The birds haven't started singing.

You know when you're excited; a little like a kid on Christmas morning. Up rediculously early to take a look under the tree. The birds haven't even started singing, but I couldn't stay in bed any longer.

The first of many bowls of porridge consumed, the obligatory rice pudding packed ready for lunch and most importantly, the washing up from last night done. The last attempt to appease the conscience as I set out leaving George and Laura behind for three weeks. I know well enough who has the hardest task ahead and it isn't me.

Thank you all for your kind good luck messages and to Sams HQ for mobilizing your PR machine ahead of my arrival in various towns and cities along the route. Anything that can be done to publicize your work will only add to the sense of achievement from my end.

Oh, and thanks George for the cold! Kids!

I'm determined not to post too many photos of the bike in the next few weeks, but here's one to get me going. Booted and spurred and weighing a tonne.

Shopping for the last bits and pieces

With just two days to go I'm beginning to get the butterflies of excitment and if I'm honest a little mild apprehension. Mostly, I guess about the usual stuff with travelling...what will I have forgotten? Have I taken too much? Certainly the bags that I have now packed, bar the food, are heavy. The combination of cycling and walking was always going to guarentee that. I think that I have it covered though.

This little computer that Nick Morritt kindly lent me, is fantastic. Nick for your trouble remind me to pass on the mobile dongle thing that I bought today, that will ensure connectivity in some of the places where I can't find wifi.

I'm also grateful to Lizzie, my eldest, for failing to break her old mobile phone, thus enabling me to give it a new lease of life. If you want to call me to chivvy me along, here's the number...

07866 312689.

So apart from the shopping spree I spent most of the day ironing out the final parts of the route. If you ever get to do something like this, there are many ways to skin the cat, so to speak. You could join an existing supported ride, or organise your own, but follow the many routes that are available through organisations like the CTC....or you could do what I've done, and make up your own.

Since this is a journey and not a race, I went looking for the country lanes and will no doubt get mad at too many steep hills as a consequence, but I have also tempered my mileage accordingly. The only piece of advice that I would proffer, however, is this:- Take advantage of google earth. A number of the online mapping programmes show roads where there are none. The classic example would be the apparent track that runs next to the M6 between Carlisle and Gretna. Take a look at Google Earth and you will see that there ain't one. Don't forget folks that you can't take your bicycle on a motorway, and if you could, you'd be nuts to try it.

All I need now is a bicycle! Mr Cycle is working hard on the rebuild of the drive train. The new tyres are on and the rear cassette too, however, the bottom bracket I had had fitted previously doesn't go with the new front sprocket set. Fingers crossed it will be with us by tomorrow in time for a test ride. In the mean time, apart from the bike, this is it.... see photo above.

Happiness is getting connected!

The girls (Lizzie and Anna) and I took a ride out today. Probably the last of any distance before I leave for the south west. A beautifully sunny, though cool day with fantastic visability. We took the high road from Wymondham Abbey to Deopham from where you can look down on both sides to Hingham and Wicklewood on one side and Morley and Besthorpe on the other.

We of course made the fundamental mistake of heading off with the wind at our backs, but this at least made for a relaxed beginning. We certainly covered the first 12 miles to Attleborough in good time, stopping there for lunch of pizza, steak pie, Mr Blobby biscuit and apple crumble slice! Not sure that I shall be able to keep that up for three weeks if I have any hope of reaching the other end.

The passage back home via Spooner Row passed uneventfully, but I was pleased as punch that we had covered 25 miles without difficulty. Well done L and A.

This afternoon Anna, George and I headed into Wymondham in search of an elusive Wifi signal emanating from someone else's Home Hub. BTfon.com allows you to plot the possible best locations and I'm hoping to use this to reach you all over the next few weeks. Without too much difficulty we found one! In the middle of a housing estate, we stopped on a roundabout and 'bingo'! there it was. Houston, we are connected!

The Samaritans kindness

I'm writing this entry on the little diddy notepad that Nick lent me. I have yet to find out how to maximise connectivity after spending fruitless minutes driving around Drayton, just outside norwich, trying to find someone elses Wifi signal.

I've discovered however, that if you look at www.btfon.com , you can look up a map of 'hotspots' that I hope will allow me to identify where I should be able to use this thing whilst on my way. The alternative that I have to look into tomorrow, is to use a mobile phone connection through the computer and hope that that covers those areas that Wifi does not.

If anyone is struggling to become a follower by the way, it goes something like this:-
Google lejog4samaritans, then double click on the options icon and go to site settings. That should give you the option to follow. Hope that helps.

Off to do some hotspot mapping. I'm actually starting to get excited about this thing. I wonder what will forget. Ideas on a postcard. See if you think of anything that I haven't. Could be a useful reminder. Good luck.

£900 from Norwich. Thank you.

Friday 9th saw us complete our final training and fund-raising day. £372 to the good, Norwich has now kindly donated over £900 in 3 weeks to the cause and in so doing have broken through my £2000 target. Thank you.

I hope that if you are reading this that you never have cause to need to use their service, but if you do, Norwich have an excellent group of volunteers, whom I have been very fortunate to be associated with. They must be great listeners, becaue they put up with me for hours on end.

The allergy to the shorts went from bad to worse during those 8 hours on Friday and I have now had to sell them to my brother, Andy. Let's just hope that our genome isn't so similar that he ends up with hives all over his legs as I did.

Todays blog is being written on an elonex notebook that Nick has kindly lent me for the journey and I am excited to discover having had a chat with BT this morning, that I can plug into anyone elses wireless network, if they also are subsrcibers to the free BT open zone network.

To find out if it works check in in 72 hours, by which time it should be active. Fingers crossed.

One more training/fund-raiser to go.

Seven and half hours of turbo training. It's a good thing that people watching can be as fun as watching the world go by. We had an excellent day today and the stalwarts from Norwich Sams have made this all possible. £361 to the good today, outstripping my best fund-raising day in the city back in 1997. Marathon year.

We met alot of people interested in the cycle aswell as the Samaritans today, including one fella who's setting off with his friends to do John O'Groats to Lands End, arriving in Penzance the same day that I do, except that he will be at the end of his journey and about to head into London to run the Marathon!! Fantastic guys and good luck. Hope to see you at Penzance station or on the road between there and Lands End.

Shucks! The new cycle shorts that I bought a week ago have brought my legs up in welts, where the rubber strip that holds the shorts to your legs. I'm allergic to my blinkin' shorts!!

So thats 160 odd miles for the week and George is screaming for a bath. So what George say, goes.

3 weeks to go.

Count down begins.

Now into April. The weather has taken a slightly odd change for the worse. My Father always said...'winter's not over until the end of March!' Well it's now the 1st April and for those of you in Northern England, Ireland and Scotland who are under feet of snow...sorry folks! Please clear the roads by the end of the month though.

A full week of work this week, so only cycling to and from Bowthorpe Road in Norwich. With the 8 hours that we have planned for Chapelfields this Saturday, however, this will end up being another 160 + mile week, so not bad at all.

Next week will be similar after which the bike goes for its overhaul and I start to concentrate on the final bits of planning and plenty of eating...well why not.