Sadly the rumours of my return to England have not been exaggerated. On the morning of the 5th Day, having covered 325 miles in 4 days, I woke up with a fairly annoying pain in my right knee. It got a lot worse so over the next 3 days I tried to track down some medical advice, and when I finally did it became apparent that I would not be able to complete the tour, and so had to come home. Below is the first half of my diary from the week. If you dont fancy reading it all then check out the Route and Photos for the short version...  My New Bike! A Kona Sutra (2011) Stressful Few Days Before Departure I woke up on Wednesday 8th June very tired and more than a little bit terrified; I had only managed to get 5 hours sleep the night before. A few days previous I had the misfortune of being informed that the bike parts I had ordered some time ago and had wanted fitted on the bike well in advance of the leaving date were not going to turn up in time. This turn of events pretty much rendered my bike not capable of covering the distance. After a bit of a freak out, it was decided the only real option I had was to buy a new bike for the trip. With this option came the complication of parts working their way loose and needing to be tightened, as well as cables needing to be retensioned during the trip, but its the only option I had. So after a lot of running around I ended up buying a Kona Sutra (love the name!). The one problem with this was that it was tuesday afternoon, less than 24hours before I was to leave, and I had to get the bike back from Evans Cycles warehouse in Gatwick. It didnt fit in the car so I ended up getting a train back to bedford and cycling 20 miles home with it; not the relaxing day I wanted before I started the tour! I spent all evening fitting all the bits I needed to the bike (pedals, water bottle cages, panniers, etc.) and then went to bed.  The Big Send Off The Send Off Back to the 8th June, I woke up got ready and then cycled the 11.5 miles over to the hospital (I had no other way to get the bike to the start line). Once there I strapped the panniers on and freaked out a bit. People started to turn up to wish me well and good luck. At this point I did start to feel very self conscious about my rather tight clothing... After an awesome send off (and a lot of photos!) I headed off. Thank you to everyone came to see me leave, really appreciated it.  Waiting For My Sister In London After Day 1 Day 1 - 76 Miles (not including the 11 miles I cycled to get to the Hospital) So I set off from Papworth Hospital, fairly terrified about what I had got myself into. The first few miles flew by, but I will admit they were not that much fun. Somewhere around Standon the skys darkened and it started to rain, not a problem due to my shinny new waterproofs (Courtesy of BikeTart). A bit later in the day I managed to get lost and ended up in Ware about 4 miles from where I wanted to be, so after a bit of random guessing and a glance at a compass I managed to find myself again and was on my way. I made my way through Epping Forest and the finally hit something that looked like it was London! Cycling through London in the afternoon was definitely not a lot of fun, despite the slight worry of being run over it was mostly the bordem that got to me. I made my way through London towards the Woolwich ferry by which time the skys cleared up and the rained stopped; It had rained 4 times that day. To get on the ferry there was a massive queue of cars, but as I was on a bike I was allowed to jump to the front which was awesome! The ferry ride was cool (and short), the sun shining down on the Thames Barrier was pretty awesome, unfortunatly I was too lazy to take a picture and planned to take one on the way back... After getting off the ferry I made my way through the last 5 miles of the day and went and met my sister, Kate, at the train station as she was on her way home from work. After that I bought some food and went back to hers to eat. I had to call the parents to assure them that I was ok and then I got an early night crashing on my sisters living room floor. One thing that I definitely noticed on this day was that I did not drink enough water, I felt very dehydrated when I got to Kate's. So I would definitely have to drink a lot more from then on.  