Well, what a day to kick things off with!
All of my training and dedication when things ‘got a little wet outside’ have paid off- because we did 89km- over half of that in the rain. And when I say rain it was like a typical English Winter
(I’ll eventually upload an album of all our pictures but the weather was that bad I couldn’t take many without damaging my camera)
It was chucking it down and bouncing off the ground and soaking us through to the bone.
Luckily, we had waterproofs but it still got in a few nooks and crannies (& our the visibility from the glasses was limited to the bottom half of my right lens- Zero with no glasses)
We even managed to get lost because some Mancunians had stolen the signs!!
When we got to the campsite we had 5 minutes before closing at the shop. Quick!- grab that beer, them crisps, that sausage roll and some emergency chocolate
By the time we’d arrived at our pitch the weather was just nice enough to give us a 10 minute slot to pitch the tent and wash down the bikes. With nothing else to get on with we swiftly headed for the showers- something we were ‘dreaming’ of since about 30km into the ride.
A lovely woman from Finland was camping next to us and we made friends. She kindly offered to dry our clothes in her bathroom as they had a heater- bonus! (They REALLY needed doing and the dryer took tokens- from the shop which had closed)
After that we rustled up a cuppa and se noodles (not too interesting.. I feel there’s no need to delve into the details)
That leads me to now, waiting in my pj’s in the cold wash room, huddled in a corner with my phone on charge and no signal. All I can do is watch the battery percentage roll up and up.. Slowly.
Hopefully I’ll have a decent nights sleep and fingers crossed the weather will have improved. My riding buddy has just burst in to tell me of the break in the clouds and there’s a bit of blue sky! Says a lot about the day when that excites you
Callum
Callum Aveling 