John O'Groats to Land's End - 1989

August 27th - Holford to Lynton 
(36 miles) 
One of the greatest days of the whole ride, with the sun shining and 
the wind changed to north-east, right behind us. The ride to 
Minehead was blissfully easy - we sat on the beach and had lunch 
in the beach cafe. Then, with butterflies in our tummies, off we went 
to Porlock, where we stopped to prepare ourselves for the monster 
Porlock Hill. This has a gradient of 1 in 4 to start with, then it flattens 
to 1 in 6, then it just goes on up for a total distance of a mile-and-a-
half. After a lot of silent pedalling we made it to the top and felt 
absolutely exhilarated. We took a few photos and then along the top 
and down Countisbury Hill to Lynmouth, where Julie had a paddle 
and I had a cream tea. All that remained was the 1 in 4 climb to 
Lynton, which seemed even harder than Porlock.                 NEXT