And the journey begins...
after weeks and months of preparation the day has finally arrived. Yesterday night was still pretty busy with last minute preparations to get bike and provisions sorted and visiting an old friend who came over to London from Barcelona for a few days. Back at home by 10.30, thinking of last essentials like the spanner to tighten the nut on the car rack, taking out the butter from the freezer and so on.
This morning, early start at 6.45, quick breakfast (porridge oats, banana, tea), packing things in the car, saying byebye to Pam and my baby and off I went to pick up Deuans house to pick up one of our cameras. From there to Richmond to get Jorrin, drive to Oli, pack everything in his car and off we go... so I thought. As these things go, planning in one thing, execution another. I got to Jorrin's house - waking him up!!! We had a coffee and I got to observe Jorrin pack his things. Considering how much stuff he did over the last couple of days, taking on way too much work it was no wonder he had to catch up on some sleep. Well, well we got to Oli's house at 10.45. Meanwhile, Oli and Ian (our trusted driver, photographer, fellow cyclist) went to Evans Cycles to pcikup some pedals as Oli's weren't doing it anymore. This is where it all started to go wrong....
Oli's pedals arrived at his home (thanks to royal mail) whilst he went to get some elsewhere. As we got to his house he was back starting to fiddle with our luggage but not a serious attempt to really pack it into the car. Then it was my turn to pack things from my car into Oli's Saab Estate. I almost managed to get everything in - almost. We had to take half the stuff out and take apart everything that was still in boxes (spares, cameras, etc). With Tetris-style precision we managed to fit everything into the roof box, boot, under our legs, between ourselves and where ever we had space. THE CAR WAS FULL. A quick coffee later and we were ready to go. Only to realise that there was a strange sound coming from under the bonnet. One of the fuses made a really strange noise. We unplugged it, tried starting the car - but it didn't make a sound. The neighbour offered a jump lead whcih we kindly accepted. I drove my car in front, connected the cables and tried starting. Nothing. Someone came up with the idea to rev up the engine. This did the trick to start Oli's car. I took off the cables but really burnt my had as the uncoated metal must got really hot whilst starting the car. Oli did a quick round through the local neighbourhood to get some juice onto the battery, we all boarded and off we went! With the fuse having blown, we were left without electricity. Nobosy cared except Jorrin who still had to finish off a translation - well, that didn't happen now.
In Richmond we saw a pretty tragic bicycle car accident (driver pulling out of a side road without proper looking - BANG... didn't look too good for the cyclist who was on the floor with medics around him). We were on the road, finally. After a couple of miles we realised that there was a strange sound coming from the right rear axle. We thought it was just because the car was way too heavy now with drivers, bikes, gear, provisions and didn't pay too much attention. We went onto the motorway going to Bristol I got to cool my hands on a frozen can which helped get the swelling down. Near Bridgewater we stopped for petrol and also bought SD cards for the bullet cameras. At £35 per piece another expense added to the total bill for this journey. We stopped at another guy on the car park to ask for a wheel brace as we thought that the rear wheel may have come loose, it didn't fir. We drove around Bridgewater to find a mechanic but quickly saw Halfords. Friendly staff sorted us out with the right tool. All bolts were ok and we kept guessing what this sounds could be (too infrequent for wheel bearings) and shortly after concluded it could be the suspension bushing.... we couldn't care at this pint as it was almost 19.30 and another 2.5h to go.
We thought we got to the YHA, escaping death by a margin (thanks to Ian's quick reaction avoiding the ambulance coming head-on). We drove down a nice country lane, misguided by the SatNav, only to find ourselves looking into the most beautiful sunset we could imagine. No YHA in sight though. We turned back, got some shopping, asked for directions, and continued our journey. We got to Letchaven YHA (Lands End) at around 22.00. Damian greeted us with 4 cold beverages and I started making some food whilst (Couscous with Salmon/Veggi/Pasta sauce) whilst Oli made everyones beds (how very nice of him) and the other guys unpacking, sorting out technical stuff. We had a nice meal, sorted out cameras, video making, etc.
Off to bed at 1am, getting some 6h sleep to start refreshed onto our 1000 Miles Challenge - Lands End to John O'Groats. Tomorrow you'll hear how the first day went (guests of honour at the Eden Project and much more!!!)
over and out - d i r k
