...Hooky to Harwich - done!...

Let's be honest, the ride from Hooky to Harwich was never meant to be one of the highlights of our ride. The degree of excitement was never very high when thinking of cycling from Hooky to Bicester, Milton Keynes, Bedford, Bury St. Edmunds to the Port of Harwich, even though there are nice spots in every one of those places!

But there was lots of excitement when thinking about getting this project started!

Well over two years it was just talk, research, deciding on the right equipment and more talk. But now, the real McCoy was looming...

I think we were not wrong by looking forward to the real McCoy with some trepidation:

Our departure date was still in February and it would have been wrong to think we would just have lovely warm spring days, blue skies, daffodils and crocuses in full bloom and all the fields starting to turn green.

Instead, there were the thoughts of misty, grey & wet days. Headwind in our faces, flooded roads in the flat areas of Bedfordshire & Suffolk, us cycling in full wet weather gear, feet soaking wet & cold and both of us aching to arrive at our destination for the night with a warm shower & comfortable bed waiting for us...

And guess what? Our worst fears became reality!

Rain to heavy rain to some hail for approximately a third of the 300 km done so far. A chilling wind on day 3 and day 4 blowing straight into our faces and making us feel like the route is going uphill all the time.

A 4km detour near Burwell because of the flooding of the road and surrounding fields and, as we crossed the border from Suffolk to Essex, with the first glimpse at the River Stour (Harwich Estuary) the heavens opened again, the sky was nearly black, the wind blowing, the water looking brown...welcome to the British seaside on a bad day!

However, we must have had at least 4 to 5 hours of sunshine on route... (that's when the camera came out) and the daffodils looked lovely too!

However, the way this first part of the journey went, was just what we needed!

It was so different to cycling along a flat canal in France: fighting the elements, climbing over 3000m over the four days (who says the East of England is all flat??), being wet, cold & muddy (National Cycle Route 51 uses some lovely Bridleways which turn into mud on wet days) and trying to keep all the equipment dry at the same time gave us a good idea of how the 'tougher days' are going to feel like!

But there was a bonus at the end of each day: no pitching up of the tent; instead, we stayed in airbnb, hotels or with friends!

What were the highlights of those first four days you might be wondering?

For me, it was getting project UKtoOZ started, finding our legs & mental strength being in the right place, visiting friends on route, to be able to wake up at 6.30AM thinking 'temporary retirement feels great', the coffee stops on route, the few hours of sunshine and Amanda's beef casserole on Friday evening - all fond memories of the first four days riding...