Day 22 - Just North of Oxford to West of Upper Broughton.

I know I've said this before. But I honestly think today might have been one of the toughest days. Being so close, yet so far from the finish has been tough on the head. Knowing that tomorrow is the end is exciting. Its taken a lot of mental discipline to focus on the fact that I still need to keep cycling and not wish it away. When you wish time away, thats when boredom sets in, and when time drags, and when motivation levels drop. I actually felt so demotivated on the bike at points today. More than at any other times during the trip. I guess you can compare the feeling to Christmas Eve as a kid. No one likes Christmas Eve. They just want Christmas Day to come along! It felt a little like that today.

A long day too. Putting in a lot of mileage to make that 3pm arrival time tomorrow and pushing myself up through the Midlands of England to north Leicestershire. The weather was so much kinder on me today. Sunshine, and a bit of cloud later on! No rain, no drizzle no dampness that I

had yesterday. But it was bitter cold at times. That wind was just nasty. As most of my trip has been under heat, I'm more equipped for that. So all I can do is layer up what clothes I have. Im wearing 2 T- shirts, a jumper and then the Gibraltar to Yorkshire shirt over that. I was

tempted to find somewhere and buy some gloves today as well! I really dont deal well with the cold. I was stopped outside a petrol literally shivering trying to eat food. I would more happily cycle under 45c heat than 10c any day.

Had a long run down a very busy dual carriageway, but at least it had a hard shoulder to hide in. There was times today as well that I just didnt have energy. Felt so weak. Just keeping the bike moving at slow speeds seemed to be a real chore. Then out of nowhere... Wham, speed and power again. My Ankle isnt doing too well either. Off the bike I'm now hobbling around. Saddle Sores are also kicking in. Its understandable though, considering I'm going the longest ever without a single rest day.

Fun times started when it came to finding the hotel at the end of the day. After a gruelling 138km. I get to Station Road, Upper Broughton where the Hotel was. I was literally stood there and saw a sign saying Upper Broughton and another saying Station Road. And what was it? Just a little village! No hotels anywhere, there was nothing! At this point too darkness started setting in, and for the first time on the whole trip. It was lights on and vis jacket on as I cycled on into the night. Found a POI on the Sat Nav for a hotel which had the same phone number but a different name. Maybe it renamed I thought. So headed for that. Which took me 3km back down a road I had just come down and left me in the middle of a farm with a load of sheep baa'ing at me. Great! What a hotel!

So I put something into practice, which I havnt previously being able to do before. With no language barrier. I phoned the hotel to ask them where it was! Wow, What an amazing concept! After a rather confusing conversation. I did realise that actually it was just another 500m away - and sure enough there it was!

One final blow to a very hard day... No restaurant on site. No nothing on site! I thought I was through with all that after leaving France! However, another awesome thing about being where I am. I currently have some family travelling north to see my arrival. Saw my tweet about not being able to find the hotel, phoned me. I mentioned no restaurant and they turned up at the hotel! Then we headed off in the car to get some dinner. A huge thanks to my Aunty and Uncle and Cousin for that. It was great to see them! Amusingly im about an hour away in the car from home now! Which is where theyre headed ready to see my arrival tomorrow! So fantastic end to today and of course making me feel a lot closer to home.

Right leg is really aching tonight. With the ankle hurting, i've been having to cycle harder on the right leg, and its absolutely in pain now. It feels like it could be a pulled hamstring or something! So got the deep heat on it tonight, hopefully that'll keep it at bay and enable me to finish the remaining 80km of Gibraltar to Yorkshire tomorrow!

Todays stats
Start	Just North of Oxford.09:00
End	West of Upper Broughton.19:55
Saddle Time	7 hr 01 min 10 sec.
Distance travelled	146.67km
Average Speed	18.8kph
Max speed	52.7km

Day 21 - Portsmouth, UK to Just north of Oxford.

So last night, was finally able to board the ferry at 10pm! Wow I wish I had known that. It was such a long boring wait. But I did get chatting to a few people in the terminal and telling them what I was doing. The bike was getting a bit of attention, especially the wind chargers. People think theyre great!

