Day 5 Exeter to Street

Started in the sunshine. As this was another fairly long ride we decided to go up the old A38 which was reasonably traffic free once you got out of Exeter. Traversed Taunton using cycle paths along canal towpaths in the main. Got back on the road at Creech St Michael. Then across the Somerset levels, with a final climb to the hostel at Street atop the Polden hills. Stage distance 57 miles, total so far 233.I have also saved a better version of this trip on USB. Will update when I get home.
Journal Day 5
Had a lovely breakfast conversing with a Canadian academic over here researching some local history. Then set off through the sunshine and rush hour traffic on the old A38. Not too busy a road generally. The object this morning was to eat some miles, so this is what we did. Stopped for a brew up near Appledore, then on to Taunton which we breezed though on National cycle route 3 and saw virtually nothing of the town and more importantly no traffic. Most of this route was on excellently surfaced canal towpaths. I have to thank Phil Horsley's brilliant guide for showing us the way. Came off the towpath at Creech St Michael and wandered through impossibly pretty villages on the Somerset levels. Through Atheley (apparently where King Alfred burned the cakes, surely he would have had his own cook!) and on to Burrowbridge and the peculier mound of Burrow Mump, a smaller version of Glastonbury Tor. Then cycled across the dead flat Kings Sedgemoor, the site of the last battle on English soil and what was once the sea bed, then on to Street hostal. A shorter day's ride than yesterday but we felt more tired. This may have been cumulative or because we did not eat as much today. Still I think we have broken the back of the south west now. Which by all accounts is the most difficult part of the whole journey.