Prologue
14 May 2008
Start
Durham, County Durham
End
The Waverley Hotel, Whitehaven
Distance
119 mi / 192 km
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.
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 Alison and Jennifer to some fine dining...fish and chips eaten on a bench by the harbour. Oh yes, stayin' classy. After our hearty meal, the time came for them to head back to Durham, leaving us to our fate
With our fan club'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.

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