Well despite a rather hectic day at work and embarrassingly thinking the train left 10 minutes later than it did, I managed to catch it ok and made it through the torrential rain to my mother's house in Totnes. Here she's kindly fed me and put me up, and I'll leave early tomorrow - hopefully with only light rain, if clear skies are too much to hope for.

I have everything packed in just two back panniers - tent, sleeping kit, stove, cookset, clothes, town shoes and electronics - they are bulging but just about close up and keep everything dry. The weight isn't too bad, and I managed the short ride across the town and up the 16% hill into Bridgetown without too much difficulty, so that bodes well.

One annoyance is the Starcross ferry over the Exe appears not to be running - due of course to the bad weather. I was cursing this, but then a quick bit of route planning and I realise it's almost perfectly flat up the Exe estuary, where I might be able to take a different ferry at Topsham or just use the bridge. So the main shame is the Starcross ferry sounded really fun.

Forecast isn't great, but the wind has really dropped, so that's something. Somewhat questioning my wisdom of attempting this trip under these conditions, but either way it'll be an adventure, so what the heck.