Saturday, 28th August, 2010

Woke up this morning feeling dreadful.  I have not managed to shake this cold, indeed it seems to be getting worse!  Nothing more terrifying knowing that you have a big challenge ahead of you and you feel like you have nothing in the tank for it.  Anyway, I'm taking plenty of vitamin C, trying to stay hydrated and adopting the 'feed a cold, starve a fever' approach, carb-loading like crazy.

the bikes were loaded into the van yesterday after Ben and I dropped ours at one of Telstra's hosting centre in London, and they are all neatly wrapped and ready to meet us in St Just on monday - thanks Kevin for sorting this out!

in the meantime I've been out and bought a new bag today specifically for all the kit i need to take for this trip.  Apparently we are only permitted a maximum of 20Kg per bag, one bag per person.  Makes sense as there are 31 of us doing this trip.  Most of what I've packed is unsurprisingly cycling related, but I've got to a stage now where the bag feels pretty heavy and i've not even packed any casual clothes for the evenings, or the medical kit that I put together based on Discover Adventure's recommendations.  hmm, going to have to leave some stuff behind, but pretty much all of it is essential.  maybe i just need one pair of pants for the trip ;-)

i also managed to be vaguely prepared and get a ticket from Huntingdon station to get me into london for monday.  Going to get the 6:59am to make 100% certain i'm in Paddington station for the 10:06am.  Apparently we have to sit on the left hand side of the train to get some good views once we get down to Devon and Cornwall - must remember that.

 My wife and our two girls presented me with a good luck card and some items to take with me - some fabric wash, thermal blanket (just in case), and a 'microfibre' towel - again probably going to be useful in the day pack to meet us at stops and dry off a bit. thanks girls!  Talking of weather.....  looks like weather for the start is sunny and the wind is pretty light (at the moment).  The wind map I've just looked at seems to think that we are not going to have the wind at our backs, if anything we will be cycling into it - it was never going to be easy.  is it too late to ask my Dad if I can borrow his motorbike I wonder?  right, gotta go and figure out how I am going to re-arrange this bag, and do I need an industrial sized tub of Sudocrem?  I mean really?