Trip Home

We had arranged a van hire as this seemed to be the best way to get home. I requested a van, to carry a tandem and bags. The saloon arrived at 9.30am. I had already split the tandem so decided to try it in the saloon which luckily had split folding seats. The tandem, our luggage, Ann, myself and driver all fitted in and off to Barnstaple to do the paperwork. Enterprise, the hire co., then said we could have the van outside that had just been returned, but as we had everything in the car we said we will stick with that. They then got a call to say a car had not been delivered, so they offered to waive the one way fee, £100, if we took the van, they also knocked off a few other charges so we paid £40.70 for the one way hire, and diesel. The train fare would have been £241.
We stopped off at Bridgwater to drop the wheel off for rebuilding, SJS took it immediately, rebuilt it while we were having lunch in town, and then we were ready to carry on.

All in all a great trip, coastal paths, canal paths, old rail lines across country and almost crossing two countries. Mainly staying off the beaten track and always quiet.
Apart from the problem with the spokes, some noticed 'spokes' were not mentioned after we received the spares from SJS, and true to form, having 36 spares, we did not have another breakage. No punctures this trip and we did have a few rougher sections, and in many areas fresh path clearance was evident with brambles etc on the path but no problems. We probably carried about 80lbs in weight, including camping gear etc. This should be well within the carrying capacity of the bike, but I would like to cut the weight a bit. The mix of camping and hotels worked well, but we did miss the warmer weather we hoped for. Another time I think we would go north to south.

The route was well signed most of the way, although not always with the Velodessee sign. As long as you were aware what route the area or department were using for their section of the whole route that was fine. For example the Devon section use national Route 7, which is very well signed and with very clear alternatives. But at no point in Devon did we see a sign referring to La Velodessee. It would have been good to have at least something at the start or end. At Ilfracombe the final sign sent us into a car park at the harbour's edge, yes we could 'wet the wheel', but a sign or board showing the start/finish of the route would have been nice. A problem with good signage is that it easy to rely on it totally until it vanishes, then you have to find out where you are and where to go.

I will hopefully put on some photos and provide a link to them.
Thanks for the comments, now where next??