Chilling Out On The Ferry To Dunkirk Late On Day 2 Day 2 - 99 Miles I woke up on day two to the worst alarm I have ever heard (cheers Kate...) Although I had hoped to get off quickly I ended up spending an hour and a half packing up my stuff, eating, briefly washing and also faffing around with the bike. I left Kates house at 7:30 with roughly 73 miles to cover before 15:00. Getting out of London was mostly a bit boring and loud with all the cars; at one point I accidentally went on a particularly large bit of the A2 (3 lanes) for 2 junction before promptly getting off the big scary road. Although in fairness it was kind of fun because I bombed it along at 33mph for awhile. After re-finding myself I carried on towards Dover. Somewhere around Dartford I found a hellish hill that was annoyingly called 'Mount Pleasant', I promise you it was not! Unfortunatly when I got to Rochester I found that I had lost a section of the map I had printed out, which left me at a loss as to where to go next A quick call to my Dad had me cycling in the right direction again and all was well. An hour or so later, having reappeared on the next section of map, I missed a turning in Faversham. Rather than cycling 100 metres back the way I came I decided it would be a lot more fun to improvise my route a bit and so I headed off to Canterbury. In hindsight this was not the smartest thing I could have done, although it was fun. It took a long time to get to Canterbury as I had to stick to small roads that insisted on leading me towards the A2, which I tried very hard to avoid. When I finally made it to Canterbury the heavens opened and I saw a lot of people getting soaked, luckily I put my waterproofs on just in time! Once again I realised that I was a tad lost and had to resort to calling my dad for directions. After a long dragged out conversation I set off for Dover. As some kind of punishment for calling him for help my dad took me all over the South Downs. A particularly memorable hill was called Duck Street; I didnt see any ducks, I suspect it was because there is no way they would have been able to walk up this hill.  Early start on day 3. This is where I pitched my tent in the dark... After many an hour I finally made it to Dover, and I had most definitely missed my ferry. As it was 19:00 I thought it would be best to buy a ticket for the next day and then crash out in the ferry terminal. However when I went to buy my ticket I failed to tell my master plan to the man in the booth so found myself booked on to the next available ferry, which was at 20:00. This turn of events unfortunatly meant that I was going to turn up in France at 23:00 (their time); by the time I arrived it was very dark. After getting off the ferry I quickly fled Dunkirk in search of a place to put my tent up so I could finally sleep. Even with my bike likes on I was struggling to see very much so had to resort to putting on my headtorch as well. At around 1:00 I was getting desperate and pitched my tent in a very small patch of crop free dirt in a field near Pitgam; It was not ideal, but the best I could come up with in pitch black. Finally managed to sleep at 2:00.  Before The Heavens Opened On Day 3 Day 3 - 77 Miles In the middle of the night I heard a noise outside and thought it was an angry frenchman coming to kill me for being in his field. So in an attempt to placate my would be assassin I tried to strike up a conversation. As it turns out it was just a fox that made the noise and I was officially mental. I got up at 7:00, having slept for 5 hours. I quickly packed up my tent and ran away before a real angry frenchman could find me. It was thankfully a dry morning and I managed to fly through a fair few miles. However in the afterrnoon the sky started falling and I was quickly soaked through by the most horrendous rain I have ever been in. As I was soaking wet (even with my 'waterproofs' on) I got very very cold, but there wasnt really any option to stop as I didnt fancy pitching my tent in this rain. A little while later I had the pleasure of being knocked off my bike on a corner by a frenchman, although I wasnt hurt by the fall it did (combined with the insane rain) put me in a really dark mood. Later on I came across a closed section of road that I had wanted to go on. Rather than follow the detour signs I opted for the second option, and ignored the signs, it did involve pushing my bike over a few mounds of stacked up dirt but once that was out the way I had my own, private, newly laid road for a few miles. It was around here that I started to enjoy all the cycling, it had take 2 and a half days to get in to it but it was becoming alot more enjoyable. At around 18:30 the rain finally stop, and even better the sun actually came out! I cycled on for another hour before stopping just outside a forest, near Marchiennes. The spot I found to camp was amazing, mostly because it was so flat which was great after the previous night of sleeping in a ploughed bit of field. That's It for Part 1, Check out part 2 for more info! If you're bored of the diary by now but would like to know what I plan to do to make up the distance then check out 'Papworth to Geneva, 2nd Attempt'. Cheers, Jamie Please consider supporting my challenge and donate to Papworth Hospital Charity, even if it is just £1 (I promise this amount is entirely acceptable and really appreciated!), it all adds up and can dramatically change someone’s life for the better! Comments are closed.
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