Hello Devon!

A late start to the day after a lovely evening and fantastic breakfast at the best place we'd stayed at yet. Lizzie the owner even took our picture and put it on their website blog along with our sponsrship address ( www.justgiving.com/rbas ). We set off with sore legs and sad to leave our little log cabin. Definitely a place we'll come back to one day!

The first leg was relatively uneventful as we took the main road to Taunton... As we entered Taunton the sign proclaimed it as the "best large floral market town in the South West". This made us both chuckle and as we made our way through a bit bemused as we saw virtually no flowers and even fewer markets. We then took a pleasant B road onto Tiverton which had a few climbs and where Amanda almost gave a horse riding school a bit of a fright as she climbed over another fence for a toilet break...

We passed 800 miles just before Tiverton and feeling like we were edging closer and closer to our final destination. We crossed into Devon and with only 2 counties left felt good, although we knew these were going to be two tough ones!

A lunch stop in Tiverton with only 25 miles to go felt like we were having a good day but we were slightly naive as to what we had ahead of us. The leg from Tiverton to Crediton was tough enough as we climbed and climbed through the tiny village of Cadbury but with spectacular patchwork fields surrounding us as the red earth of Devon welcomed us into its pastures. After a quick chat with a local farmer as to the name of the black and white cows you see everywhere, which Amanda then immediately forgot, we dropped into Crediton on a lovely downhill.

Not many people who do this trip choose to go through Dartmoor, and prefer to go around it on the more gentle road through Okehampton. We decided ages ago that we would though, we were already doing the trip the hard way, so why not throw in another challenge, and it was surely going to be the most scenic route!

Anyway after Crediton we had 11 miles to go and plenty of time, although we both knew the next leg was going to be one of the toughest of the whole trip, as we navigated through tiny lanes through Tedburn St Mary and onto the moor. The challenge did not disappoint, and we battled over and down ascents and descents like none we had encountered yet. To make things better Dartmoor decided to welcome us with some lovely winds and rain and a cloud covering meaning we had no views. The worst of it was one hill leading up to Moretonhampstead which was literally the steepest we had ever come across, to the point where you couldnt even lift your arse off the seat as you would just wheel spin. It was actually quite scary, and we were both so out of breath by the end of it, but felt pleased to have chosen this route, as we had ended up on the top of the moor with no one in sight except a few sheep.

We finally arrived into Moretonhampstead to our B and B feeling pretty dead but had a lovely evening in a pub which served amazing pizzas and live music playing with long bearded old men.