Done!

We're done. It was an adventure, but we're back in England now, resting our sore bums but missing the saddle all the same. Our last day from Essaouira to Marrakech was a testament to our fitness regime this summer. 114 miles in 40 degree heat, across what looked like the Martian desert. Rocky, yellow plain for as far as the eye can see. After more than 12 hours of being close to tears, of praying for no punctures in the last leg, of shaking off the pain in my hands, we arrived into Marrakech only to find the streets rammed with mopeds, pedestrians and cyclists waving Moroccan flags, tooting their horns and cheering. If only we could claim this welcome for us, but alas, we were to learn that Morocco was playing in the Inter-Africa semi finals against Tanzania that night, hence the excitment in the air. We arrived to the Jemah el-Fna (the main square of Marrkech's medina), relieved to have made it. We dismounted and were greeted by about a dozen tourists who started asking about our ride. Some took pictures of us, some shared their own biking stories, all of them congratulated us on arriving in one piece. The odometer did literally read 2999 miles (no joke!), but in the next 3 days we rode another 20 miles, bringing our grand total to 3019 miles. We packed up the bikes and enjoyed our last days in Morocco. It was sad to board our flight back to England, but amazing to look out the window as we passed over Morocco, Southern Spain, up the coast of Portugal, back into Northern Spain, France and then England, all in about 3 hours. We could almost make out the roads we had been riding on. A trip that took us 8.5 weeks on our bikes, so easily completed by a massive hulk of metal in the sky.

Thank you to everyone who supported us and the cause.

Zeina

It's difficult to find the words to describe how it feels to have completed the seemingly (if our friends and family were to be believed) insane challenge we set ourselves earlier this year. For me there are so many memorable moments that I will think of whenever I get on a bike or travel again. The beautiful landscapes of Europe and North Africa, the amazing al fresco picnic lunches we had, camping in a different place every single night, the friendliness, interest in what we were doing and helpfulness of complete strangers, Zeina's innate ability to have me laughing my socks off whenever I was feeling exhausted or needed a bit of motivation....it has been a once in a lifetime adventure that I'll never forget. Now we're back in the UK, seeing friends and getting ready to get back to work. Zeina leaves tomorrow to start an exciting new job in the US and I'm here for another few weeks preparing for my return to Fiji in November. I'll be seeing Dr.Cara Miller of WDCS International who has worked so hard for cetacean conservation in the South Pacific when I get back and one of the first things we'll do is travel up to Moon Reef to see the Spinner dolphins which gave Zeina and I the idea for the fundraiser in the first place. We've mentioned it before, but we are organising an online charity auction which will be featured on the WDCS International website soon as well as at the upcoming 'Whalefest' event in Brighton on the 5th and 6th of November. We managed to gather an amazing variety of things to auction off in aid of WDCS including a two week dolphin research holiday in Fiji, a learn-to-surf holiday in Portugal, a week in Morocco and loads of other great stuff you can bid on. Please help support the cause and bid on the auction and come to Whalefest in Brighton if you can and I'll show you my saddlesores (for a pound donation!) Finally I want to say thank you to all of you who have supported us these last months, to Paul, Tobey, Sophie, Rebecca and all at the SEA LIFE London Aquarium, to Steve, Danny and all at Global Vision International, to Cara, Cynthia, Stine and all at WDCS International, to my Mum & Dad for getting on the fundraising trail in Sunny Scunny, to Bruno at Baleal Surfcamp, to Maggie for the week in Morocco, to Brown for the wonderful dolphin images and everyone else who helped us on our way. Bye for now and see you all again one day down the trail! Howard x

Pass the sheesha Zeina!

Allah u’Akbar, you could almost believe it based on the incredible landscapes that surround the Moroccan Atlantic coastline. We have seen some amazing sights in the last week coming south through this fascinating country:

Farmland next to the ocean that relies on the sea mist sweeping in every morning to water the crops, camels randomly wandering by the side of the road, goats that climb up into trees to eat the nuts, which are then collected (part-digested) from the goat poo to be processed for argan oil.

The Moroccan people have helped make this part of the trip very special. The people in almost every car or lorry that passes us on the road gives us the thumbs up or shouts “Bon courage!” from the window as they go by. Everywhere we stop we are surrounded by people who ask us where we are from and look at us like we have a screw loose when we say we have come 4,500km from London on our bikes. Children walking to school literally stop in their tracks to watch the crazy folks cycling by.

