Day 191
Three punctures!
Today we were leaving my family in London and heading over to see Tom’s family in Northampton. At just short of 75 miles it was to be our longest ride on the touring bikes, but fortunately not fully loaded. Tom had about 50% of his kit but I had barely a third. This definitely made it easier going but the bikes felt weird, very twitchy! As the route was pretty flat the lack of kit wasn’t as helpful as we had hoped.
The distance meant an early start. Tom got me up at 6am, which after a few days partying with my three sisters and families was quite hard! George was too good a waiter when it came to filling up my glass!
When we left Raynes Park it was pitch dark, but fortunately pretty much everyone else was still in bed. The first few miles were great, with lots of paths through parks. Then the rain started. I donned my waterproofs Tom just toughed it out. He was loving his Rohloff gears and the new bike was great.
The fun wasn’t to last. Within six miles I had a puncture, we realised we didn’t have any glue in the puncture kit but surely, we would be OK? Four miles later I had yet another puncture, and now no spare tubes left. Watford Halfords to the rescue.
We kept ourselves fuelled by eating our Christmas present from my niece Gabby, a fantastic box of homemade shortbread. The roads started to get busier. They also started to resemble a river! Tom had decided to try a different route to his parents which was a great idea as our normal route through Milton Keynes was about two feet under water!
I had three pairs of gloves with me and as we neared Milton Keynes I put on my final dry pair. A few minutes later they came off as I had my third puncture of the day. We were managing to stay cheerful, just! Finally, about an hour later we arrived at Brian and Sue’s. Party time again!
