After a good nights sleep and nice vegetarian breakfast at the Colliford Tavern, home to my hobbit house accommodation, I once again got into my cycling gear (which I might talk about in a future blog....) essentially some padded shorts, tights, hi viz waterproof jacket and my trainers with rainbow laces (#cyclingfashionista ! ) and I set off on the next leg of my cycling adventure.

Day three was going to take me to Saltash, which for most people will mean very little, but its the town situated across the river Tamar opposite Plymouth. Its also the home to a couple of significant bridges; one road, one rail (more on these later) but was also where I grew up between the age of four and seven....the early school years of my youth. I could have taken a more direct route home, but the opportunity to visit the houses and town I grew up in was too good to miss, and also allowed me to see both bridges and cross one of them on the bike.

After heading mostly downhill away from Colliford I soon fell into a pattern of gentle hills on the bike, and when I say gentle I mean lots of hills, most of them steep and a real test of my fitness. The weather however was on my side, cool but sunny for the most part and I was eating into the miles at a reasonable pace.

I finally made it onto the A38 at Landrake and then cycled the last few miles to Saltash on about the first main road I'd encountered on the journey so far. Traffic was fortunately quite light for a main road, but I was very aware that I recognised this stretch of road from my childhood, and whilst I'm not ancient I left Saltash almost 40 years ago. Funny how the brain, and quite specifically memory works. I struggle to remember anything short term, but vividly remembered the topography of this stretch of the A38!

Things had changed in the 40 years since I moved away, and the junction that satnav guided me onto took me into the western end of Saltash. Several roads later I arrived outside the first house I lived in back in 1979 (I was 4 years old at the time), and after sending a quick photo to family members I headed along the same road towards the river Lynher which also triggered childhood memories of family walks down to the shoreline.

Next stop was another family house (we moved houses before then moving to Dorset) , another photo and I headed on to the high street, Fore Street where I decided that I should find some early lunch before the next leg of my cycle towards Exeter. Pasty purchased I sat on a bench and in between bites of the aforementioned pasty I talked to several locals who were also taking a rest. Fore Street in Saltash, like most of my ride so far in Cornwall is of course a hill!

Next stop was the Tamar road bridge which has a dedicated cycleway a long way above the river below, or so it felt.....I'm not a massive fan of heights, or rather have a fear of falling from them, so I focused for the most part of the cycle path ahead as I crossed the bridge. Running to my right was the older railway bridge designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel in the 19th century. I'd passed over the railway bridge two days earlier, and these bridges marked my passing from the county of Cornwall onwards into Devon.

Whilst I am sure there are plenty of differences between the two counties in terms of dialect, accent, and the order in which jam or cream are applied to scones, the hills felt the same! I headed through the outskirts of Plymouth (hills) and on towards Plympton and beyond with more hills, obviously.

At this point you will have noticed that satnav and Buble have hardly been mentioned, essentially because they were performing as expected with strong decisions and communication about the correct route for me to cycle. As I finally escaped the urban sprawl to the north east of Plymouth I finally found roads with a lot less traffic, but in the background I could still hear the A38 and a lot of traffic heading towards Exeter and the M5 beyond.

The route that satnav appeared to be taking was up until this point kept me on routes where bikes were well protected from traffic but this stopped at the top of a very steep hill which I was guided down. Once I had stopped for a large tractor to pass I found myself on a slipway onto the A38, at this point with no cycle path or even footpath for me to use. Cursing satnav I turned around and started the steep climb back up the hill hoping that I could simply not take this route and keep going on the back roads of Devon towards Exeter.

However once I'd got to the top of this hill and turned right I found satnav kept on trying to get me to turn back and re-join this main road route. She was very persistent, but I was having none of this so continued along the more minor roads running close to the A38 but heading in a general direction towards Exeter.

After about the third attempt by satnav to join the main road I stopped to have a good look at my cycle route, and to my horror I found that I had very little option but to join a four lane highway other than to take a far bigger detour towards Newton Abbot or worse, the hills of Dartmoor! This felt like the right time to call for some advice, so I rang my mum and dad only to find that they were not answering .......so plan B was to call my lovely wife Jan who did answer, but had a little less geographical knowledge than my mum and dad might have had...... (sorry Jan)

Jan's pep talk however was perfect, and asking satnav to guide me towards Newton Abbot to the east and then once I was a little closer to this town ask satnav to guide me back to Exeter might just work. Just as I had set this up on satnav my dad called me back, agreed on my plan probably being the most practical but more importantly reminded me that there was an lovely old tea rooms close to where I was at the time that did an excellent cream tea. Satnav guidance and nutrition was just what I needed.

I'm sure my jam first , cream second approach I took will have upset residents of Cornwall / Devon (delete as applicable) and more than likely will have made local newspaper headlines in the Buckfast Gazette, but the cream tea was delicious and the perfect moment of reflection I needed - in all honesty I was almost broken by the possibility of having to use the A38 with no real alternative routes other than heading over Dartmoor with hills or towards Newton Abbot adding lots more miles.

Back in the saddle I rode over a bridge that took me over the A38 and onto a lovely country lane which appeared to take me past a number of houses that felt very new age hippy in style. A short ride into a wet, flooded valley I was now cycling through was perfect to allow me to reset, and I took in a few more steep climbs before stopping to change the satnav towards Exeter.

By total fluke / excellent judgement from Jan and my dad I found myself on the most amazing road following the river Teign, and even the rain which had made a return didn't dampen my spirits as I ticked off the last 20 miles of cycling into Exeter. In my efforts to change satnav sadly I did manage to switch off strava meaning that I didn't capture the exact distance I cycled at the end of the day and also caused mild panic amongst family members who were trying to follow my progress live via the strava app!

However I did make it to the city of Exeter and a lovely Bed & Breakfast which was to be my temporary home for the night. 74.76 miles (approximately) for the day and at least 1499 metres of climbing, probably a little more, making a running total for the adventure at this point of 168.55 miles ridden, 3776 metres climbed or 42.67% of Everest ! After dinner at a local fish and chip shop, a chance to avoid the nearby student filled Wetherspoons, and the bonus of an opportunity to read the local paper I headed back to the B & B for a good nights rest in preparation for another day in the saddle.