tomorrow

I think this is everything. Car at mum and dad’s. Rottable food out of the house. Bin goes out in an hour. Hours spent creating smart playlists on the iPod I’ll probably forget to put in my bag. Milk needs a drinkin. Bike needs loading. Need to rememeber the chilled rose and chocolate mouse for the boat journey. Pack everything into little ziplock food bags, then into bin bags, then into bike bags, then onto bikes. Worry about what keys do what and go where. Brother to water plants. Weather to get good. Boat and trains to run smoothly. Bikes to not get nicked. Farmers and landlords of pubs to be generous with field space and scrumpy. Make sure I put the right stuff into my bike bags and not (secretly, without myself knowing) replace the correct kit with bags of flour, big books and lead weights….only to be discovered in Portsmouth tomorrow morning. Let’s Go!!!

I would have to admit at this point in time, I am a little nervous – nervous in a good way but nervous nonetheless.

Tomorrow is the day I leave for Lands End. Pete and Mary are due to catch the ferry over from Guernsey this afternoon. For them, the reality and enormity of this adventure is even more immediate.

Strangely enough, the most poignant thing I am concerned with is not fitness or the route but weight. I have packed my bags and they were heavy. So, I ditched a load of stuff, repacked and guess what, they are still heavy! One of the most common things I have read from other cyclist’s blogs and books is that they wish they had taken less stuff. However, we are likely to see all types of weather along the way and the last thing you want to be is cold, wet or uncomfortable.

Having to wash kit pretty much every day to keep the latent weight down reminded me of my time in South America, whilst on an Operation Raleigh expedition. Though the day was far less complicated in terms of activities vying for one’s attention, it was the necessities that were first and foremost: Collecting wood, building a fire, cooking, sleeping and chores. Long evenings were spent entrenched about the campfire, regaling the collective with stories and jokes. Mercifully, there were no ‘Kum Ba Yah’ moments.

We hope to maintain this blog on a regular basis, provided Orange can get their act together and deliver my new mobile phone to me today. It has been fantastic not having a phone for a month but I think the poor bugger who was passed on my old mobile number will probably be thankful if I manage to get reconnected so people stop pestering him.

Stay in touch and keep reading!