It has been hot every day and that has taken its toll physically, we are sunburnt and exhausted by the end of each day and coming from the lush green vegetation of southern Europe to the dry and dusty Moroccan coast taught us to carry a lot more water and to try and get started much earlier than normal to avoid the hottest part of the day. Since we’ve been here, we are more knackered at the end of the day than any other country we’ve come through and this is down to the heat, quite depressing as we thought this must be the time when we are at our fittest! The other thing that has made the last leg of the ride the toughest is that our saddle-sores appear to have reached critical mass, our bums are pretty much in agony after only two or three hours on the bikes now. When you know that you have to be in the saddle for six to eight hours a day, it makes for a real challenge to keep going. We’ve just arrived in Essaouria, only 120 miles from our finish line in Marrakech and we are really, really, really looking forward to a break from the bikes for a few days! We were shown to our cool and kooky little apartment, right inside the Medina (the oldest bit of the city, like a citadel) when we arrived by a local guy called Hicham. Bizarrely, the apartment is owned by a lady who comes from my hometown of Scunthorpe, a fact we discovered only after Zeina found it online and we booked it. The owner gave us a little discount (thanks Maggie!) and has subsequently followed our story in the local newspaper. We had decided ages ago to have a break in Essaouria before the last leg to Marrakech as it’s a pretty little town on the coast where we could give ourselves a few days to see and appreciate Morocco before packing up the bikes and flying home.

There will be a final entry from Marrakech when we arrive, until then we want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has supported us and donated to the cause. We are more than halfway to our target now and we hope to make it with our charity auction which will feature a dolphin watching holiday to Fiji, surfing holidays in Portugal and Australia and loads more amazing things that people can bid on to win. There is going to be a two day event in Brighton on the 5^th and 6^th of November called ‘Whalefest’ where I will be attending to talk about of the Whale of a Ride charity auction and how you can take part for a chance to win one of these holidays and some of the other great things we’ve had donated to us. You can also learn all about dolphin and whales, with celebrity guest speakers and WDCS International running games and workshops. Our new partner in Fiji, Global Vision International, will also be there to talk about our exciting new Spinner dolphin research and conservation project which is due to start early in 2012.

Goodbye/Hello

Goodbye Spain/Hello Morocco

Well, we've said goodbye to Spain and are saying hellow to our 5th and final country, Morocco. After a very windy couple of days in Tarifa, we boarded the ferry full of day trippers into Tangier. As we sat, looking out the window, on the 35 minute ride, we spotted 3 different pods of dolphins. The water was super flat, with the sun shining right on it, and they were easy to spot.

Goodbye 4 Panniers/Hello 2 Panniers

We also said goodbye to our camping gear. After multiple people advised us not to camp in Morocco, we decided to pack up our tent, sleeping bags, cookery set and 4 of our panniers and send them back to the UK. From here on out, we're riding with 2 back panniers and our front handbar bags, making life lighter and easier. Our trusty camping guide that took us to all our camping in Spain and Portugal, was given to a lovely couple we met in Tarifa who were motorcycling from Bristol down to Morocco, all around Morocco and then back up to Bristol. After a couple of beers, we all realized that they were basically us, but with motors. I can't say that I didn't feel a pang of sadness when I handed over that camping guide and map. We relied so much on them for the past 7 weeks, I was sad to relinquish it.

Goodbye Sun/Hello...Rain??

Our ride this morning started under the wet drops of rain, the first this area has seen since April, according to our gracious host. No worries...we'd much rather be riding under the rain than the scorching hot sun. Funny though, to think that we had a month of no rain in Europe and the 2nd day in Morocco, we're getting soaked. After 2 nights in very budget accomodation, including no hot water, we decided to splurge and stay in a beautiful riad in the medina of Rabat. I write this from the terrace that looks down into the courtyard, 3 stories below. On each level are 3 rooms in traditional Moroccan decor, cool and quiet, a nice contrast to the hustle and bustle of the medina.

Goodbye Lycra Goddess/Hello Mz. Modesty

I felt the necessity to purchase a pair of loose, linen pants and a cycling shirt with sleeves to wear while in Morocco. As much as my butt looks good in lycra cycling shorts that come up 4 inches above my knees, and my tight, sleeveless sports top makes me look like a buff, athletic heroine, I didn't think that the folks in Morocco would appreciate my feminine sportiness. So Mz. Modesty stepped in and now my shoulders are covered and my knees are covered and my butt and cleavage aren't as prominent. Hopefully the heat will stay away a couple more days so I can get to Essaouira without fainting from heat exhaustion. I've been lucky so far...fingers crossed.

Goodbye Thoughtful Driving Practices and Indicative Signage/Hello...Whatever The Opposite Of That Is

I won't say we weren't warned. We knew. We knew the whole way. Moroccan drivers aren't used to bicyclists. Moroccan drivers don't look before they charge ahead. Moroccan drivers will kill you. We didn't heed any of this advice and we're now in Morocco and I have to say that I'm not too scared for my life. Yes, there's a lot more horn honking and disregard for human life, but even in the rain, I didn't have any major scares in the last couple of days. Again, fingers crossed that none present themselves. The lovely signage in Europe that clearly indicated where to go to get to a destination have been replaced with vague or non existent signs only to the larger cities. Luckily we're following on route most of the way down, but getting into and out of the bigger cities has been a major hassle. We've found that the traffic cops sprinkled around the cities are super helpful and have used mosques on multiple occasions as landmarks, once causing us much frustration as there were two mosques in the same roundabout.

