After quite a busy weekend involving a gig with my rock band in Cambridgeshire on Sat night, and suffering from a throat infection for which I was prescribed antibiotics for 7 days, I started by journey south. My bike and I were booked on the Paddington to Penzance 12.06 train along with quite a few others on the trip. I had planned to cycle between Euston and Paddington with my big rucksack on my back, but as I packed all my clothes I decided this was not practical, and so I persuaded my wife Nicky to travel with me the first leg of the journey to Paddington. I met Nigel, Ollie, Stuart and Alice at the station, then found myself sitting in front of Steve Huckle, whom I'd promised to sell my spare rail ticket to, I'd bought when the volcanic ash was bad ...little did I know it would return with vengance. We were amused and slightly shocked by an anouncement when leaving the station 'The buggy that has been left blocking the corridor has been removed from the train and can be collected from Paddington station' - how mean! We passed quite nice scenery in the sunshine and eventually reached the Devon coastline pictured. I knew that Alice was in first class so I wondered down the train after Exeter and got chatting. The girl sitting opposite then asked if we were cycling to John O'Groats, and it turned out she was Siobhan - and they'd been sitting without talking for about 3 hours.I was picked up by Mike at the station. Apparently he'd met some of theDiscover Adventure team and asked 'What time are the other competitors arriving?' He got told off about this - 'it's not a race' - it took a few days for some of the team to realise this. We had a BBQ that night at Mike's house, despite it being a bit cold.
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