After finishing work just before Christmas and enjoying a nice break visiting family, I’ve had a busy two weeks finalising my preparations for the big adventure (which is getting scarily real!) and sorting my house out.

I have done the last changes to the bike to get him ready for the tour, which was to change the tyres to Marathon Tours and get new tubes put in. While getting that done I got the spares that I think I need to cover most situations. These include:

• 3x Spare tubes (mostly the ones that have come out of the old tyres)
• 2x spokes
• 1x Chain
• 2x Chain links
• Deraulier hanger
• 3x hub bearings

And other odds and ends that should let me repair or bodge things till I can sort out a proper solution/fix to any problems that arise.

I have made the majority of the bags I will be using on my trip, and I spent a good chunk of the two weeks after Christmas working on my stem bag and handle bar bag. The stem bag used the pattern on bikepacking.com and the handle bar bag was a modified version of the saddle bag I made a while ago also using a guide/pattern from bikepacking.com. In the end with the rush for time my Mum ended up helping me to finish the bag. Thanks Mum! But it is a really useful size and fits the bike really well, and will be convenient to unstrap and take all the essentials with me if I go for a wander without the bike.

I’ve also been busy handing over everything to my lodger so he can live and enjoy the house, which has involved going through all my stuff to clear it out and make space for him and his friend as well as transfer bills (Virgin Media is a right pain in the bum) and generally remember all the little things that keep my house ticking.

I also had a open house to say good bye to as many people as possible and celebrate my birthday. Turning 30 is scary. The format of the day is people show up when they like and I (or more accurately my galley slaves) provide food at relevant times. It was soooo good to see people and catch up with news I had missed out… new boyfriends, engagements and doggies! It was a lot of work but I had amazing people that stepped into help. Thank you for helping with cooking cleaning and everything else! And thank you to everyone that came, it was great to see you all.

The Garmin Inreach Mini was activated and tested with a ride to the hospital for my last physo appointment. Fingers crossed I can look after my knee this time round. Must remember to do my exercises! Now everyone can track me and enjoy dot watching. The tracking page will show the path I have taken and where I am now(-ish) and the map on the front page will just have the dot showing my last reported position and rough route that I am planning to take. Thank you to everyone that donated or gave me money for birthday or leaving gifts… I have used it all to fund the tracker subscription so you can share the adventure too!

And through out everything else there was buying the general supplies I need, working out how to pack it all onto the bike, and trying to find and mend a leak in my air mat! Found one but for love nor a bath tub full of water can we find the other! So I’ve stolen Ian’s instead (thank you!). I got my new shirt from Kitsbow which I love but damn it was expensive…. Like seriously except the bike this is the most expensive thing with me, but to me it is perfect and I hope to get some serious use out of it

There have been moments when I didn’t think I would get everything done, and I certainly have been panicking, stressing out and generally not feeling excited because I just needed to get through the to do list… here I am with the final packing and nearly ready to go…

Well not quite… cue Storm Brendan and a delay to my ferry! (To be honest a delay I needed as I was soooo was not ready on Monday evening!) Due to the weather my early 0845 sailing on Tues 14th was delayed until the early hours of Weds 15th, with boarding during the evening before.

Having got everything loaded onto the bike the next challenge was to actually get out of the door… just wide enough with some squishing of panniers. The weather could only be described as hideous… driving rain and crazy windy… cycling through Portsmouth was very interesting… it knocking me around and making riding difficult, but lucky the wind was mostly behind me. When I got to the ferry port the staff were amazing and boarded me really quickly and made sure the time I had to spend waiting was in shelter. And now I am on the ferry and about to leave the U.K. … back in 2021??! (fingers crossed!)

So here we go… the adventure begins 🙂

Hopefully the ~28hr ferry won’t be too rough in the aftermath of the storms… wish me luck!