So I guess the moral of this blog is...please keep your fingers crossed for us. No major worries and we're finding everyone here lovely and helpful. The fresh juice is gorgeous. The couscous is absolutely delicious. The cities are beautiful. And the roads have been pretty flat so far. We're hoping (and expecting) more of the same for the rest of the ride to Marrakech.

Whales & Dolphins in the Straits of Gibralter

After three full days of cycling into strong headwinds, we finally arrived in Tarifa, the port where we will take the ferry to Morocco. Our campsite is near the beach and we realised quickly why there were so many kitesurfing and windsurfing stores everywhere, Tarifa is W-I-N-D-Y! Just cycling the 2km into town from our campsite to buy supplies, we were nearly knocked off our bikes by the wind. Zeina was ahead of me and I could see her leaning over at an almost comical angle to counter the massive gusts threatening to blow us off the road. Amazing conditions if you're on the water with your kitesurfing gear, not so great for a couple of tired cyclists. I had broken a spoke on my back wheel and took it to a local bike shop for repairs, the guy who fixed it for me asked about my Whale of a Ride T-shirt and after I explained what we were doing cycling to Marrakech, he promptly called his friend Dominique who operates the 'foundation for information and research on marine mammals' (FIRMM)

We then were able to meet Dominique and he explained to us about the work being undertaken to protect cetaceans in the Straits of Gibralter, where 300 boats a day travel through an area with many cetacean species present. We met some of the volunteers who give their time to educate visitors about marine mammals during the summer and traded stories about Moon Reef in Fiji and some of the other places in the world where whale & dolphin watching forms part of the local economy. It was great to meet Dominique and we look forward to meeting him at 'Whalefest' in Brighton on the 5th and 6th November. You folks who are interested in all things marine mammal related should note this event in your calendars as there will be many educational workshops, celebrity presentations, games for children organised by WDCS International and many whale and dolphin watching operators talking about their eco-tourism opportunities.

Zeina and I are very excited to be on the final leg of our challenge. When our tyres hit Moroccan soil for the first time in Tangier we'll celebrate with a glass of mint tea and then hit the road to Marrakech. The next update should have us posing near a Kasbah or Riad in the north of the country. We're hoping for a bit of cloudy weather as well, despite just getting a message from a friend at WDCS that Marrakech was absolutely boiling hot when she was there a few days ago....

FREE ENTRY, after hours, to SEA LIFE London Aquarium!

SEA LIFE London Aquarium. Whale of a Ride and South Pacific Projects, invite you to join them for an exclusive, after hours, celebration of marine conservation and the stars thereof. An Ocean of Stars! On the 7^th of November SEA LIFE London will be hosting an evening dedicated to those with a passion for marine conservation. The evening will kick off at 7pm with a glass of bubbly on entry, some tasty (sustainably sourced) canapés and a special dive and feeding of the stingrays in our ocean tank. The evening will include a few short talks by special guest speakers and stands run by some fantastic conservation organisations. There will also be an exciting raffle with prizes including Sea Happy Goody Bags, SEA LIFE Annual Pass and Junior Aquarist for the Day – Feed the turtles, rays, terrapins, coral reefs and sharks!

Tickets are free but must be booked in advance by sending your name, the first line of your address, the number of tickets you want and the organisation through which you heard about the event (South Pacific Projects) to oceanofstars@londonaquarium.co.uk. The cut off date for bookings is the 17^th October. Tickets gain you access to the whole aquarium (normal admission £19.02). There is a suggested donation of £5 on the door which, alongside raffle donations, will go to Earth Sea Sky to help protect endangered loggerhead sea turtles.

The amazing people we meet....

Story #1: It was a hot day and we needed more water in our water bottles. Hobos that we are, we fill our bottles from any sink/hose/tap that we see and we were approaching a gas station. As we got closer to the air/water station, we met eyes with a fellow 'tourer'. He had way more stuff on his bikes than we did (and if you've seen some of our pictures, you know that we're carrying a ton of stuff) and we gave the obligatory cyclist nod. After a couple of minutes we decided to break the ice and started chatting with him. Turns out he's spending a year cycling the entire continent of Europe. Alone. We exchanged stories of bridges we had both crossed, strange encounters and some weirder 'hobo' moments (the guy has an extra plastic tub he keeps filled with water for him to shower with if he finds himself wild camping without a shower). And, true to the year we live in, we exchanged email addresses and blog sites. We rode with him for a couple of kilometers, but he was heading in another direction and we parted ways. -- Zeina

