OMG!

Most people refer to today as Day 0, probably because it's the day before Day 1 of the ride rather than because it's a day when you do zero. Today for us however was a far from a zero day as we departed the warmth of Yateley for the 6 hour drive to Lands End.
Challenge 1 was how to load the car without having to ask Julie to thin down her suitcase, not an easy task given the plethora of cycle accessories and nutrition products we have brought with us. Fortunately Jeff managed to avoid a marital row by the application of sheer force, just managing to squeeze everything in before we we had our team photo and were waved off by Base Camp Manager Robin.

The journey down was pretty uneventful apart from the general deterioration in the weather and witnessing the horrendous queues of traffic stuck in jams going the opposite direction and the reason for the title of this post.

OMG the hills we will have to ride tomorrow are never ending and have really focused our minds on what lies ahead - it is going to be a long, long day.

Although the weather when we arrived is a bit damp our accommodation at the Lands End Hostel is a perfect way to start the ride being just 5 mins from LE.  On arrival we were shown the first room containing bunk beds and were asked who would be in the room to which Julie very quickly replied "We'll see".  There is no need to explain why this ended up being Ian and Jeff's room - you can see from the photos.

It's good to know who's in charge!

Tonight we are off to the First and Last Pub in England for some vital refuelling and are looking forward to a forecasted improvement in the weather tomorrow.

Click the "Pulse" web link here or above to follow our progress in real time - don't worry if we appear to be going backwards at times, it's probably just a very steep hill.  Be patient on this one with us as we're not 100% sure that this link is static and therefore will not need updating.