Steady Pedals

Well here we are ! The start of a little adventure. It’s a nice sunny day, perfect for a less than challenging ride into central London to get a train to Portsmouth before setting off on my long sea voyage. There may even be time for some sightseeing on the way !

Just need to load up a couple more books on the Kindle (one of my non essential luxury items – the others being a pair of flip flops) , then I’ll be away. Sadly have decided to leave the miniature Gins and cans of tonic at home, as they weigh too much.

Feeling very relaxed ! Until ….

My first lesson – You can’t plan for everything. I had left plenty of time for a relaxing ride and to get to the train on time.

Stopped at Hyde Park for a while to enjoy the sun and then headed off down to Buckingham Palace. Big, big mistake – cycle paths and roads closed due to changing the guard. Directed by police onto pavement to walk the bike around, crowds 5 deep and going nowhere fast. If there’s one thing worse than trying to weave a fully laden cycle through London Traffic, it’s trying to push it through the crowds at Buckingham Palace, twenty minutes later I was spat out and was able to cycle to Victoria Station. Fortunately getting on the train and finding a space was a breeze.

One of the downsides of the great cycle space was that it is next to the disabled toilets. Now I’m not one for monitoring other people’s toilet habits, but I couldn’t help but notice the lady who went in there 5 minutes before departure and was still in there 25 minutes later. I was worried, should I call the guard ? Perhaps some unfortunate accident had occurred. Or maybe she was hiding from someone ? I’ve clearly watched too many Agatha Christie movies !

She emerged unscathed a bit later, so I guess everything was alright. Other than that an uneventful journey to Portsmouth, followed by a ride to recce the morning’s route to the Port, then onto the hotel, which not only allows you to park your bike in the room, (well done Travelodge) but is also next door to a pub doing a good deal on all you can eat meals !

So that’s it for the day. Not the longest cycling day, or indeed the shortest. That will probably be tomorrow to The Ferry.