Story #2: Cruising through a small town in Portugal, Caldos De Reinas I think it was called, my peripheral vision picked up a large Union Jack emblazoned on a storefront. The store was called 'Union Jacs' and stuck out like a sore thumb. I obviously screeched to a stop and insisted that Zeina do the same. After running into the store I found an Aladdin's 'Cave of wonders', Marmite (obviously), Wagon Wheels, Angel Delight, Rolos, Fingers of Fudge "are just enought to give your kids a treat,they're full of Cadbury goodness and very small and neat....etc." We bought some supplies and chatted to Ginny the store's owner who was lovely. Scoffing our very British candy and slurping down 'Ye Olde British Lemonade' from a can, we left happy and I had a new jar of Marmite to nuzzle on these hot nights..... -- Howard

Story #3: We had a little break in Baleal to try surfing, did I mention that we did it to take a 'break'? Well, for anyone who hasn't tried surfing before, let me tell you that after the first few hours in the water your arms feel like they're going to drop off at the shoulder. So basically, we exchanged cycling for hours and hours with aching legs to paddling for hours and hours with aching shoulders. So, not quite the 'break' that we were hoping for!, though it was bloody good fun all the same and despite being the oldest bloke there by a long shot, I managed to fall of my board loads and get just as mashed by the waves as the youngsters, happy days! Hold on, this is supposed to be about people we meet isn't it? So, we met some lovely people, there was the cool, Swiss Brother and Sister duo of Cindy (stop rubbing your hand Cindy and fill in those postcards!) and Stephen with the most imnpressive abs of the trip so far: "When I was in the Army we'd do 120 push-ups at once" (?!) We also had the pleasure of Sarah, the Teutonic, blonde Amazonian lass. Sarah's lovely friend Bianca arrived as well for a short break and the pair of us were able to empathise with each other as we are both recent victims of the menopause, her at the tender age of 33yrs. On our final night in Baleal the gang invited Zeina and I out for dinner at a little local place, we had a hilarious evening which started when Sarah asked the very young looking waitress (literally, she looked like the Boss had roped his 12yr old neice in to cover a shift) for a bottle of red wine, a few minutes later the waitress returned and started pouring white wine. "No, we asked for red wine" said Sarah. "We don't have any red wine" responded the 10yr old waitress, we all looked at each other in amazement that if the restaurant didn't in fact have red wine, that they would just bring white instead and we wouldn't notice. However, Sarah's eagle eyes had spotted an 'exhibit' of approximately 40 bottles of red wine on an adjacent shelf: "What's that? Isn't that red wine?" she asked. "No" came the obviously misguided reply from our 8yr old waitress. It all got sorted in the end after a litre or so of 'Soup of the Day' was slopped all over the floor by another waitress of Justin Beiber fan club age and after a few stressful mninutes of me wondering whether I'd ordered a large plate of prawns, or more worryingly, one rather immense prawn the size of a large plate. -- Howard

Story #4: After 5 hours of up and down on the bikes, climbs which even in 'granny' gear felt impossible, in 38C heat, cars whizzing on our left, the sun blazing from on top, we were following signs for Lisboa (the white ones, because the blue ones mean 'highway'). We got to a spot where we couldn't go any further without risking our lives and getting in trouble with the law...again. So we went down the side street, hoping against hope that it would get us closer to Lisbon. Again, more climbs (the climbs always feel longer than the downhills) and we were giving up hope, we were about to break our cardinal rule and just get on a bus to Lisbon, when we spotted 3 handsome coppers having a cigarette on the side of the road. We stopped and asked for directions to Lisbon and, intially, got the same reaction that we got from everyone else we stopped...'Oh, Lisbon, it's very very far'. Hmmm, well, that didn't help us very much. So we pushed them and they palavered and waved their arms and yelled at each other and in the end, we got some concise directions, that when followed, led us straight into the center. Thank you, Portuguese police, you've come to our rescue once again. Note: The Senior Officer couldn't pose for the picture without finishing his cigarette and was too cool for skool to look at the camera (the other two hid their fags behind their backs) -- Zeina

Story #5: Rebecca - 12 years later! This incident was one of those rare moments in life which makes you really believe in fate or synchronisity. The first day in Baleal, I went to the Beach Bar to use their wi-fi. As I sat logging on to t'interweb,a bronzed, blonde, surfer-chick strolled in from the verandah. There was defintely something about her that piqued my interest, but I couldn't put my finger on it. A few minutes later I wandered outside to have a look at the waves (the same waves that Zeina and I would soon be getting pumelled by) and I heard a voice: "Howard?" The blonde surfette lady stood up and it finally clicked in my addled brain, it was Rebecca from 15yrs ago who I first met when I was the Manager of a Pub in Reading called the Purple Turtle. This was rather bizarre as it was 12yrs since we'd seen each other and she looked exactly the same, but more tanned. When we had first met, she was a 'regular' in the Turtle on Friday and Saturday nights. After we got chatting one time she admitted that she was actually 15yrs old, but she and her sister were so nice that I let her keep coming in the Bar anyway. By the way, if anyone from Reading Pub Licensing Authority is reading this, I live in Fiji so it's not worth trying to prosecute! After I got to know Rebecca, her Mum used to call up the Pub late on the weekend to check that she was ok, so I acted like a bit of a chaperone and got used to chatting to her Mum to reassure her that she was ok. Anyway, Rebecca is now working as a masseuse at the surfcamp and Zeina and I both availed ourselves of her services, which were excellent thank you Rebecca! Life is so full of pleasant surprises and meeting Becca' again was one of the nicest ones on the trip for me. -- Howard

An amazing one week surfcamp in Portugal donated to our charity auction!

