NORTHEASTWARDS: Day 1 - Penzance. I'm cyclecamping 400 miles from Penzance to Boston.

This was a surprise tour... to me! Woke up: raining! Looked at phone: tomorrow's forecast nice! Planning: maybe a train to Leicester and ride home with the SW wind...? Realisation: the forecast is good for a week - I could do a tour! Idea: I could do Penzance to Boston like 50 years ago! Reality: Must be home in a week! No bike spaces on trains for 3 days! Except: there IS a bike space TONIGHT on the overnight sleeper from Paddington Plan: Pack NOW for a camping trip. Catch 18:51 train to London and then the overnight sleeper from Paddington to Penzance (too late to book a cabin). ***** It had stopped raining as I rode to the station. On the way in to London there was a lovely sunset. I rode gently to Paddington in the dark. Bit of a bump from behind as I went over a speed bump but I could see nothing wrong in darkness. Loaded the bike at Paddington; picked up my bags to go to my seat - I've only got 3 panniers! My bag of clothes is missing! Do I need it??? There's 40 minutes to departure. Unload bike and backtrack along route. Black bin bags everywhere! My pannier is black too! Headlamp illuminates a reflector on one of the black lumps. It's MINE! A million thanks to the kind person who picked it up and stood it there! Back on the train 15 minutes before departure! I slept in my seat which wasn't comfortable but I dozed for about 4 hours. There was a LEJOG rider on the train too - lightly loaded for high mileage and hotels. I think there was 1 bike space unused for the whole trip. I had several chats with the buffet steward whose son cycled. When I went to get coffee and yet more cake for breakfast he threw in some battered croissants and biscuits because he was "concerned about my ride!" That was nice and very helpful! In ~1979 I rode from Boston to Lands End (and I rode back again cos I couldn't afford the train fare). I have fading memories (and fading photos) of nice places I saw on the way and I want to see them again: Cornwall's North coast, Dartmoor, the Foss Way near Bath and the Cotswolds. My route was one I created on cycle.travel a few weeks ago while daydreaming one evening, setting a start and finish and some waypoints to force it through those remembered places (and to keep it off the route I did in LEJOG). For this ride I just reversed that route (which had begun from Boston) so that I could use the forecast SW wind by riding northeastwards. That was easy, (except the wind wasn't SW very often). My biggest problem was that I have to be back home in 7 days or less. But this time I DO have money for a train if necessary! I think the video shows the ride quite well so I don't need to write much about it. I knew I was crossing King Harry Ferry, but I didn't know where Trelissick was so that really was a nice surprise. There were beautiful cliffs, valleys, coves beaches and villages - but they're in the video. I knew it would be hard with the hills because Cornwall is notorious for that (and Devon's worse). I just plodded steadily on in low gear. By the end of the day I was slightly behind the necessary target for 7 day completion - but I didn't miss by much and lack of sleep the previous night won't have helped - and tomorrow's another day! Thanks for watching.