of business remain…

Stats ahoy!

And today’s tune is an old favourite (ain’t they all?) and sums up how much I appreciated the help. Nice one!