Yesterday we experienced yet another example of the kindness of strangers, or rather some new friends that we made on the Portuguese leg of our fundraiser. Zeina and I pitched up in Baleal for a couple of days break to mark over 1,800 miles of cycling. We’d heard some very positive things about Baleal Surfcamp and decided that as the area was renowned for surfing, we’d try our hands at it (that’s another story!) and enrolled for some lessons. The surfcamp was set up by Bruno Bairros in 1993 and has been teaching beginners to ride the waves along the beautiful coastline here ever since. The setting is gorgeous, the staff and Instructors who work at the surfcamp are really helpful and passionate about what they do and there is a great mix of people from all over the world learning to surf. Not only that, but it is obvious that there is a genuine commitment to sustainable tourism being made by Bruno and his staff and the surfcamp is very environmentally aware. Every week the Instructors take all of the surfers to a local beach and clean up the refuse and plastic debris that has been washed up. The garbage is then properly disposed of and it was a pleasure seeing a tourism business really trying hard to look after the environment that they depend on for their guests to come and enjoy.

Bruno told us a little bit about the history of Baleal and the fact that it was the site of cutting and carving of whales on their migratory route to the northern seas. We also talked about the work that South Pacific Projects does with WDCS International in Fiji and our fundraising efforts and once he heard this, he very kindly offered us a fantastic contribution for our upcoming charity auction: a one week surfcamp, including two surf lessons a day with a professional Instructor, as well as accommodation and equipment hire. We were both very touched by his generousity and it was a lovely end to a great few days getting to know Baleal and meeting lots of pro-active and interesting people. Bruno and his brother Marcos are obviously committed to working in harmony with the environment and were very keen to support the conservation work being carried out by WDCS International. They told us about some of their future plans to reduce the surfcamp’s environmental footprint, whilst continuing to provide their guests with a unique surfing and lifestyle experience.

A big thank you to Bruno, Marcos and all the other great guys we met, including our professional Instructor from Australia, Sam (his favourite phrase: “Paddle, Paddle, Paddle!”). If anyone is ever visiting Portugal and wants to have a great time whilst supporting a genuine eco-tourism business, then check out Baleal surfcamp and get some waves!

Brigg Lions Club sponsors Whale of a Ride!

Today we received a generous donation from the Brigg Lions Club in North Lincolnshire. Lions Club International is the world's largest service club organisation. Whenever a Lions club gets together, problems get smaller and communities get better. At present there are 46,000 clubs with 1.35 million members in 206 countries around the world. My Dad has been a member for many years and it was his suggestion that he approach his local Club to raise some sponsorship for us. Janice Radford then got in touch with us during our ride through Spain recently and it was through her efforts that Brigg Lions decided to sponsor Whale of a Ride and the International Whale & Dolphin Conservation Society.

Our thanks and appreciation go out to all the members of the Brigg Lions Club (some of whom are pictured here fundraising last Xmas) and we look forward to meeting them in person in October when we plan to attend one of their meetings to give a presentation about the conservation & community projects that they have helped by sponsoring us.

SEA LIFE Porto visit

We just had a fantastic visit to the SEA LIFE centre in Porto, Portugal. We arrived on the seafront in the City and were met by Ana, the Curator of the Aquarium. Ana was lovely and very kindly gave us some time to show Zeina and I around the Aquarium, explain the ideas behind the different displays and how SEA LIFE is promoting conservation. The Aquarium is on a smaller scale than London, but the displays are really well thought out and we enjoyed seeing another SEA LIFE centre getting the conservation message out to the public.

Partnering with the SEA LIFE London Aquarium has been a huge boost for conservation in Fiji. Their sponsorship towards the Moon Reef Marine Protected Area, the first of what we hope will be a series of SEA LIFE sponsored MPAs in Fiji, was a result of an excellent working partnership between SEA LIFE, South Pacific Projects, WDCS International and most importantly, the local community of Dawasamu District. When we return to Fiji we will continue to develop marine conservation initiatives with the support of SEA LIFE London, please keep your eye on the South Pacific Projects website from November this year for updates. Now it's back on the bikes and on the road south to southern Spain before Morocco!

