Last Saturday I made my first trip to Clearbrook and back, on my bike. I enjoyed it very much as the weather was sunny and not too cold, and I took my time to take in the scenery as I cycled along. Here is the cycle recorded on Strava.

The upward trip to Clearbrook was interesting as once I had gone through the tunnel on Drake’s Trail (which wasn’t as dark as previous), there was a sign up to say that the cycle path was closed ahead due to a fallen down tree. So I had to leave the path and go on the road and up the steepest hill you can imagine! It was hellish and I couldn’t ride up at all, so had to push the bike up the majority of it! It wasn’t just me though as some road bikers up ahead had to push their bikes up as well and they were clearly fitter than me! Once I got to the top, I had to have a bit of a rest as was dead on my feet. Once I had recovered though, I made my way along the road and cycled down into Clearbrook, stopping outside of the village hall for a rest, an energy drink and some biscuits. The sun was shining and I have to say that it was a lovely scene (photographs can be seen below).

After about 15-20 minutes, I got up and started on the journey home. It only took about 40 minutes to get to Clearbrook, which was a lot less time than I thought it would be, so I knew roughly how long it would take me to get home. I let Kelly know I was on my way back and set off. The trip home was eventful as, whilst I was probably going along at my top speed, a big dog jumped out at me on the cycle path and I ended up skidding for about 2 metres and only just missing it! The owner could only grunt and didn’t apologise at all so I wasn’t best pleased, especially as my rear brake had locked so I had to give it a bit of a kick to get it loose again! Wasn’t happy at all!

When I had made it back to Bickleigh, and was just cycling up the hill towards Roborough, I heard an Owl hooting in the trees nearby. I decided to stop and turn around, so cycled back to where I had heard the noise. I waited and listened for several minutes, and even tried to make some hooting noises of my own, but couldn’t see or hear an owl anywhere. In fact the only birds I saw were a Jay and a Wood Pigeon. I have a feeling it flew off just as I stopped the bike to turnaround, as I think I caught a glimpse of a large bird fly off out of the corner of my eye. Shame really as it would have been really cool to see a wild Owl, especially as it was mid-morning and they wouldn’t normally be out and about at this time.

All in all, it was an enjoyable first trip to Clearbrook, and I am looking forward to doing it again and possibly even further up to Yelverton!