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almost see it going red then brown. The wind was absolutely useless, blowing
from the NNE quarter all the time, meant a headwind for the whole journey.
It could have been worse, it could have been raining !

As time wore on, the hills seemed more frequent, with the whole route
appearing to be either up or down – flat roads were a long distant memory.

Exeter was reached just as it was getting dark and the climb of Yarcome Hill
attained before donning night clothes and lights. We were treated to a
beautiful sun set, the reds, violets and purpley blues merging into one huge
sky. Only a few miles were covered before extra night clothes were required
as the temperature had dropped dramatically. Claire settled down for sleep
around the Yeovil area, managing a good 8 hours rest through the night with
various Teddy’s. Progress was better I thought during the darkness.

When we had stopped for night clothes Tony fed well on my ‘go faster’ special
honey, treacle and sultana cake, rice pudding and hot coffee etc which
sustained him most of night therefore I could stay behind him most of the
time to illuminate the road. Also the traffic density was far lower and less
of a hazard. Most of the road surfaces were good although his front lamp
did bounce off along one section causing a slight hiccup. On another occasion
a bat appeared from nowhere which must have been attracted by the lights,
it flew straight into the side of him making him jump. However the aspect I
can remember most vividly were the enormous number of ‘shooting stars’ –
never have I seen so many in such a short time. Initially we thought it was
a firework display, we subsequently learnt from our local astronomer Kav
that it was in fact perseid meteor showers entering the earth’s atmosphere,
an event that occurs every year between 17th July and 24th August. At one
point my mind wandered to John Wyndoms book ‘The Day of the Triffids’ where
a tremendous free firework display heralded the arrival of the man-eating
plants. Thankfully we didn’t wake up blind on Sunday morning and were not
over run by giant plants.

Our spirits were low when we reached Winchester, plenty of time left, holding
our 17mph schedule well, but tiredness was creeping in, and still over 100

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