"We have two power bars, 68 miles to cycle, it's raining and we're wearing sunglasses. Hit it"

We fought the law and, as the Clash said in their 1979 seminal song, "The law won". To clarify, we tried cycling across a bridge that was part of a highway/motorway/autoroute and as we we got to the halfway point (having had several vehicles toot their horns at us in dissaproval) we heard a Police siren behind us. Being pulled over by a Police car whilst one is cycling at approximately 4mph lacks some of the adrenaline-induced fear displayed in Hollywood movies, instead it makes one feel slightly ridiculous. The two Portuguese Policemen seemed slightly incredulous to find us pootling along the hard shoulder, oblivious to all the lorries zooming past us at 120kmph. One of them said to me: "We have to fine you, both of you" to which I replied with a slight whimper: "But we're doing this for charity....". He then told me he was joking, ah, the Portuguese sense of humour! They then escorted us off the bridge (a real Police escort!) and gave us directions to get back on the minor roads.

Our second road incident that day came when a previously quiet, little road suddenly morphed into a major four-lane highway, in the space of a few hundred metres. Where we had just been cruising along admiring the Atlantic coastal scenery, we found ourselves dodging traffic which was overtaking us at incredible speeds from both sides and it was extremely scary. I couldn't believe how the road had just changed with no warning. It was the first and only time so far on this trip when I thought we may both be in genuine danger of becoming roadkill. As I made the decision to get the heck off the road, a lorry undertook me at high speed, I accidentally knocked into Zeina with my bike as a result and she wobbled in the path of an oncoming truck (sorry Gaby!), it was pretty terrifying. The only way off the road was to physically lift our bikes over a divider onto a disused piece of road, thankfully free of traffic. Believe me, sounds simple right? Well our bikes weight over 40kg when fully loaded and dead-lifting them over a concrete divider with traffic whizzing past our backs proved a bit of a challenge!

We had our first major bit of good luck of the day when we arrived in Porto and were helped into the city centre by a young man called David (Michaelangelo's David actually as he was a bit like Derek Zoolander, as in "really, really, really Good-looking"), David was a friendly and very helpful young local guy on a mountain bike who had seen us looking a bit confused about which way to head and offered to take us into the Downtown area. He proceeded to cycle with us for over a mile,leading us through the busy city streets and taking us all the way to the very centre of Porto. We thanked him profusely for his kindness and we also tried to buy him a beer, but he told us he didn't drink and left us with a smile and took off back to whence he came. A top bloke and a lovely introduction to the city! We then looked aorund for a Pension or some such as we decided to treat ourselves to a room after three straight weeks of camping and putting up our tent to sleep on the floor every night (see video). We are delighted to be in Portugal, the weather has been great, the coastal roads are flat and the people we've met are really friendly and helpful. Added to that, food is ridiculously cheap and tasty and it just feels like a good place to be after the mountains of northern Spain.

Hobos on Bikes

This trip has found us at our most nomadic in our lives. We bike from place to place, with our tent, sleeping bags, pillows, clothes, gas burner, food, toileteries, basically our whole lives, packed onto our bikes. Every night, we sleep in the same place, but in a different place. The tent has become our home and the rituals we keep are the same that you might keep in your house or apartment. I sleep on the left, Howard on the right. My pannier bags on my side, Howard's on his side. My watch hangs from the hook on the ceiling of the tent. The food goes on the right side, outside the door. The shoes and water bottles on the left. Toileteries are on my side, the packing gear on Howard's. Every day we have a routine of setting up and taking down our little home.

The places where we have stayed have varied. From municipal campsites to 'aire naturelle' to 5* campsites with a free night provided by Keycamp. But no matter where we stay we almost always utter these three words when we arrive..."one night please!". This nomadic lifestyle has led to us both developing some interesting characteristics. Let me explain.

Our 'hobo' moments....

- No matter what building, room, area we are in, we invariably walk into a place and immediately start searching for the nearest power point to plug in our stuff. Bars, restaurants, bathrooms, gas stations. It's all about 'Can we charge the netbook here?'

- Yesterday morning, we found ourselves eating spaghetti bolognese out of a plastic bag at 8am. Those were classy leftovers.

- We're still surprised and excited every day when we find a toilet with toilet paper in it (French campsites do not provide TP, but Spanish ones do)

- Howard demonstated his true English hobo-ness the other day when we found ourselves without any bread for the morning. Passing by a creperie in town, he noticed an unattended basket of uneaten baguette, left over from the previous diners. Howard deftly pocketed the bread from the basket and we were thus provided for. I love that my man is such an accomplished hunter-gatherer!

- After 3 weeks on the road, we have found that some of the most comfortable and scenic toilets are off the highway, in the forest.

- After setting the tent up one warm evening, Howard commented: "did we accidentally leave the cheese here?" I responded: "Nope it's outside with the other food". But then we noticed we'd put our cycling shoes inside the tent. It was then that a new rule was adopted 'Shoes go outside the tent...ALWAYS'

We were talking about various home comforts that we miss and some that we don't miss, Howard suggested we buy fold-up chairs to use instead of sitting on the floor every night in camp. My immediate response was: "No, I'm totally cool with sitting on our plastic bags".

