We finally completed the English leg of our trip a few days ago. we had to fix a spoke along the way and were kindly assisted by the folk at Pilgrims Way (Boston) campsite who all mucked in, driving us to Halfords etc. In 16 nights we spent five in campsites and the rest free camping assisted by a friendly farmer. If you go through a hawthorne hedge at the side of the road there is often a space under trees to put two tents. Common land, railway track land and in Tim's case a recreation ground all yielded a place to stay for the night.

England had pockets of charm and interesting countryside along side dreary indentical town centres. Lincolnshire was entirely flat and open (not much scope for camping), the North York Moors were rugged and mixed in with rolling green countryside and hundreds of sheep. There were some quite steep climbs which were of course dispatched with ease and poise in the searing mid day heat.

Cities like Sunderland, Middlesborough and Hull gave us warren like cycle paths to negotiate through sometimes run down housing estates. All the people in these cities seemed to be particualrly friendly and helpful reinforcing the notion the northerners are more approachable etc.

Further south came endless corn fields and more hills. matt experienced mild sensory deprivation and madness from nothing-but-corn-and-trees-and-this-lane and tiny towns with names like Norfield.

Due to a slight bit of road weirdness the pair were separated somewhere near beccles. Tim wisely followed the route (legitimately) to a ferry crossing from Stokesly to Harwich and waited for Matt. Meanwhile Matt is flogging himself to death by going all the way out to Colchester on the main route, getting lost in Colchester (heading toward London for a while), having mechanical woes and just getting to Harwich as the sun went down only to be told the ferry is full. One B&B and a ferry later the riders met up in Hook of Holland.