Prolouge, Durham to Whitehaven   /  14 May 2008

The adventure begins

It all began on Wednesday,14 May when I headed over to Peter's house. My trusty steed Green Hornet (a Dawes Galaxy) had been left there the previous Sunday.

The plan was to load up Alison's (Mrs Peter) car with the bikes and gear and drive to Whitehaven. Jennifer (my wife) was also coming along to give moral support. The journey was scheduled to take about two hours.

Driving over to Whitehaven had not been our preferred option, but the train was not a good idea. Why? Read my first rant for more details.

The night before

A mostly uneventful journey saw our arrival in sleepy Whitehaven around 20:00. A quick spin around the one way system had us totally missing the Waverley Hotel due to its position set back from the road. Some head scratching, a quick wander up and down the street and a phone call finally located it.

After a speedy check-in and lock-up of the bikes, it was time to treat our crew, Team Pedro, to some fine dining...fish and chips eaten on a bench by the harbour. Who says we don't know how to treat our women right? After our hearty meal, the time came for them to head back to Durham, leaving us to our fate

With our support team's departure we took a leisurely stroll back to the hotel. On the way we checked out the C2C start and its bird poop encrusted ramp. They don't show you that in the publicity pictures!

Sweet dreams

Finally making it back to the hotel, it was off to bed for an early night. There wasn't much else to do and the view from my room wasn't up to much. As a final note, I want it on record that I don't have much luck with TVs in hotel rooms. The one in the Waverley appeared to work fine, except there was a fault with the sound. Everything was a couple of octaves lower than normal giving every voice a deep booming sound. The woman on the 'visit Australia' ads who says “So where the bloody hell are ya?” sounded just plain scary; like a shemale, if you will. Perplexed and disturbed in equal measure, I gave up watching about "Half Ton Dad" and went to sleep.

Tomorrow would be a long day. Would we find enlightenment and self-discovery? Or just get sore bottoms? Only time would tell.