Day Five
My Dad called in a favour with a client of his, Dr Stan Kay's practice - The Harley Medical Clinic - to sort out Ellie's face, er, mouth, well tooth. Huge thanks to Andreas for the fantastic work on Ellie's poorly tooth.
Fortunately for us, Ellie wasn't as encombered by her denist experience as David:
Ventured through the rest of central London, stopping at Evans's Crouch End Branch, a cycle shop. Charlotte picked up a pair of clip on shoes and some gloves ect. I got myself some Lycra shorts and discovered that I had cycled the first 150 miles with my back break on, Awesome. Also found out that I have a "weak back wheel" and a broken spoke. Fuck. Not too much we can really do about that one so we'll crack on and see what happens with it. Unfortunately wheels tend to be the most expensive parts of bikes.
Naviagated through the north London suburbs and arrived at my mums. Had a huge meal and one to many glasses of wine with a few family and friends. Sleep.
NEWS! Rob is joining us!
Day Six
Sore head in the morning but we had some time to kill so went for a ten mile ride without kit to loosen up. Charlotte wasn't quite used to the clip on's she had got the day before and fell. Into moving traffic. She is fine.
Loaded on the bikes and cycled Arvil and Rod's in Willingale, Essex, a mere 20 or so miles away, so was pretty easy going.On route a car lost control behind us, veered into on-coming traffic, hit an on-coming car, span back through the traffic and stopped short of us by literally 3 metres. That was exciting. Cycled past a tank filled with school kids. Strange journey.
Arrived at a beautiful cottage in the Essex country side. Sort of, kind of, arguably had my first fall on their gravel drive - but I'll leave that up to you to decide if it was or not. I too was fine.
Set up camp in our hosts beautifully manicured lawn (felt bad) and sheltered in the house from the rain. Had food and realised that we had a 60 mile stretch to Harwich the following day crossing 3 1:50000 OS Maps.
Day Seven
Early start, up at 6 am to pack away the kit and get some food in before the daughting 60 miles. Waved goodbye to Avril and Rod and smashed out the first 20 miles without a drama.
Stopped in an awesome pub, The Square and Compasses, where we had free tea and crisps and finally sorted out Ellie's gears. She had been having trouble changing into 3rd gear.
Upon cycling into Witham we cycled past two old boys also out of a cycle. Upon entering the town we hadn't a fucking clue where we were. The chaps caught up with us and offered directions before cycling with us for a short while to show us on our way. Felt like we had ourselves a pair of fighter escorts...
Stopped 10 miles later for Lunch at a place called The Exchange, Tiptree, Essex and got another donation.
Cycling through the Essex country side at 17 miles an hour and a tractor appeared round a bend infront of us taking up the whole road. Another problem with the weight on the bikes is that they take forever to stop. I managed to bring my bike to a halt but Ellie behind me was not quite so lucky, catching her wheel on my pannier and sliding down the road on her already sore backside. Patched up with some gauze and bandages and she too is fine, if not more sore than before!
But the going was getting tough. 10 miles later, the going was even tougher. The last ten miles sucked. The wind had picked up, and cycling into it is grueling. Starting to perfect the whole "drafting" technique where turns are taken to lead the pack and battle the wind, it worked well and saw us home to Harwich! YAY!
By this point it was close to 7 and Dave's train (pussy) had arrived at 6.30 so we hurried to meet him at Harwich Interntional station. Went and found a campsite for the night and got some fish and chips. Quater to 10 and Dave went and picked up Rob an brought him back to the campsite. Had a few beers, bottle of plonk and sleep. Team Complete!
Day Eight
On the ferry and blagged a free breakfast as we're on a charity bike ride. We've managed very well with the charity blag, raising about £80 in donations along the way and numerous freebies. Have a feeling in The Netherlands and Germany blagging for a British Forces charity might not be quite as successful.
Also managed to get up onto the ferry's bridge and had a nose around.
We're arriving in Rotterdam 1630 local time and then the adventure will truely begin...
P.S. The pictures are coming, the Internet in the North Sea is slow.
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