Thursday 28 August 2014

Day 17 (57 miles) The Final Day

We did it!! We finally cycling into Winchester at about 1.45pm on the 26th having cycling 1,294 miles from Rome to Home.

The final day was a relatively easy day of cycling. Our legs badly needed it by this point! We were set on our way by a full cooked breakfast thanks to Fred's Grandparents. We can assure you that it beats porridge every day. Staying in a nice comfy bed was also a great treat after so many nights our faithful tent. The weather did initially try to ruin our final day as we set off in the rain again. But with the excitement of the final day Archie and Fred pushed on hard and covered the miles pretty quickly. By this point our bodies were so used to getting up and cycling that it just felt natural. It feels rather weird not to be doing so much cycling now.

The rain cleared and we were able to have a dry ride into Winchester. the only mishap being the  huge number of puncture we had. Fred had two, and Archie got one at the top of the hill overlooking Winchester. What bad luck having not got one all trip!Jack, who's elbow is still pretty bad, joined us for the final few miles which was nice. It was such as shame we were not able to do all the final day as a three.

Archie had been given the task of navigating to the front of Winchester Cathedral. An easy task you would think as Winchester is his local town. But he managed to get very lost. The result being that we crept up behind the welcome party having come in the wrong way. As with rest of the trip it was no surprise it went wrong in some way!!

A huge thank you to all the people who very kindly turned up to greet us. The welcome banner, champagne, and cheers were all very much appreciated. It was such a great feeling that we had finally done it. After all the broken bikes, cars and bodies it was just such a massive effort and achievement to get to Winchester at all.

Thanks for all your support throughout the trip, and also for reading this blog!!! We hope you have had as much fun  following our trip as much as we have had doing it. It has certainly been a proper adventure.

Archie, Fred and Jack

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