Day 3 Thu 6th May Tiverton to Tintern 98 miles

Had a good buffet breakfast then did our stretching exercises in the car park, as businessmen arrived for meetings. Today was also election day - so the towns were busy with voters. Soon after we set off on the busy A48 the heavens opened and our waterproofs were put to the test. Mine passed, but Mike found that his inside pocket where he kept his mobile got wet, and as a result his phone stopped working.

We had a coffee stop in Taunton at a polling station then carried on flat roads until a big climb over the western flanks of the Mendips to our lunch stop. Cheddar and strawberries were on the menu.

I got separated from a fairly fast group when I stopped to take off a layer as the weather warmed up, so cycled on my own for a bit, eventually meeting up with Nigel, whose son Ollie was having problems with an ankle. We had a tea stop at Gordano then had trouble finding the way over the Avon Bridge, and at one point met another group of us going in the opposite direction. We eventually asked for help from a kid in a hoodie on his BMX (or "chopper" as my brother called it). We offered him a fiver to show us the way which he accepted, but then when he found out we were doing LEJOG for charity he said add it to the collection - which was nice of him. Over the bridge we weren't sure of which way to go through Avonmouth and asked another BMX kid who took us through the town instead of the byepass.

It was getting quite late by the time we cycled over the old Severn Bridge, and we'd covered quite a few miles. We travelled along the scenic wooded Wye valley to the nice Royal George Hotel just north of Tintern Abbey pictured.

We had a good meal in the hotel and a drink or two, although I was still on antibiotics (last day) so didn't want to drink much (the medicine didn't say avoid alcohol though so I had a pint).