Day 265: Hill Brow to Worthing

The finish line

We’ve made it, after nine months we’ve traveled by bicycle from Melbourne to Worthing and arrived exactly on schedule. I can’t quite believe it!

It’s been an amazing nine months with so many great people, incredible places and fantastic days of discovery. I’m struggling to comprehend that it’s over now.

We’ve all got things to look forward to though. Now Tiger is off to University in Huddersfield, Sarina is working at a winery for this year’s harvest and I start work with Oracle again on Monday - back in the same job I left in Melbourne.

Thank you to all the people who’ve made this such a special journey. From everyone who saw us off in Melbourne with such encouragement, to all the people we’ve met in the way who’ve looked after us which such generosity, to the friends and family who’ve greeted us in the UK and made us feel so welcome, and to all the people who read our blog and commented making us feel that we were not alone on our.

Thank you all.

That’s it now,

David, Sarina and Tiger, Tandem plus Tiger

Leaving my sister’s house this morning full of nice coffee and breakfast

The quiet Sussex Countryside where we’re okanning to spend a lot more time

Midhurst, a nice little market town

Crossing the Arun river

…and finally arriving in Worthing…

…and my Mum answering the door

Day 264: Odiham to Hill Brow

Stomping

We had a fantastically slow morning, which may have been a little related to the large number of empty wine bottles we had to clear out. Thanks to Boo and Gavin for welcoming us home so well. We were able to take a nice slow stomp around the estate with Boo and a menagerie of labradors.

Boo entertaining her students in the manège

Leaving the yard in formation

The wilds of Hampshire

Arriving at Chancery House

We made it to Hill Brow above Liss relatively quickly, as it’s not exactly very far, and we’re being well entertained by the Brownes now, and my sister Sue.

Hugs and spaniels all round

Tomorrow is out last day — we head to Worthing and the finish line of our whole journey. 15,400 kilometres done, 265 days and tomorrow our journey is over.

Day 263: Hilperton to Odiham

With Lisa and Darryl this morning

Big day today. We woke up in Halperton to sunny skies and a lovely breakfast from the very hospitable Darryl and Lisa, who have the softest towels in the business, before heading off towards Salisbury Plain.

The Plain is the main venue of British Army manoeuvres, and the red flags indicated that they were indeed manoeuvring today, complete with the sound of machine gun fire to prove it

Red flags mean “Stay on the road”

Lunch at Tidworth with the crackle of machine gun fire in the distance

Big rocks left by stone age people to attract foreign tourists

We eventually made it to Odiham to stay with Boo and Gavin at Westfield Farm, their stable yard. It was like rolling back the years as we settled down to a meal with too much wine and food. So happy to be back in England.

At Westfield Farm with Boo and Gavin. Gavin’s a lot shorter than I remember.

Chinooks from RAF Odiham celebrating our arrival with a fly past

Day 262: Coalpit Heath to Hilperton

Rail trails, tow paths and fantastic family

A very chilled day with family around Bristol and Bath Not too much riding, plenty of gassing.

We had a nice breakfast with Daphne, Sarina’s Mum, before heading towards Bath. We’d only cycled a few kilometres along country roads before hitting a rail trail around the eastern side of Bristol. It was flat with a good surface and plenty of other cyclists to wish a good morning.

Just before Bath the rail trail ended, but we joined a tow path on the Avon for more easy cycling - and a pub for a quick stop.

Morniing break alongside the river

Next appointment for the day was with my Aunt Brenda, who has always been such fun to visit. Hours flew by with countless stories recounted from Brenda and my cousins Emma and Sarah, along with some lovely food. Getting back closer to friends and family is a big reason for coming back to the UK, and it’s feeling like a pretty good decision at this point.

Brenda and Sarah, my Aunt and cousin in Bath. Thanks for a fabulous lunchtime.

Heading off aFter afun lunch

Another journey along the Kennet and Avon canal brought us to Darryl’s house in Hilperton for a glimpse of the glamorous Wiltshire life of hot tubs and roof terraces. Unfortunately it was raining so we went out for a nice meal instead.

Day 261: Strangford to Coalpit Heath

The Beecham family tour

Crossing the Severn Bridge was the highlight of the day

We did the Beecham family tour today, from Sarina’s sister Natalie’s house to her Mum’s house, travelling through the Forest of Dean and the Wye Valley, which is a fantastically picturesque route. Quite a bit of climbing, but nice shallow gradients meant we could make it up on the Blue Strawberry that’s missing it’s lowest gear at the moment.

