Rest Day

Rest and recouperation mean different things to different people.

Chris spent the day relaxing, a short walk and some time being creative on the iPhone.

James spent the day either in the pharmacy or icing his knee.

Tom ran some errands and spent a few hours tinkering with bikes.

Lizzie did about 13 loads of washing for us all (muchas gracias), ferried people to and from train stations, and cooked curry for 8.

Andrew dozed for the morning, frazzled Bacon for lunch (mmmm) and made some essential weight saving changes to his bike. He's currently fiddling with an unusual looking lump on the side of his knee.

Yorky ran 17 miles.

I rode down to Lancaster, the heavens opening as I departed. I bought a sausage roll and a muffin. I fell off my bike. I walked into a bike shop looking like a drowning cat washed up on the beach and asked "do you sell waterproofs?" "Not really," they said. "Oh... drat." I zoomed back, gave Bianca a clean and washed all my cycling gear. Then I put my feet up and battered a pack of digestives.

There was another significant event today, the ceremonious passing of the car keys from Kim to new-comer Mary. Kim has supported us for the first week with exceptional patience, now Mary picks up the baton till John O'Groats. Hopefully she'll be able to put up with us. We seem to be getting more demanding as the days go by. Mary already had a new tyre express delivered to her place in London which she had to bring with her. "8 pairs of brake pads, please", "we need more milk than you can imagine", "I need smokey Bacon crisps" and "we need cream for the strudel" are some of the other requests being thrown up.

Without Kim and Mary, this ride would be a million times harder, and a million times less fun, so we thank them both.

The other job for today was to get the final days mapped out. Routemaster Tom got to work on Google Maps and plotted the final 495 miles up to the North East of Scotland. He then got to work with the ice bag on his own knee, with James in the foreground, in a rather bizarre Yoga inspired stretch/knee icing position.

Tomorrow will see us cross the border, with a 75 mile jaunt to Gretna. We'll be skirting around the East side of the Lake District but some of the hills are unavoidable.

Time to sleep, then let's get riding.