18 October 2025 (cloudy and cool) 33km

After being up a couple of times during the night, I finally woke at 6.20am. Julia was still sleeping.

These past three weeks she has done amazingly well to keep going, with a cold and scratchy throat bothering her since we arrived here. Although she says she feels fine, it is her continually positive attitude that has helped get her to this point. 

With the temperature taking a dive, I know it really affected me, with a runny nose since we arrived.

But this part of the tour has also been one of the highlights. The cycling here has been fantastic and had it not been so cold, we would have loved to have camped. Waking up and going to sleep in our little portable home is still one of our favourite aspects of touring.

Future tours will have to include more freecamping, as the cost for accommodation has become prohibitive, especially for tours of three or four months. 

So now, we will make our way into London Heathrow, check into the hotel and pack the bikes.

Steve Blakelock, our long time friend will meet us tonight and we'll spend a couple of days with him, before heading home to family and friends.

Now to prepare for our final day......

Shot over to Sainsbury's for milk and packing tape. Always find the packing tape is very chewy?#*!

Ate breakfast and checked out at 9am. 

Mapy guided us to a nearby park for part of our ride through High Wycombe this morning, which was fine until we found ourselves right in the middle of a Park Run. And there were hundreds of people! Nowhere to overtake, so we were slowed down somewhat until we reached a big field and cut across to the far corner.  Then it was back streets out of town.

Ju here. When Pete woke this morning, he was on a mission.  We did need to get the bike boxes before the shop closed at 2pm, but it was only 33km away and a flat ride. Still given our penchant for picking up extra km and finding every hill in the district, I can't blame him for being a little anxious.

But straight off getting stuck behind hundreds of runners in a park was not a great start.  As you can imagine in his already stressed state, this did not go down well and in his mind we were now about to miss out on getting the boxes, therefore unable to box our bikes in time and missing our flight in two days time and all because of these pesky people insisting on getting out and exercising all over the place. Geez, karma's a bitch.

Anyway after finally escaping the plodding crowd, we had a very straight forward ride through the suburbs to Wooburn Green before climbing our last hill of the trip. It was called Berghers Hill, which did have the advantage of warming us up on this cold grey morning.

Once on top we were riding tree tunnelled country lanes and woods to Farnham Common, which was a bit busier in some parts due to being so close to London but we appreciated this last little glimpse of the England we love before Mapy directed us through mostly alleyway and parks to Slough. 

Slough itself had quite a modern part with a wide footpath/cycleway and then took us through the city mall which again was pleasant and safe to cycle through. But as we moved to the main road foot/cycle path, we started noticing all the rubbish and broken glass, just like every other busy place we've been to.

To be honest, we've been noticing roadside rubbish for the past few days. There have been many signs advising “no fly tipping” but as you know, we don't tip anyway, especially flies, so totally disregarded those signs.

It's disappointing seeing the disrespect people show to a place where there is so much beauty. We thought England would be different, but it's got the same problem with trash as the Balkans really, although nowhere near as bad considering the amount of people that live here. It does make you sad to see the world being treated this way though.

Very happy to escape the madness of the London traffic.

As we approached the entrance to Heathrow, we asked a guy walking past if he could take a photo of the two of us.

It's been hard getting us both in the shots as you are reliant on someone else being obliging and also being competent. This guy aced it.

Found the Renaissance Hotel, but couldn't check in early as the room wasn't ready, so we parked and locked the bikes outside and walked about 300 metres to Runway Cycles where Ian provided us with two flatpack boxes for £24. Also gave us some protectors for disc brakes. 

All done so easily, efficiently and friendly.

While we were at Raceway Cycles, we noticed these ambulance bikes which are used throughout London as often it's the most efficient way to reach people in need in the city. We're not surprised as we find getting through cities is becoming easier and easier with more bike paths every year and great mapping applications. Then if you have local knowledge as well, you can get through built up areas very quickly.

They have non electric bicycles for Heathrow as you're not allowed e-bikes at the airport as the owners are cycling purists....just kidding. It's the danger of the big lithium batteries on them apparently.

Back to the hotel and sat in the large reception area blogging until the room was ready at 2pm. Back to Pete.

It's a lovely hotel, very plush entrance and massive foyer area. Restaurant, cafe and big check in area. They even have a concierge.

We asked for ground floor to try and avoid this debacle.

Our room was on the ground floor, yet we still had to take an elevator to get there....? The room is spacious and well presented.

Had some lunch and then got cracking taking the bikes apart. It was very relaxed and we chatted as we worked.

Got them both in the boxes and we just need some refinements and to add some packaging for protection. 

At 5.15pm Julia jumped in the shower and I took my turn shortly after. 

We were meeting Steve at The Pheasant pub at 6.30pm, so took a walk along the "Boulevard".

Great to see Steve again.

We all slipped back into comfortable conversation and over the course of the next three hours, enjoyed a drink and a meal.

Last time we saw Steve was seven years ago, yet it doesn't seem anything like that.

It's friendships like these that we've been catching up on since we arrived in England, that are the type we all value at the end of the day. 

Steve had a bus to catch, so we walked with him to a bus stop about 1km away.

This area behind all the hotels is not the glamorous hotel scene.

Walked past guys sleeping rough outside shops and thought about a guy we'd seen in High Wycombe last night.

He was drunk, in a wheelchair, going off at a motorist who was trying to get down an alleyway in his car.

I understand some people may not have homes, and choose to live on the street, that is their right.

But why are so many of them aggressive, angry, drunk, or drugged.

"Mental health" is a term used widely nowadays.

I also feel its an excuse for some people to act in an unacceptable way and get away with it. Felt like hauling his wheelchair out of the way for the motorist but thought if I happened to tip him out in the process, I might land us in some trouble.

Said goodbye to Steve, even though he will be with us over the next couple of days and walked back to the hotel, to what sounded like mortar fire.

This was fireworks but very loud as it's Diwali this weekend.

By the time we reached the hotel, it was 9.30pm.

Had a coffee, before Julia crashed and I wrote the blog.

The weather is supposed to pack it in now, with rain forecast.

Our time in England has been great.

We have been so lucky on the entire tour, although our tans have begun to fade.

I will make this my last entry and start writing my reflections, which I will post over the next couple of days.

Thanks to those who have followed this adventure.

I hope it gave you an insight into how we live on the road.