Day 5

NOW UPDATED AND COMPLETE.

Clovelly to Camelford

Also, 5 days done, 5 to go (hopefully!)

Today: 63km and 1230m ascent.

Overall: 558km with 7930m ascent.

Started 1045am, Ended 730pm.

Details on Strava

This is likely to be the shortest day. After "hitting the wall" the previous day, this was deliberate. I decided to again change route and so didn't hug the coast as much as originally intended.

Views en route

1135 am. Midway to Bude and I start to encounter an increasing number of wind turbines. Anyone would think this was a windy part of the country😉 In the background you can see a number of satellite dishes - according to the road sign these were GCHQ's.

I have a particular interest in wind farms because I did some work - 15 years ago now 🤯 - where I nested a set of progressively more and more detailed weather forecast models over potential wind farm sites - we were trying to simulate the wind observations of an anemometer, the idea being that if our simulation was close enough, the wind speeds across the whole potential site would be known. For those who know me through work, it was this project that led to the first version of "The Nesting Suite"! 

1230pm. Approaching Bude. Note the gravel track wasn't the route - walking up it enabled me to get a more distant view.

1235pm. As I descend into Bude, I start to hear a rubbing sound. Brakes locked on? No, the pesky bracket to hold the basket in place was up to mischief again. I guess the shock absorbing as I hit bumps over the past 3 days had led to this point. The bolt was just touching the tyre at a couple of points across a full rotation. At least it was a bolt and not a diamond tipped screw🤣

115pm. A very tasty lunch on Bude Wharf!

220pm. View looking south of Widemouth Bay

255pm. View looking north of Widemouth Bay. So 35 minutes between photos, of which probably 25 were spent pushing my bike up the hill on this side! I was going so slowly that a retired couple walking the South West Coast Path caught me up! We had a lovely 5 minute chat about what was motivating us to do what we were doing. I've not mentioned those conversations before now, but there's generally been a couple per day. Micro-connections that are good for the soul🙂

535pm. A polyphenol laden meal, with a few carbs either side, in Boscastle.

620pm. Sign at Boscastle Harbour. 

 I had purposely visited Boscastle because of the devastating floods there in 2004. The forecasts at the time gave no real indication of the intensity of the localised rainfall that led to this flooding. However, a more detailed model was being developed, and when that was run for that event it produced a much improved forecast. So much so, in fact, that the more detailed model was then "fast-tracked" to operational implementation.

Since around that time, I've been working on developing those models. The teams I worked in were pretty small to begin with but, as these models have become more and more widely used, so the number of people working on them has increased many times over.

Crickey, two works things in the same day😬

745pm. A view from my hotel entrance. Yes, I've arrived in daylight 🤸 I booked my accommodation whilst eating my meal in Boscastle but, as I did it quickly, I had no inkling that I'd booked into a swanky golf and country club. 

Anyone would think that would be the ideal recipe for a good night's sleep. But I'm writing this on Thursday morning rather than Wednesday morning because my body decided it wasn't able to have a good night's sleep. More on this in tomorrow's blog.