Fred and his fish used to live with us in Stamford, but moved to Strangford when we left for New Zealand. He’s had a pretty big change of direction with his hairstyle since we left.

After a wet start the sun started peeking out

Morning coffee at a mountain biking centre in the Forest of Dean

The Forest of Dean is a pretty scenic ride

Hugs from Nana

Day 260: Callow Hill to Strangford

We’re back in the known world

Despite being back in the UK for a week or so, it’s only really today that it hit us that we’re “home” because we started to ride through places we knew, finishing up with a night at Sarina’s sister’s house in Strangford in the Wye Valley.

We also clicked over 15,000km today, with a total of 15,019km when we arrived in Strangford today. A nice round number to end up with.

It was foggy early, meaning our tents were soaking, and heavy

More English hedgerows today

Footbridge across the river Wye

Arriving at our first family visit - Sarina’s sister Natalie’s house

Drinks in the sunshine, what could be better

Day 259: Stone to Callow Hill

Sunny August Bank Holiday

It was a lovely day to be cycling through the English countryside, even if skirting around Wolverhampton doesn’t sound like the greatest route. In fact, it was a lovely day, through quaint villages, along canal towpaths and on a few rail trails that kept the time on roads with Bank Holiday traffic to a minimum.

There were some hefty climbs

We crossed the Severn Valley Railway and waited long enough to see two trains pass in the station

Our pitch for the night, in a pretty basic field, but none the less pleasant

The biggest drawback of a sunny Bank Holiday is that lots of other people our out enjoying themselves, and we had quite a job finding a campsite to stay at. Once we had tents up, we also had some difficulty finding someone to sell us dinner. The pub down the road was all booked out and the one the other way wasn’t serving food. In the end I managed to find a place a couple of miles away who told me they serve us if we were there by 6:15 — and the current time was 6:00. Time to race back to the campsite, grab our bikes and race over to The Plough in Far Forest (great names here!) We made it and managed to get a good feed to fuel our cycling tomorrow.

Fingers crossed everything goes ok tomorrow. We’re starting to have a lot of trouble with the lowest gear on the Blue Strawberry (our tandem) and we’ve had to stop using it altogether. It’s a hilly route tomorrow as we head through the Black Country to Sarina’s sister Natalie, near Ross-on-Wye. We may be walking up a few hills.

Day 258: Huddersfield to Stone

Tiger’s bicycle has been stolen!

We’ve been worried throughout the whole trip that we might lose the bikes. We’ve left them locked in the street outside hotels in India, in parking garages in Malaysia, Hotels in the Balkans let us leave them in the lobby, and we’ve not had a problem.

Staying two nights in Huddersfield with the bikes locked inside the appartement stairwell behind (supposedly) locked doors and a locked gate, locked with the tandem to a large piece of steel with two locks and some lowlife cut both locks and made off with Tiger’s bike. They left the tandem, which was presumably too awkward to take.

We are a bit sombre today, morale’s definitely taken a hit. It’s like losing a member of the group, one who we’ve spent nearly 9 months and over 14,000 kilometres with.

Very sad.

Still, it’s a bit late to give up now.

So, we went and bought another bike. It’s not perfect - it has flat bars and only a rear rack, but we made it work.

Toger’s Nee bike - it not great, but it will do the job

We got going and eventually climbed up to our first stop, a vineyard trying to make wine in Yorkshire. Seems like a bad idea. We tried it, it was a bad idea.

Tiger and Sarina judge the vineyard

There was a fair bit more climbing across the Peak District, but, as always, rewarded by amazing views.

Serious climbing

Stupendous views

Glossop District Sailing Club, I think I know an Old boy from here

The shadows were pretty long bY the end of the day, but we made it to our planned destination, despite losing a bike.

Day 257: Rest day in Huddersfield

Not that grim up north after all

The sun was out today and everything brightens up a little. We went for a look at Tiger’s Uni, sorted out where he’s going to be living, including where he can store his bicycle, so he’s all set now.

The bran new “Barbara Hepworth Centre” in which Tiger will be based

The Student Union’s a lot more sorted than it was in my day – no hand written posters here

Beautiful Raleigh hanging in a local coffee shop

Tiger’s room will be a bit like this (but messier)

They can’t spell Weet-bix here though

Day 256: York to Huddersfield

It was a drizzly day again today, British summer at its miserable best. Not the introduction to the UK we hoped that Tiger would get, but never mind. It’s character building at least.

