24/08/2025
Henry's completed Day 2!
Street-Taunton 33.3 miles!
Henry has now made it half way along his challenge of cycling from Bristol to Barnstaple!
The day began with 5 miles to a pub for brekkie. I had envisaged a nice quiet country beer garden to sit in the sun and have breakfast. The reality was quite different. It was a truck stop with lorries idling located just off a busy noisy road. The breakfast was very good though and so it was still a lucky find. Henry was then fuelled by American pancakes and maple syrup!
He is on fine form even to the point of arriving in Taunton and coming across some bike jumps/ramps in a park, he whizzed round and enjoyed these for a while!
We are obviously cycling with him, I am not sure where he gets his energy from as frankly I enjoyed a sit down in the sun whilst he whizzed around the obstacles!
We have all really enjoyed today. No way near as many hills as yesterday, lots of off road, along the canals and lovely quiet lanes as we cycled through more Somerset levels, including a trail just like the Tarka trail which even had sculptures along it too!
The scenery is stunning and although relatively close to home, it is vastly different, so flat and so arable, it felt like we were in Normandy, France or in the Fens in the South East.
We have seen lovely community events as we have cycled through villages, one having a scare crow competition and another, having a massive garage sale with lots of houses all selling their unwanted clothes, tools, trinkets outside of their houses.
The sun has been amazing but very warm, it has given us a chance to lay in it along the canal whilst having a quick 5 minute rest and back stretch out.
Lunch at a lock cafe was an extended break as it was so busy, we were there for over an hour and a half getting a sandwich. It was tasty though and hey we had time plus a few rounds of Top Trumps.
The Taunton Bridgewater water canal has a lovely space exhibit. They have scaled down the size of the planets and their spacing from the sun. As you travel down the canal it shows you the accurate distance of each planet from the sun based on the scale. It also gave the count down to Taunton which was nice!
Once in Taunton we took a bit of time to relax by the river and we were lucky enough to see an otter swim by! Amazing! It made our day!
We are now fed and watered by the lovely Sue Taylor and Mick, who have very kindly allowed us to stay for the night and allowed our sore muscles to be pummeled in their hot tub! Pure luxury! Thank you so much!
Henry is snoring away as I type, he is well ready for day 3: Taunton-Tiverton-Bampton-Dulverton with big hills at the end of the day! 😬
Once again, thank you for your kind messages and donations. We are cruising towards our target of £1000 for the Littlest Wildlife Hotel. Please keep spreading the word and help us to get more donations!
https://www.totalgiving.co.uk/mypage/henrysbtobchallenge
