Date: 10/06/2022 Lands End to St Austell

Friday 9th June - Day 1
The 4 of us finally met up at 9:00 at Lands End and the Penzance Wheelers had arranged to meet us here at 10:00.
The weather was mostly sunny with a good breeze which would be on our backs.
I wasn't looking forward to cycling with a big group but it turned out just 2 of the Wheelers came, Jon & Damian and they proved a big help to us.
They took us at a leisurely pace, more or less on the same route as we had planned and gave us a running commentary of points of interest. We stayed on the A30 to just before Penzance, turning off to get to the coast at Newlyn then following the cycleway along the sea front through Penzance to Marazion & St Michaels Mount at 11 o'clock.The time seemed to fly by as we took the minor roads through Godolphin Cross and Stithians and we stopped a few times to meet up with Rodney at places suggested by Jon & Damian.
It was a hilly route but the climbs were mostly short and I hardly suffered at all.
Damian left us around 1:00 pm but Jon, who already had 50 miles in his legs today carried on with us.
We hadn't stopped for anything to eat yet, other than a snack bar, but we carried on until 2:00 pm after taking a small detour at Carnon Downs to stop at the Saint Piran Cafe, Bissoe for a piece of cake & tea/coffee.
Jon suggested a slight adjustment to the route to make it a bit easier and avoid Truro and he cycled with for a bit longer and pointed us in the right direction while he headed off back home into a head. Thanks a lot Jon, you were a great help to us.
Of course we hadn't gone very much further when we realised we were heading in the wrong direction, looking at the map we could either return and get back on the right road or continue & find a way back on track, we decided to carry on. A bit further on a sign said the road ahead was closed but we assumed we would be able to walk around the obstruction, it wasn't quite as straightforward as that as we had to climb over a gate with the bikes and walk through the field then climb up a bit of dyke to get back on the road.
The road appeared to be taking us on a longer route but Nick spotted what looked like a footpath which might take us up onto the road we wanted. We had to push our bike up this steep hill and walk round the edge of the field until we found another gate we could get over
We found ourselves in Truro after all, it was 4:00 pm and slow going through the heavy traffic until we could get back onto the B3275 to Lodock then minor roads. It was 5:00 pm by the time we got to the campsite at Court Farm, nr St Stephen where Rodney was waiting for us.
The plan was that Nick & I would camp here while Norman & Rodney would head off another 10 miles to their campsite. They stayed here while we pitched the tent and had something to eat and they were about to leave when the owner came by for a chat. I thought it would be far simpler for the camper to stay here, there was lots of space & a hook up right next to the tent, I asked the owner & he had no problem with it & didn't charge us anything extra.

It had been a surprisingly easy day, 54 miles, 4000' of climb at an average speed 12.5 mph.
No major disasters, I never fell off the bike once, just Norman's bike having minor gearing issues.
Tomorrow will be a different story!