So onboard the ferry. was so exciting, I was gleaming! I must do a cruise one day. I think huge ships like that are amazing. Got into my cabin. All good there. Small, but definately can't complain. Then went and had my second dinner of the evening! The ferry had a huge deck at the back to see out. So was amazing to see the night lights of France getting smaller. Was so amazing out there. I was so happy to be here, crossing the English channel.

Slept average, it was a smooth crossing but it was kinda vibraty from the engines. Then at 05.30 UK time, an hour before docking. They play this nice pianoy music to wake you up nicely. Then by 06:00 theyre banging on the doors making sure youre up. Because they want you off sharp at 06:30!

So off the ferry, through the UK border, and Viola! I'm in England! Plan was for greasy fry up! But it was early and I had a lot of miles ahead of me, so I headed out of Portsmouth. How strange cycling on the left. Having to look over the other shoulder, cars passing me on the right. Looking opposite directions at T-Junctions. Taking roundabouts the other way. I know left is my native side, but with doing all my cycle training on the right,and spending the last 3 weeks solidly

cycling on the right. It was a bit of a difference. Also as it has been six months since being in the UK. It of course looked all nostalgic and weired!

And wow, everythings English!! I can talk to people, I can read stuff again! Woo hoo!

Had a big climb out of Portsmouth, then like France, its back narrow country roads again, endless amount. I've done 20km and still no breakky! Looking at where I was, and the route. I was stuck kn the middle of nowhere for a while! So how annoying, to be back in the UK, and for breakky it was the Cuassonts I'd bought in France for breakfast!!! Not fair! Then the rain set in. Then my ankle started hurting again. Then the excitement of being in the UK wore off and I was on a bit of a low. But what was nice, is being entertained by English radio! Yaay!

Tried diverting into what seemed to a reasonable sized town, which just turned out to be a tiny village. As time ticked on, my traditional English breakfast fry up just wasnt going to happen.

As the rain set in, it actually got colder. At 11am it was colder than it was at 06.30 and I just had to layer up. I was freezing and my head started pounding because of it. If anyone here thinks that I've got it easy now I'm back in the UK. Very wrong. Though the UK has some nice things, such as no language barriers. The country has its own hardships and challenges. The roads are hellish - Narrow windy country roads with no shoulder to hide in, people drive faster and too close to cyclists! One van driver even decided to annoy me by purposly stopping on a hill and then set off again which lost my momentum. I have no idea whether he did this on purpose. The road surfaces are terrible, theyre not as slick making it harder to pedal on. Theyre pot holed and patched up. I'm afraid to say the continent is a far nicer place to cycle!

Anyway enough of the bad. What Spain and France don't have, and wow they have some catching up to do. Is road side greasy burger bars!!! Found one of those and got myself a heart attack in a bun. Fantastic! They dont use George Formans. Oh no! There is nothing more British than sitting in a lay by in the cold wind and rain warming yourself up with a bacon, egg, cheese burger and a coffee! Fantastic! Got chatting to a few people there as well. They see the bike, they see the shirt. Theyre interested. Its actually so nice to be able to talk to people again.

After a really slow start, the much needed calory intake gave me that boost. I was off, and cycling fast, catching up on the mileage. Feeling good, and once again loving the fact that I'm in the UK! What I havnt done, is thought too much about the end, which draws closer and closer. My focus was getting to the pre-booked Hotel just past Oxford today. Which stood at over 140km from Portsmouth.

With a sore ankle it was tough, and Oxford city centre was just nuts. The british capital of Cycling, and it was crazy! There were cyclists everywhere, traffic and busses everywhere. One was even reversing up the road!

Made it through the city centre and dodged rush hour queues. My Gibraltar cycling experience was needed here! It was nice to be over taking the cars for a change. Throughout the whole trip, today was also the first time I had to deal with traffic jams.

Checked into Hotel tonight. First proper bed since Rochefort! But early start tomorrow, have another long one then!