We found a flag shop at last in York, so we sporting Union Flags now, very patriotically

Our exit from York was past the racecourse during the annual York races. We didnt see any horses though, just racegoers in Inappropriately smart clothing stood in a field.

Lunch was in a nice caféin Leeds, where a hot chocolate seemed the most appropriat drink as the drizzle continued outside

Tiger’s first view of his new home, HudDersfield, and it’s a wet, grey day

Day 255: Great Busby to York

Across the Yorkshire Moors

Amazing views of the Yorkshire Moors

We had a bit of a surprise this morning, after dropping our tents. We headed to breakfast at Lordstone’s Country Park and ran straight into one of the steepest climbs we’ve faced in our whole trip. It was well over 15% gradient, but luckily only around 2km long. It was a slightly less than sprightly trio of McNamaras who crested the climb and entered the tea shop at Lordstones in need of breakfast and a sit down.

A great camp site last night

Nearing the top of the climb, the views start to make the effort worthwhile

After breakfast things settled down considerably, with beautiful Yorkshire back roads through the heather coated hillsides of Herriot Country. Amazing scenery was accompanied by bright sunny skies too, a truly gorgeous ride.

Lunch was in Helmsely - a little market town in the middle of the Moors. It’s a shame they’ve turned the market square into a large (highly profitable) car park, it somewhat spoils the feel of the place, but the local deli served us up some exquisite sandwiches to eat sat on the steps of the large monument in the middle of the square.

Helmseley village centre was our lunch stop today

Our search for Union Jack flags in the village was to no avail though, meaning we’re still without courtesy flags in our home country so far.

The landscape continues to be pretty impressive

The final stretch to York was a race against an incoming rain storm. We just about made it as the raindrops started to fall, but then the rain stopped pretty much straight away, so it wasn’t really a problem after all.

Off for a night out in York tonight, to see some “old buildings” as Tiger described them.

The amazing York Minster — a huge cathedral

Day 254: North Shields to Great Busby

Back in Blighty

Wow! We set foot on British soil this morning and we’ve done it - we’ve cycled from Australia to the UK. We’re a bit amazed. It wasn’t even very hard.

So, on with the journey now - we have eleven more days to get to Worthing, on the south coast, so first, we’re off to Yorkshire.

Back on British soil!

We’ve had some gorgeous lunch stops on our trip but this wasn’t the greatest - ASDA in Sunderland

Day 253: Amsterdam to IJmuiden

We’ve made it — just the North Sea to cross now

It was a pretty relaxed day today. We were very happy to see our bikes still safe and sound in the bike park and loaded up again and set off.

We found a great café to hang out in for a while that was like a shared workspace with around twenty people all on their laptops. The wifi was still pretty good considering.

Lunch in Haarlem We’re the only globetrotters here.

Then we headed off to Haarlem for lunch by a canal and a windmill. How could it be more Dutch?

Then, just a few more kilometres and we were at the ferry, job done. Now we just need to lay back and we’ll wake up in North Shields, back in good old Blighty tomorrow morning.

Our ship awaits

Next stop England — looks nice over there doesn’t it?

Day 252: Rest day in Amsterdam

Rapha and resting

A gentle day wandering around Amsterdam, looking at nice shops like the Rapha store. Tiger got himself a new rain jacket - he’s going to need one I reckon.

We also checked out the Banksy, Warhol, Basquiat gallery, but it felt like a bit of a rip off really. Still, always good to see nice art.

Coffee and cake in Rapha after a strenuous session of rain jacket trying on

The Rapha Amsterdam store, with Servais Kanaven’s 1991 Paris Roubaix winning bike, still caked in mud after he won this wet edition of the race

Rijksmuseum - we had to end up walking past it as some point

Our celebration meal for finishing our ride half way across the world and nearly making it to the UK — let’s hope we didn’t celebrate too early

Video: France, the Alps

Day 251: Rotterdam to Amsterdam

Wet day today, but we made it to Amsterdam.

Again, the journey was nearly all bike paths

Classic Dutch scenes all the way

This nice bride operator chatted to us in the rain whilst the boats went past

Getting to grips with Amsterdam traffic — they don’t hang about on those bikes!

One of these bikes is not like the others. The Blue Strawberry sticks out a bit in its parking spot amongst thousands of other bikes.

Classic Amsterdam

Day 250: Roosendal to Rotterdam

Loving the Dutch cycling life

Another day riding on the fantastic bike paths next to canals, small roads and just through the middle of fields. It just shows what you can do with a bit of commitment. The biggest improvement is the fact that the bike lane has right of way when it crosses side roads - and cars respect that. It makes the bike path so much more usable than having to stop every 100m.

