Escorted to Wetherby!

What a fabulous start to my tour!

7 lovely friends, including the wonderful surprise of my favourite 12 year old, Eleanor, pedalled with me to Wetherby in gorgeous warmth and sunshine for afternoon tea. I think we wiped the cafe out of tea and cake!

The attached photo was kindly taken by the cafe owner outside the cafe of the whole group. (I think Bri on the far left was checking his phone for the route to our next destination!) From left to right: Brian, Jack, Tony, Ade, me, Chris and then Eleanor and Ken stood in front.

And then it was a short ride to Wetherby Services and my hotel for the evening. I've a lovely room and walk-in shower. I'd better make the most of it before a fortnight of camping! The bike bus will collect me from here around 4.30am tomorrow morning.

I must admit, I thought I'd find it really hard cycling on the fully-laden tourer today. Usually, I do several cycle-camping weekends in the Yorkshire Dales but I've not done any cycle-camping since I abandoned my tour of Lancashire last August thanks to ex-hurricane Bertha. So it's been a full year and I'm now very much used to be lightweight road bike (lightweight until I put my heavy bag on).

However, I felt absolutely fantastic on it! The bike is amazing (Ridgeback World Voyage) and I settled into it almost immediately. There were a few wobbly moments but it does take a short while to get used to handling all that weight. I loved it!

I've enjoyed a slightly less nutritious than usual evening meal tonight - wholemeal veggie pasty with spicy wedges (the wholemeal bit sounded more healthy than most of the fast-food options here) and then a scrumptious rhubarb & strawberry cheesecake with a bowl of fresh strawberries and cream - YUM! And oodles of tea of course.

Thank you to everyone who accompanied me to Wetherby today. Bernard wants to know what you were all doing out instead of working and paying his pension!! (We passed Bernard and Geoff H en route.)

Jack and Ellie, thank you for the lovely surprise - you managed to keep Eleanor turning up a complete secret!

Ken, thank you for letting me have lunch at yours, for the big mug of tea and for the egg custard tarts even though we decided not to eat them (next time though) :-)

Tony, thank you for taking a day off work to pedal with me. You and I were the only workers in the group that should be out paying Bernard and everybody else's pensions!

Ade, thank you for coming with us to find out where you'll be picking me up from in a couple of weeks!

Chris, I look forward to the reports of the Pyrenees vs the Alps for next August's tour :-)

Bri, thank you for not falling off your bike and breaking your ribs this time!

Until the next update, do think of me at 4.30am tomorrow morning!

Xxx

Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone on O2