Todays stats
Start	Portsmouth, UK.06:45
End	Just north of Oxford.18:15
Saddle Time	8 hr 10 min 28sec.
Distance travelled	142.56km
Average Speed	17.4kph
Max speed	50.1km

Day 20 - West of Javron-Les-Capellis to Ouistreham (Caen) Ferry.

What a terrible nights sleep. First im all over the show and stressed about tomorrow. Getting the bike fixed. Then Im woken up by a scuffling noise near my head. There was something underneath the tent scuffling around! Arghhh!! Ignoring it,

and then dreaming of nasty stuff invading me.

Really didnt make for a good time! Especially seeing blobs moving about. I was expecting some nasty big ass thing to burst through the lining and kill me.

I was awake before the alarm at 7am. Hearing more scuffling noises around me under the tent. Urghhhh wasnt good. Got packed up and was on the bike by 8am. Amazingly the back tyre had held up overnight! So headed out east to the bike shop. Oh, even after lifting the tent, I never found out what was underneath it! There was nothing there!

I got to this Zone Artisand industrial estate where it was supposed to be, and could I find it? Could I heck! I cycled around and around, and no sign of it anywhere! Really wasnt a good time! It must have existed, the guy at the camp site knew about it, and when Emma and Franz phoned them, they had an answer service! But I couldnt find it!

So, no option. Head north, and pray!

I found a Super-U store near Bagnoles, the next big town. Went in there. They had innertubes! Woo hoo! Just not the size I wanted! Arghhh! So i got another repair kit and some breakfast. Not a good idea cycling 25km with no breakfast, but I had no choice!

I then continued on, and found a big Elecerec store. Wasnt sure what was in there, but went in on the off chance. Bingo!!! Tubes! OMG so happy about that!

So, four tubes packed and I'm off. Decided to just keep running on the patched tube until it gives out... Which is exactly what it did just 10km later! Replaced the tube with a new one. Also lost a screw out of my break leaver. So had to tye wrap that up to get it working again. I also did a temp fix on the rack. Im hoping it'll last out till Sunday.

It was then go go go. Heading north. Just like the last few days, endless farms and villages. Looking at the mileage, I was well back on schedule to reach Caen! Awesome! Never felt so happy. Also feeling good, loads of energy. Then came a huge climb. Biggest climb since Spain. But downhill was fun.

30km from the Ferry port and bags of time! Feeling great. Looming clouds werent going to dampen my spirits. Unfortunately by the time I reached the city of Caen, those looming clouds were an absolute rainstorm! France was going to throw one last hurdle at me. The rain was so bad, the GPS gave in, leaving me having to find my

own way. The blackberry trackball also started having problems because they were just getting wet, as I was trying to use them to navigate.

The rain got worse, I had to take shelter under a bridge for a while. Let it die off. Then was a 10km zoom down the hard shoulder of a very busy dual carriageway which wasnt fun heading out to Oustreham where the ferry port was. Got absolutely saturated in the process. That road wasnt nice.

But then, I saw it. The north coast of France, the sea and the boarding gates for the Ferry. I made it!!!

Not only did I make it, I was 3 hours early to even board the ferry. So had some food, and got this blog done now.

Done. I have now cycled the entire lengths of Spain and France! I have crossed the entire continent, on a pushbike, carrying my own luggage, unsupported. Tomorrow morning, I will roll off the Ferry in the UK. Hold the Champagne though. I have 3 gruelling days ahead. Its a spring to the finish line. Another 350km approx stands between Portsmouth and the finish. I have 2 and a half days to that in. Going to be some early starts. Cold and probably more wet weather. I will also have to adopt to cycling on the left. Although this is my 'native' side of the road so shouldnt be a problem.

The final leg of Gibraltar to Yorkshire, starts tomorrow!

Todays stats
Start	West of Javron-Les-Capellis.08:00
End	Oustreham Ferry Port (Caen).18:30
Saddle Time	6 hr 33 min 31 sec.
Distance travelled	139.08km
Average Speed	19.9kph
Max speed	64.1km