ROCK2UK - ALL PACKED AND READY TO GO........

EVERYTHING PACKED  INTO DAVE'S CITROEN

This afternoon Dave (the broom wagon) came round to load everything into the back of his Citroen Picasso.
Dave had assured JD and I that everything would fit into the back and still leave somewhere for us all to sit and he was right. Mind you I think that the front seat passenger will probably have a Shimano Brake/Gear lever stuck in his ear all the way to Gibraltar so I think that I will choose the rear seat. I do get the feeling that this trip has all the makings of 'The Three Stooges on Tour' and that's before we have even left Bournemouth..........

THE PLAN....
I don't like to make too many plans because they always have a habit of going a bit off course, but you  need to have some sort of broad overview and this is ours........
Saturday 20th in the evening we are going to head off to Seaton to stay at Dave's holiday caravan overnight.
Sunday 21st. Continue on to Plymouth to board the Brittany Ferry to Santander in Northern Spain.
Monday 22nd Arrive in Spain at about 12.00 noon local time, and then head for Salamanca by road.
Tuesday 23rd Continue our journey across Spain to Gibraltar hoping to arrive there in the early evening.
Wednesday 24th or Thursday 25th Start to cycle back to the UK.
Dave will stay with us for the first 4 or 5 days of cycling before he has to head back to the UK.
We will then be on our own (just JD & I ) for the rest of the ride back home.
We haven't set an exact timetable beyond that as there are always so many variables that can interfere with the best laid plans....The only fixed date we have is that we must arrive back in the UK on or before the 21st of September.

The great thing about doing it this way with only very loose plans, is that if we see somewhere that we want to explore further, we can, without feeling that we are going to throw our planning out.We will have enough days to do the ride....stop where we want and still have spare days for the unforeseen situations that always seem to occur when undertaking a trip of this nature.

During the time we are away I will make short posts to this blog every few days to let you all know where we are...but don't expect long posts with quality pictures as I will be making the posts from my mobile phone. When I return I will do a review of the trip with better images in a similar way that I did with our Northern France trip about 3 months ago.

I know that we are all really looking forward to this trip, but due to the distance involved it is also tinged with a fair bit of apprehension.
I have done walking/backpacking trips of this sort of distance before (South America), but this is about double the distance of my previous longest cyclepacking trip - still that is one of the things that makes it so worthwhile....I always like to push the boundaries and this distance will certainly be a first for us both on a bike trip.

 I hope that you will check in every now and again just to see how we are doing.
We both know that it is going to be a pretty tough journey......but then cancer is a pretty tough journey too, so please join us in supporting  'Cyclists Fighting Cancer'. .