Belmont Lodge And Golf Hereford

These are the three most commonly words uttered by my today - Wales is just amazing - the scenery, the people, the food and the beer (from Josh!)

Well today started early, with being picked up by our tour guide from our hostel. We set out from Cardiff to Caerphilly, a small town with an amazing castle - there are over 400 castles in Wales! One tower at Caerphilly castle was attacked thousands of years ago ...

Bikes and kit are ready in the minibus.

All we have to do now is be at Droitwich Spa Fire Station and Urban Search and Rescue Station for 4:45 in the morning.

We then drive down to London for an 8 oclock start.

Then the fun begins.

Bike is in car ready for packing tomorrow.

Lots of advice about padded shorts and Vaseline! - Is there something I should know?

Will post some pictures as soon as we get underway, and keep you up to date with the events as they occur.

... go cell phones from the Orange store for £40 - really easy to set up and a lot easier than having to worry about roaming charges on our US phones. Plus we can use them next year.

It didn't take long to adjust to hearing all the British accents again. By the time we'd arrived at Paddington I had stopped being surprised!

We waited at Paddington for 2 hours for our train. We had brought our tickets in ...

A change of plan. Instead of a week in Italy and a week in Egypt, I've booked a 2 week Transatlantic trip, Southampton - Barbados via Tenerife, St Kitts, Antigua, St Lucia & Grenada. 29 Oct - 13 Nov.

This trip will start me off on my circumnavigation of the globe (another thing from my to do list). All I have to do now is arrange New York, I guess this is now going to be in July rather than December .... oh well, I suppose it will be a bit cheaper then!

... of bleating sheep, off to their new green pasture home, we hope.

We continue on back into England heading for Gloucester. We pass Hampton Court Castle and Gardens. There is a jousting match on today. It is just about 4, so we have to hurry.

It was great fun, there is a good English team and the bad Normandy team. The commentator encourages lots of cheering and booing for each side. The presentation of the flights was colourful, entertaining and ...

We held a money raising event today at Webb;s of Wychbold, lots of people and many donations.

We are raising money for Acorns Children's Hospice and the Fire Fighters Charity.

To find out more go to:

http://www.firefighterschari ty.org.uk/

and

http://www .acorns.org.uk/

... early hours of the morning. The radio was on and listing off all the schools that were closed that day. The sun rose, and the sparkly snow smiled, making me squint (nice alliteration, eh?). But then we were on the A12, weren't we? The famously horrible A12. And yes, we stopped. For a very long time. The coach driver came and chatted to us all - he had been in contact with the coach company, trying to find out what to do; no one had any ...

... been the goodbyes. Actually, each is pleasant although I sometimes wonder whether everyone I'm saying goodbye to quite understands the potential magnitude of what I'm doing. To say I'm not sure what will happen is vague enough for me to imagine that I might never come back, but I don't know if my idea of open-ended matches other ideas of open-ended. Gradually, I'm learning to be more explicit about the concept of ...

... of myself . Lets take you back to beginning when I were a lad when a mars bar was 22p and it weighed half a tonne. Well when I got to the airport and said my goodbyes and saw the "old man" cry. But I learnt later that they were tears of joy as they could never afford three holidays a year with me still in the country. I sat in departures waiting to board the plane and it dawned on me that I was the only person speeking English and with that I sat back ...