When, where & on what day did this adventure really begin?

Robin and I have been & continue to debate when we’ve ‘actually’ started our trip.

One answer could be when packed up the van and left Edinburgh on 9th July and drove to London. Personally I don’t count this as starting because we weren’t cycling yet AND I hadn’t finished my job at WWF-UK.

The next option is when we left London on Thursday 13th July. This was a fun ride – we had a wee entourage to keep us company and waymark us to Brookwood, made up of Lonica, Gordon and two of Gordon’s cycling buddies – Ray and James. It was good to have the company and help finding our way out of west London. On this day I learned that Richmond Park is HUGE!!!

Or it could have been the 14th July, our first day to cycle by ourselves, from Brookwood to Portsmouth. This was a hard day. Firstly it rained ALL DAY LONG!!! We were soaking and a bit miserable getting to Portsmouth. But we also had mechanic difficulties- our back brake started to drag and make a screeching sound – not what you want as you go up hill. Robin tried to fix it himself – I didn’t get a picture of the bike upside down outside Tesco in some small wee town NOR did I get a picture of the bike mechanic fixing it, when we stopped at his shop. All this meant that we had lost an hour of riding and still needed to get over the South Downs to the ferry terminal. We skipped lunch altogether by eating a handful of chocolate and oat bars on the bike to make up for lost time and plodded on our way.

Also not pictured from this day, is a sighting of a beautiful red deer stag – the biggest I’ve ever seen, as we were on the downhill having crossed the South Downs. We stopped to try and take a picture but it had disappeared – maybe it was a forest spirit after all.

We got to the ferry terminal with plenty of time and had a nice meal at the pub before boarding the ferry.

Option 3 – Is day 3 of cycling when we arrived in France after spending the night on the ferry crossing the Channel. On this day we cycled from Saint Malo to Mont Saint Michel – which was good. Although I felt sea sick from the crossing for most of the morning. Robin enjoyed a seafood platter and we were proper tourists at Mont Saint Michel. We also camped in our tent for the first time. I’m pleased to report that our investment in light weight sleeping bags, mats and pillows, hasn’t comprised on warmth or comfort. Big win!!!

Option 4 – Day 6th of cycling Tuesday 18 July, this is a bit of a random one, but on this day, we called my sister and niece while we were cycling – I talked to them from the back of the tandem. My sister asked what day of cycling it was and neither of us could remember! We’d somewhat passed the point of counting. Although this is not true because we’re keeping a daily journal, it’s more that we couldn’t remember what day we’d put in the previous day’s entry. We also reached the Atlantic Ocean on this day, and the route is from the Atlantic Ocean to the Black Sea.

Option 5 – day 7 of cycling when we first meet the Loire at St. Nazarie and when we pick up the EuroVelo route 6 – the one that we’re following all the way to the Black Sea. This is the ‘official’ start line.

Personally – in terms of my feelings – my top options are boarding the ferry on day 2 (although the rest of day 2 was a total slog!); option 4 when talking to my sister and I couldn’t remember how many days I’d be cycling for and option 5 when we found the sign for the EuroVelo 6 and started to follow it.

And as much as I feel excitement for finding the route sign and ‘officially’ being on our way (weve now spent a whole day cycling along the Loire), I also feel a bit of sadness that all those ‘pre’ journey moments are now finished. Although there’s still lots and lots to discover, those ‘pre’ journey moments are special and we dragged them out for a whole 10 days after leaving Edinburgh. We’re marking the occasion by drinking some sparkling wine with our dinner this evening (at least that’s the plan).