So many Dutch couples out having a pleasant ride together

Everywhere has a cycle path added on the side - even the country bridges

Morning hot chocolate time

We sat for a while whilst enjoying a hot chocolate overlooking a canal. A single grey haired cyclist sat on a bench on the other side of the road with his e-bike on its stand. Then a friend arrived, then another and another until there were about seven of them, all with e-bikes except one, who looked like he was expecting to work hard as he was also the only one in lycra. Then they set off together for their ride.

We mused to ourselves — “That’s the Bayside Bandidos in a few years time :-)”

There’s even a purpose built tunnel for the bike path under a canal - with escalators on both sides so you don’t have to ride you bicycle up a hill!

Into Rotterdam, on a bike path of course

Lunch whilst we wait to check in to our…

Pod hotel - at CityHubRotterdam

The amazing Marktplace in Rotterdam

Inside is a market and shopping centre

…but the whole of the upper building is filled with apartments - even behind the window at the very top!

The less successful Cube Houses

The Witte Huis, and a thoughtful Sarina

Day 249: Brussels to Roosendaal

It’s Thursday, it must be Holland

We spent pretty much the whole day on bike paths today, which is pretty cool. Sometimes they were just the pavement with some paint on it, but often it was a purpose built track alongside a railway or canal. There were a lot of other cyclists too, of all different shapes and sizes. Mountain bikers, roadies, tourers and a lot of couples on their steel “sit-up-and-beg” bicycles, off for a nice cycle ride together.

Before leaving Brussels we checked out the Atomium - Tiger was not a fan

Lunch at a Belgian café

Then, before we knew it, we’d ridden straight through Flanders and we were in the Netherlands — and it was only because we were paying attention to the map that we knew we’d crossed the border, there wasn’t even a sign to say we’d entered a new country. Obviously Holland and Belgium were founding members of Benelux, which became the EU, so this border has been open for a very long time.

So, we’re in Holland, country number 18, and our last before catching a ferry back to Blighty. Tiger found a ferry from Amsterdam to Newcastle, so we’re going to take that one and ride pretty much the length of England on our way back to the south coast. It’s all pretty close now!

Out for supper in the Netherlands

Day 248: Charleroi to Brussels

From the housing estates of Charleroi, through the infamous hills of Waterloo, to the metropolitan streets of Brussels, it was a mixed up ride today.

Plenty of quiet roads, but often with cobbles

These fields were where Napoleon had his command headquarters

The roads through the fields of Waterloo

Into Brussels, mixing it with the commuters

Moules and frites for supper

Grand Place in Brussels, although it was pouring with rain by this point

Day 247: Rozoy-sur-Serre to Charleroi

We’ve made it to Belgium!

We’re in country number 17 and we’re running out of fingers and toes to count them on.

A very quiet ride to start with through deepest rural France. Not even any villages to be empty most of the time.

Then, through a woods and, hey presto, we’re in Belgium. Nothing much changed to start with, but we soon made it onto a bike path on an old railway that was the perfect route. Smooth surface, no steep hills, rail trails are the best.

The Belgian border doesn’t even warrant a “Belgique” sign

We stopped in Chimay for lunch and had a cup of the local brew. A bit of a contrast to champagne and not my favourite lunchtime aperitif, but “when in Rome.”

As we were leaving Chimay we met a couple from Berlin on a tandem, the first touring tandem we’ve seen all trip. They were heading over to Paris for a short, two week trip, but they’d packed more bags than we had for nine months.

Fellow tandem tourers in Chimay

Then the rain started. It was cold, raining and the middle of summer- not quite what we’d planned for.

Then the rain…

We ended up pulling into Beaumont and stopping for a hot chocolate — and somehow that made the rain stop too. Perfect.

Then we headed into Charleroi. It used to be the centre of the Belgian coal industry, and as you might expect, it has fallen on hard times. We entered the city along the banks of the Sambre river, once a major transport route for coal on barges. Now, the area is eerily post-apocalyptic. Rusted buildings, rusted cranes and a cloud of rust over the whole place. It was quite an introduction to the city.

“Rust” — a sculptural installation piece by Industrial Degeneration

Luckily, our guesthouse was an oasis in this somewhat austere desert. It does however have many quirks, and we are in the “airplanes of the 1900s” themed room. Which is nice.