Following a great night's sleep and cracking breakfast at the George Hotel in Burry Port (with many thanks to Hefin Williams for kindly putting us up) we were soon back on the road.
The day began damp and breezy, and rapidly became wet and windy! We were soaked within an hour and remained that way throughout the day. The wonderful easterly tail wind which we had yesterday had turned to a strong westerly head wind. This combined with our first taste of the Welsh Hills made for a challenging day.
By now we felt we were well into Wales- the country of dragons and leeks, Brains Beer and valleys, and apparently a lot of suped up cars!
After slogging our way through the elements for over 50km, we arrived in Tenby (our half way point for the day) and quickly settled into a cafe to try to warm up up and have an early lunch to recharge the batteries. What we hadn't realised was that we weren't in in Tenby at all, but rather the small seaside town of Saunderfoot. We therefore needed to get our wet kit back on after a brief lunch and plough on over several more windswept hills in driving rain before reaching our actual half way point - the picturesque seaside town of Tenby and it's phenomenal new RNLI station.
Although the weather was terrible, Tenby was teaming with people being the Queens Jubilee celebrations. The lifeboat station was also filled with visitors, however we received a very warm welcome from the crew including a fantastic cup of tea, and a photograph with 'Stormy Stan' on the boat!
Being soaked and cold, we decided to crack on and were soon in the saddle again, battling the elements and hills!
It was a tough afternoon, but after 95km, we arrived at Angle RNLI station. It really was a heavenly sight after such a miserable day!
Rich the Mechanic and Andy the Coxen, kindly came down to let us in and give us a coffee and a tour of the station. What an incredible place and absolutely amazing setting. Perched on the rocky estuary edge in a very remote position, the station houses a Tamar offshore lifeboat on ramp, and crew room above with 270 degree views of the estuary (our accommodation for the night). The estuary was more industrial than we had seen to date, with oil and gas refineries and shipping along the far shore, but this made for some incredible recounts of rescues by the RNLI crews. Rich and Andy looked after us like kings.
Following a much needed shower to wash and warm up, we headed into the local village for a pint and supper at the local pub. before heading back to the station for an early night.
We are now in the final stages of preparation for the 3rd leg of our RNLI Tour of Britain.
This year we are due to cycle the whole of the Welsh coast via every Lifeboat Station, beginning in Newport where we finished off stage 2 in August last year and finishing in Chester, back in England.
Our plan is the following:
Friday 1st June: 85km
Newport, Penarth, Barry Docks, Atlantic College, Porthcawl
Saturday 2nd June: 102km
We have coincided the trip with the Queens Jubilee Celebrations, as this will hopefully present excellent fundraising opportunities on our way around, with many of the population on holiday over this period.
We will be embarking on this leg of the expedition, which will see us cycle around 650 miles unsupported around the Welsh coast over 9 days, with mixed fitness levels... Following a cycling accident in December involving a close encounter with a bus and a large pothole, Nick has only returned to cycling in the past 7 weeks, and with builders in his flat has had little time to train other than cycling across London to work.
Rad on the other hand has done some fantastic training, including cycling to work during the weeks, weekend training sessions up the infamous Box Hill in Surrey, and a four day cycling trip across Italy which included some monumental hill climbs. Nick is currently in the process our sourcing a bungee to clip on to Rad's bike for a tow...
We will be starting this leg with a running sponsorship total of over £13,000 (inc gift aid), with particular thanks to the Mill Bay Owners and Knight Frank for their extremely generous recent donations. We are however hoping to reach £15,000 by the end of the leg, so any donations would be greatly appreciated.http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/TheRNLItourofBritain
Please visit this blog for daily updates and photographs during the expedition, from 1st - 10th June 2012.
You can also follow us on twitter, our username is 'Rad_and_Nick'.
Here we go!
