A couple of weeks ago, Robert Zarywacz (@robertz on twitter) invited me to join him in a prize he had won. It was a days electric bike cycling from http://www.experienceexmoor.co.uk/ (@experencEXMOOR on twitter). Mrs Z was not keen to take part, so I immediately said yes. For me it meant a really early start, getting up at 6am, because I am on holiday at Tamar Lake. I got an early night in the night before, but unfortunately, woke at 1.30am, then was unable to get back to sleep. Really tired, I set off back to Ilfracombe at 6.15am to be picked up by Robert at 9.25am. When we arrived at ExperiencEXMOOR, Neil gave us an explanation about how the bikes worked, including pannier bags for our packed lunch, sun cream and cameras. Also, an impressive list of free charging points, stretching from Ilfracombe to Lynton and Lynmouth. After a little paper work, and a helmet fitting, it was time to test the bikes around the court yard. I went first. Now before I arrived, I had assumed, being electric bikes, you wouldn’t have to pedal, but this is not the case, you do have to pedal, otherwise they just stop. The first thing you notice is they accelerate like a formula 1 racing car. With a couple of turns of the pedals you’ve hit 30 kph. It takes a little getting used to. After a short while we were both ready to start a great adventure. With a rough plan of the route we wanted to take, which would take in Lynton and Lynmouth, and the Valley of the Rocks, we cycled up the drive and turned left on to the road for the first time and headed for the Hunters Inn. http://twitpic.com/ahz67c When we arrived at The Hunters Inn, knowing Julian Gurney’s (@NTExmoorRanger on twitter) office is near there, we checked to see he was home. He was, and with only a brief conversation about cake, Robert and I had an ice cream. http://twitpic.com/ahqo7d Soon we were off again, heading towards Lynton Steam Railway http://www.lynton-rail.co.uk/ for another brief stop. http://twitpic.com/ahqm6h http://twitpic.com/ahz5pv http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLQ2ma3njUk&feature=youtube_gdata_player And so on to Lynmouth. Approaching Lynmouth, we were beginning to feel the affects of half a days cycling, and considered not going down into Lynmouth, because of the massive climb out afterwards. “We could cycle down and take the cliff railway back up” I suggested. “Are you sure they take bikes?” Robert asked. “Not sure no, about 85%” I replied. With no mobile phone or internet signals we were unsure what to do. So has with so many of life’s great decisions we flipped a coin. Heads we go to Lynton, tails we go to Lynmouth. The toss http://twitpic.com/ai3omv Heads we go to Lynton, tails we go to Lynmouth. I secretly hoped for heads. I really couldn’t face that climb out of Lynmouth. http://twitpic.com/ai3pyg Down we go http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOyDbA8SaiQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player At the bottom of the hill we stopped. We decided to check out the cliff railway, to find out if they did take bikes. They did. Neil, then happened to see us and caught up with us at the cliff railway. He asked how we were doing. All was well. We had planned to have our packed lunch at Lynmouth, and recharge our bike batteries. We had a choice of charging points, and chose The Glen Lyn Gorge http://www.theglenlyngorge.co.uk/ therefore recharging with the power of water. We left our bikes at the Glen, and went for a wonder around Lynmouth, and to eat lunch. We wanted to give the bikes a good charge, so we had an hour to kill. We had lunch by the river. http://twitpic.com/ahz5g6 http://twitpic.com/ahuh6w Afterwards went for a walk around the town. http://twitpic.com/ahs44n http://twitpic.com/ahuhfp http://twitpic.com/ahuhhi http://twitpic.com/ahuhss After 1 hour 15 minutes we were back in the saddle heading for The Valley of the Rocks via Lynton. We didn’t take the cliff railway after all. With the help of our charged up batteries, getting to The Valley of the Rocks was not as bad as imagined. We rested our selves recharged the bikes one more time. The cherry pie looked amazing, we couldn’t help ourselves. http://twitpic.com/ai7gz5 After the cherry pie, it was time to pass though The Valley of the Rocks, see the white lady http://twitpic.com/ahuij4 http://twitpic.com/ahui45 and head for home. We cycled on through Woodybay, onto Martinhoe, passed the Hunters Inn one more time. Finally pushed on up the hill to drop the bikes back to Neil. A very tiring, but really enjoyable day. Robert dropped me back home, I drive back to Tamar Lakes after doing a couple of jobs at home. Arrived back at the caravan at 9.15pm Shower! zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz