Waking up to a Perfect English Summer's Day

Did I bring the good weather with me?! I awoke to blue skies, fluffy white clouds & lovely warm sunshine today, fabulous! Even the birds sounded really happy!

I slept so well last night. I loved being back on a real, sweet smelling, springy grass pitch. I knew it would be a relaxing morning so I ate breakfast in bed (well, sleeping mat & sleeping bag) & even had enough gas left in my canister for a perfect mug of tea (see photo - hope it's worked, it's gone blank on my phone screen).

And then it happened - I met my first female solo cycle-camping tourer of the trip! Karen has cycle toured for many years and is currently touring from Mansfield to Sunderland (she admitted the route was slightly unusual!). I'm so pleased she came over to say hi, we had a wonderful chat & I was so delighted to meet a fellow female enthusiast. Karen said she'd only met one other solo female cycle camper in Cornwall - the famous Josie Dew! I hope you have been able to log onto the blog when you get home, Karen, it would be great to stay in touch and swap stories!

I wasn't due to meet the Welcoming Committee until around 11.30am so I sat in the warm sunshine pondering how I felt about going home. At the time, I actually suddenly felt very sad that when I opened the front door of my home, this incredible trip would be over. I didn't want it to be over.

As always, I then started to think positively. A new beginning, finding an exciting new job, seeing my friends & family again, planning future cycle camping trips. I'd booked various things in for the rest of this week knowing I'd need to keep busy. This includes a full body massage (what bliss!), a facial - a big thank you to Contis again for both of those as a voucher for the Devonshire Health Spa at Bolton Abbey was my incredibly thoughtful leaving present - and a much needed haircut! And, yes, I had to admit I was actually looking forward to my 1st big supermarket shop and restocking my fridge, cupboards and fruit bowl rather than only being able to buy what I could squeeze into my panniers every day & wasn't likely to go off in the heat.

But I still didn't want this to be over....

Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone on O2