I'm writing this from out tent (check it out, wi-fi INSIDE the tent and the night is costing just ten euros!), with a massive thunder and lightning storm going on outside. We're safe, warm and dry in our trusty tent, address - '5341b Golden Gate Ave' if you want to send us a postcard.

The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain...

Well we are five days into northern Spain and all I can say is that I now believe in climate change. Despite being the middle of August, traditioanlly the hottest time of the summer where we are right now, the weather has been like England in October, grey, cold and wet. I'm fairly sure that July and August in the south of France and Spain used to be a bit more warm and sunny, or maybe that's me looking back with rose-tinted spectacles! Anyhow, we're not doing this bike ride to get awesome tans and to have our hair bleached blonde from all the sunshine (sorry Zeina, what did you say? we are?!?)

What we've learned since getting to Spain:

1. Spanish people are not only ridiculously cool and good looking, but they can go out for dinner at midnight with their kids, stay up watching fireworks and partying till 5am and then get up again at 7am to go to work. These people are superhuman!
2. Spanish campsites are the noisiest places on earth at night. British kids would all immediately emigrate to Spain if they found out that here, it's completely normal to stay up until 1 or 2am at night having a laugh and playing with all your other mates.
3. Cycling through the mountains is a mixture of extreme adrenaline: "Here comes another ten minute supersteep and fast downhill!" and abject misery: "Here comes another one hour supersteep and agonising climb!"
4. We are getting quite fit, despite shovelling food down our necks like Fantastic Mr. Fox, we are both beginning to feel stronger and more capable of climbing the steep stuff.

We reckon we have a few more days to go before we reach the coast again and cross the border into Portugal, meanwhile we will continue to consume chorizo sausage in gargantuan quantities and hit the power bars and will reward ourselves with several Magnum ice creams when we arrive at the sea again.

Hasta la vista, baby x

Whale of a Van!

Yesterday was made rather interesting by the fact that there was absolutely “no room at the inn” when we arrived at our destination of Soustons. This has become a real problem for us lately as we have been arriving in towns and coastal communities for nearly a week now, some of them with over a dozen or more campsites, only to find that they are all full. This usually necessitates a very annoying extra 10 to 20 miles of cycling inland in the evenings to try and find some random spot to put up our tent. But yesterday we were really tired and desperate, so we accepted the suggestion of the Tourism Office to try a small ‘Camping a L’Aire Naturelle’. Over the last few days we have seen several signs for these campsites, but having been told that they are for the exclusive use of the nudist community, we were in no real hurry to try one out (not on these cool evenings anyway).

However on this occasion, tiredness won out after hours and hours of riding in the sun, with a need to eat and get some rest. So we approached the campsite with some trepidation, on first glance it appeared deserted, lots of parked cars and caravans, but no people. We began putting up our tent and then wanted to have showers as soon as we put the tent up before starting on dinner but we didn’t know what the protocol was on a nudist campsite. Do you go to the showers naked holding your towel, then shower and dry yourself, then take your towel off again to walk back naked to your tent? Or do you wear your stuff to the shower, then come bounding back out in your birthday suit? It was all very confusing.

Then we spotted a young woman wearing a dress walking to the shower block, so I waited for her to reappear naked or otherwise before I chanced going to the shower block in the buff myself. Willing the temperature to increase a couple of degrees before my planned nonchalant stroll over to the showers, the girl then reappeared still clothed as I was psyching myself up for what was sure to be a memorably traumatic experience. We quickly realised when some of the other campers returned from the beach, all clothed, that ‘Camping a L’Aire Naturelle’ actually means something along the lines of ‘Camping in someone’s back garden’.

Today was a lovely run south into Labenne for our one free night of Keycamp accommodation on a 5* campsite in a mobile home. It was a little weird not having to put our little tent up and even weirder having electricity available and a shower and toilet right next to the bedroom. We were very grateful for the temporary luxury though and went to the local supermarket to stock up on supplies. After a pleasant dinner of steaks that Zeina cooked, we retired to our living room (with actual seats to sit on for a change!) The memorable event of today was that we went to the beach to watch the surfers and on the way back we spotted a Volkswagen Vanagon, which Zeina insisted on having her photo taken with for the benefit of a family member who is very much into this particular type of vehicle. The owner of the van turned up as we were taking the photos and this was when things got really surreal because as we chatted to him, he revealed that he has his van booked into a local bodyshop next week to have it pimped out with a white leather interior! You could have knocked us both down with a feather at that point.

Today we arrived in Biarritz, we are very close to Spain now, having completed almost one third of the distance of our challenge and we are looking forward to some righteous paella, roll on Espagna!

