May 22, 2012
Stogumber, Cleve, Dunster, Bossington & Allerford
around Minehead
Roy wants a lie-in, but I've been wide awake since 6:30, having had little sleep during a chilly night, and by 7:00 my bike is being wheeled across the dewey grass back to the road. We agree to meet in Stogumber, just a few miles away.
I stop at Stogumber's simple train station, one that caters to tourists who take the steam service running the short distance to Minehead, and once in the village, it's a surprise to see bottles of milk on a doorstep, a sight I haven't seen in many years and one I thought had become ancient history.
The street Frank Paterson drew has a post office on it and it's open and busy with locals at 8:00 when I arrive. They sell a range of things, from newspapers to a ice cream.
After buying a few bits for breakfast, I'm standing in the sun enjoying a large pot of yogurt when Roy arrives. He goes into the shop and comes out with an ice cream.
We pose for snaps of the slight rise of The Street, with its old thatched homes before cycling off to find some more quiet lanes.
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The lane to Monksilver is a delight. After a short rise, it drops down steeply, winds its way between fields and is lined by tall trees that cast shade and provide some coolness.
Our next destination is Cleeve Abbey, just up the valley, and after we've taken some photos of the ancient, stone gatehouse that Patterson drew, we set off to find a place to have a cuppa.
It's now around 11 o'clock and we cycle along the A 39. It's quite straight.
It's not too long before we find a place - a pub - and sit outside at bench tables placed on a lawn and enjoy a refreshing pot of tea, served with an assortment of biscuits. We take turns to pop into the toilets to wash our faces and clean our teeth.
The main road is a little busy, but there's a cycle lane that's really just the old footpath and it takes us towards the quaint and historic Somerset village of Dunster.
A side road to it climbs quite steeply for a short while - a few hundred metres - and then we are on the village street with its rows of traditional shops and Roy gets another ice cream before we locate the spot Patterson sketched, just by the church, and around the corner.
Dunster s quite a tourist spot and there are lots of picturesque buildings, including the old, open-sided Yarn Market standing in the centre. We don't go in the castle.
I leave Roy to relax in Minehead and ride the 10 km solo to Allerford and Bossington and back by myself.
This is as far west as we'll venture and it takes me two hours, just as I'd anticipated, to take the photos of places Patterson drew.
Once back in Minehead at 4 o'clock we pedal east to find a place to camp, detouring through the coastal villages of Blue Anchor and Watchet, where we have a picnic in a bus shelter with things bought from a corner shop, then climb back into the rolling Quantocks.
A roomy pub in the village of Kilve makes a good place to rest, connect to Wi-fi and have a few pints. It's dark when we eventually leave, which makes finding a spot to sleep a bit difficult.
We end up cycling into some woods at the edge of Holford, a couple of miles southeast, eventually bumping down a rutted track that doesn't seem to be going anywhere.
It's hard to say where we actually are, but my guess is the land belongs to a huge country house.
Today's ride: 80 km (50 miles)
Total: 2,988 km (1,856 miles)
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