Bikepacking - Ropley Dean to Banstead

Day #

76

State of Legs

:-)

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	Distance (miles)	Distance (km)	Ascent (feet)	Ascent (metres)	Punctures
Today	56 miles	km	3002 feet	metres	0
Trip Totals	2943 miles	km	135443 feet	metres	0

Today's Route

Route So Far

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Travelogue

So this is it. The final day of my tour of Europe.

Today's weather was not exactly pleasant! It rained most of the day and to begin with I had to contend with quite a strong headwind. The wind died down further on into the ride but I did get very wet and a little cold. My rather old rain jacket is past its prime and will be "retired" now, I think.

My route, generated by the cycle.travel route planner once again was largely made up of National Cycle Network routes and so included a large proportion of no traffic or low traffic roads and paths. This made for some good cycling, albeit rather slow due to the conditions.

Somewhere near Guildford, I was cycling a narrow, single track lane when on going round a bend, I found the way blocked by a huge truck of the sort used to deliver tractors. In fact it had just delivered a JCB to a construction site. There were five guys on the site and they saw me looking at the truck. I asked them if they could possibly let me through (thinking they could move the truck a bit and then I could squeeze past). One of the guys came over and offered to carry my bike (and bags) past! I explained it was really heavy and that lifting it by the wrong part might break something.... so, "no thank you!". He offered again and I explained that I had twenty miles left to cycle of a 2,900+ mile ride and didn't want to invite any "mishaps" and he said...

"***ing hell! 2,900 miles? Blimey mate, that's amazing!

"Hey Bob, this geezer's cycled 2,900 miles! On his bike!", he shouted across to the others.

"Good on yer mate, that's amazing!"

And so on :-)

The others all came over and we spent the next 15 minutes talking. They were full of praise and of questions and a few stories about cycling they'd done, such as the famous London to Brighton Bike Ride. They were really nice guys, very friendly and genuine.

The truck eventually got moved and I continued, shortly afterwards, arriving in and cycling through the town of Guildford.

As I got closer to home, I sent my wife my position, at intervals. And eventually, I turned into my own road, cycled a few hundred metres and there was my house with my wife stood in the drive to welcome me and take some photos :-)

And before I close, could we please take a moment to pay our respects to The Mule. An ordinary and modestly priced mountain bike which has carried me and my stuff nearly 3,000 miles with very nearly no problems at all. Zero punctures (think about that!) and only a broken spoke nipple after all those miles and all those challenging roads and trails. Brilliant. I shall be treating The Mule to a new front wheel and perhaps some other bits very soon. And a thorough wash!

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you.... The Mule!!! :-)

I'll be posting one more time about this trip, reviewing the highlights and evaluating what went well, what I'd change if I did it again, what equipment worked, what did not and so on. Watch this space!

I shall be focusing my energies on food, sofa and TV for the rest of the day. And my lovely wife!