One Word: Flat

Ok, two words: 'flat' and 'pine trees'. We've been on the flattest part of the journey yet for the last 3 days. The country side is made up of mostly pine trees and sunflower fields. We're on the coast edge of France, but we haven't seen too much of the coast, since our route takes us a couple of miles inland.

- We were having coffee in a small village and met some fellow tourers from Scotland. We chatted a bit and parted ways. 10 hours later, in another small village campsite, we were checking in and saw the two of them, tented up at the same campsite. Very small world.

- We came south from Hourtin, where we spent the night, to the crossroads where we would have to make a decision on whether to go to Cap Ferret or around the basin of Arcachon. We decided to go to Cap Ferret and made our way through the gorgeous pine forest bike route (more on the enchanted bike route below). We arrived in Cap Ferret, a nice, pretty touristy, beach town, ate a late lunch (it was already 4pm and we were ready to settle down for the evening) and headed to the tourist office for accomodation options. Apparently, there were none. I mean, there was no space ANYWHERE. We started calling places further out and after 12 campsites, the only place that had any availability was in Mios, a town about 30 miles away. Sigh, back on the bikes and 3 hours later, we roll up to the campsite, exhausted, but happy to have found a place to sleep.

- Three days ago, we had a very nice French man tag along with us for about 4 miles on his bike after seeing our tshirts and panniers. He chatted to Howard while seemingly unfazed by the passing traffic, trying to overtake him in the middle of the road.

- I get a warm feeling when passing cars honk and wave. We've had lots of 'Bon courage' and 'Safe travels'. We've also had lots of people tell us we're crazy. Either sentiment is acceptable.

- We had our first restaurant dinner since Paris last night and because we got to the campsite so late, it was a rush job to get to the place before it closed. We were still in our full biking uniform and the waitress started asking us questions about our ride. There was a family sitting opposite us and when they heard what we were doing, they started clapping. We really prefer that sentiment.

- Finally, we're getting sunburnt.

- The Enchanted Bike Forest of Cap Ferret. On this 23km bike path, there were some ups and downs (nothing like hills, but let's call them undulations). When the path went visibly downhill, we found ourselves struggling to move forward. But when the path went uphill, we could stop pedaling and be propelled forward. It was like a moving walkway on a bike in a forest of pines.

We're making very good speed and we hope to be in Spain this time next week. Hope the riots in the UK aren't bothering any of you.

Rain, Rain Go Away ... And Stay Away

After 3 long days of rain, we finally find ourselves on the coast. The trip from Paris started out with rain and because we were making good time and all of our stuff is waterproof, we decided to make the rainy days the long biking days. Sigh, we knew that we would hit some wet weather, but to be affronted with it for 3 days was a bit rough. Lunches have been bread, cheese, tomatoes and sausage. Yesterday, Howard made us a cheese omlette in a bus shelter, and we were saluted with 'Bon appetit' by two ladies waiting for the bus. My towel hasn't been properly dry in days, although our tent is like a warm little sauna. Chasing the sun, desperate to get to the coast, we've been averaging 10 hours of riding a day and the saddle sores are flaring up.

So we busted 3 long days of riding and found ourselves 30km from the sea last night. When we pulled the tent flap open this morning to find sun, we thanked the weather gods and made our way to the beach town of Royan. It's full of beach clothing shops and creperies and tourists. I suppose this is where people come in the summer time. We're a bit worried that we haven't made camping reservations, but we'll play it by ear. Turns out, the only way to make reservations is to send a paper letter to the campsite. Oh well.

We decided to name our bikes after two travelers: Gulliver and Roland. We've christened them by breaking a bottle of cider on the frames and branding them with bright green stickers.

Yesterday morning a friendly Englishman took pity on us and offered to get us some croissants from the bakery while we packed up our wet stuff.

Hopefully we'll be smooth (and dry) sailing from now on.

Our new logo

I recently met a very lovely chap by the name of Nadim who, after a quick bit of scribbling on a napkin, went home and came up with this amazing new logo for our fundraiser. Nadim is Zeina's cousin and is one of the very welcoming and friendly folks we met in Paris. We've been looked after so well by Maria (sorry about the 'incident' dans la cuisine!), Khalil & Charlotte for showing us some of the best spots in St. Germain for dinner, (don't worry folks as we're back on the tins of ravioli and bread for dinner every night from tomorrow) and Jenny for showing us the place where Jim Morrison used to be buried, before his family moved the body back to the US. Sorry Jenny, but that is an indisputable fact!

If anyone reading is planning a trip to Paris, make sure to take advantage of the wonderful 'Velibe' service in the City. Beige-coloured little bicycles a bit like the Boris bikes in London, but way cooler of course as they are French. In addition, you get to cycle them around Paris, which if I'm not mistaken is about 68,000,000,000 times cooler and more beautiful than London.

More news from the saddle coming soon and we are both still waiting for the next video challenge to come through....