Departure day!!! London - Land's End

Saturday. Departure day. The day we have all been looking forward to. The day when we collectively get in the car to drive to Land's End so we can click into our pedals and head out onto the wide open roads on our 1000Miles Challenge ride. These were the thoughts that got me out of bed, but only just, as the boundary between being sleep and awake was still very fuzzy. Those lovely thoughts could have simply got me dreaming again, and I would likely have done the entire ride while still snoring away. With the amount of sleep I have missed I would probably also only have woken up once the actual ride would be mostly over.

But...no...must...resist...sleep...then the alarm goes off and I cross the boundary towards being awake. I really needed that annoying buzzing sound to get me into action. Then I used an imaginary hoist to pull me out of bed. 08.30 my phone said it was. And I didn't exactly feel very energetic as I had only just set the alarm about 6 hours earlier as this was the time I finally managed to hit the sack after spending another late night at work. Serious sleep deprivation really is not the best way to prepare for cycling 1100 miles in 10 days, but then money also needs to be earned and I was bent on finishing all of my work before setting off. I do take pride in my work you see. But I have a feeling my dedication will come back and bite me in the ass big time in the days ahead. And probably seriously so.
Anyway. A rather strong coffee later (one of those that allows you to place your spoon anywhere in the cup without it falling over...) I get a call from Dirk who is on his way to my place. So I start collecting the various bits of kit which I have not had time to place in one spot over the last week - sleeping bag, pillow, foam camping mattress, tool kit, bike spares, clothes, energy drink powder, recovery protein powder, calcium/magnesium/boron pills, glucosamine sulphate/chondroitin pills, cycling kit, sunglasses, suncream, toiletries,...and I start wondering whether I really need all this stuff piling up in front of me. By now Dirk has arrived and while he drinks his coffee he watches me go up and down the stairs at least 50 times going back and forth for more and more bits and pieces. Pocket knife. Torch. Maps. Check, check, check. Careful not to forget my head as well, I mentally work down the list of things several times to make sure I don't miss anything, because I still haven't fully crossed over the boundary to 100% wakefullness yet. Helmet. Check. Bag to put everything in. Ehm...make that two. Check. Ah yes. Laptop. Check. WiFi card. Check...

A good hour (or so) later I am finally packed up. We put everything in the car and drive the 200 meters and 4 corners to Ollie's place. Ian had crashed on Ollie's sofa after having driven over from Cardiff the night before, and as we pull up I see that the front garden and hallway are already filled with things to go in the car. And, as I get out of the car I see there is more in the house. And in the garage, too. Oh boy... packing this car will be where the 2010 Challenge starts... Luckily though, I once went on a 13,000 km drive around the South Western states of the USA for weeks on end with my then girlfriend, which turned me into a 'packer extraordinaire'. The car we were travelling in was one of those old style Golf Convertibles, which had a boot the size of, well, a spare tyre give or take a Snickers bar. So after everyone had had a go I just pulled everything back out of the car (to their chagrin), got rid of packaging materials and boxes (while they commented 'what difference will that make') and Tetris stylee I repacked the whole lot. And it all went in. Beautifully. And then we were finally ready to go. A quick coffee later, and off we went. Or so we thought.

A strange ticking sound was coming from under the bonnet of Ollie's Saab. A sound that after closer inspection turned out to come from one of the fuses. And then we found the car had no power. It did not start. In fact, it didn't even turn over. No response. Nada. Zilch. Even the lightbulbs only managed a very faint orangey glow from the filament. Oh SH!T. We managed to jumpstart the car with the leads Ollie's neighbour kindly lent to us, and Ollie quickly took the car for a spin around the block to put some juice in the battery. Then Dirk started to complain he burnt his hand while taking the very hot clamp off the battery... I lent him my frozen can of Guinness (forgot it in the freezer the night before) so he could 'ice' it. Ollie returned, we all piled in, and off we went. Then I noticed a rather peculiar sound coming from the rear right wheel suspension... but as it was now already around the midday mark (so much for the original plan to leave at 7...) we thought we'd best press on.
We drove over Petersham Road into Richmond, and the heavy traffic made us suspect something was up. And indeed it was. A Prius had pulled out of a side street without noticing an approaching cyclist, who had slammed into the side of the car and was now lying on the road on a stretcher, with his neck carefully supported. I so bloody hate car drivers that do not know how to drive... After having suffered several accidents myself over the last few years, all of them the fault of road users that just did not pay attention, were going too fast, speaking on mobiles and so on, I really felt my blood boil. May the fleas of a thousand camels infest the nether regions of these people. I also prayed this crash was not a sign of things to come on our own ride.

Then the next mishap struck. I had been banking on working in the car to finish a translation for the Austrian FA, but then found that the inverters connected to the cigarette lighters returned no power, likely due to the earlier fuse problems. With absolutely nothing I could do about it (force majeure) I closed my eyes, pulled the Brixton Cycles musette over my eyes and tried to catch some much needed sleep. In the meantime, Dirk was still holding the slowly defrosting can of Guinness to cool the burn on his hand, now slowly turning into a Guinness Slush Puppie. On a hot day like this a plan was quickly hatched to let it near a level where it would be consumable so we could enjoy some of the best slushy ice cream imaginable...lol.
After several hours of dozing, we stopped for petrol near Bridgewater in Somerset. The noise emanating from the right wheel arch had by now become pretty loud, and as we still needed to find a place to buy some SD cards for the X170 bullet cams lent to us by Action Cameras anyway, we went into Bridgewater itself to look for a garage. During the short ride there we discussed what the sound could possibly be and decided to check for tightness of the wheelbolts. While Dirk went to purchase some SD cards I asked some people in the parking lot if we could borrow their wheelspanner. Sure, we had one ourselves, but that would have meant unpacking the boot of the car again, something preferably avoided. However, none of the ones we tried fitted. But, with a Halfords nearby, we went in, borrowed some tools (thanks guys!) and tightened the nuts. But when driving off, the noise was still there. Mystery not solved.
After Ian narrowly avoided a head-on smash with an oncoming ambulance the rest of the drive was uneventful. Still no power in the car though. About a mile away from our final destination for the day, the YHA Land's End, the SatNav instigated a detour, taking us onto a dead end road to the beach. Already quite impressed with the greenness and size of the local plants, we were even more impressed with the stunning sunset in front of us.
After a bit of breathing in heady mix of fresh sea air, BBQs and flowering plants we jumped back into the car and about 10 minutes later we pulled up at the YHA. Ian and I unpacked the car, Dirk cooked dinner, Damian got the ales in (and then quickly went to bed) and Ollie made the beds. Right after some great food Dirk and Ollie went to catch some ZZZs while Ian and I sorted out camera settings and associated bits and pieces before we too retired for the night.