11th August

After getting to bed relatively late last night, I thought I might be able to sleep through until dawn finally, but no….3 am rolls round and I wake from a great sleep, wide eyed and bushy tailed.  I got up for a couple of hours and had some tea and toast and then went back to bed about 6am but only dozed really for the next couple of hours and got up again at 8am.  Pete seems to have kicked the jet lag and slept right through until 7am.

Jimmy gets in his tent to try out the size......

It was a beautiful sunny morning and so we got the bikes out and made a few adjustments to the handlebars and my front axle which was making a slight squeak.  Fixed everything to our satisfaction so decided to practice putting up the tents.  Jimmy’s first and that went up nice and easily, but even at 230cm long, it was only just long enough for him.

.....and it looks pretty good!

Then we put ours up.  We’d put it up once before in the lounge and it is definitely different from our usual dome.  On our last trip we went cheap with our tent.  We were travelling over the European summer so didn’t think we’d need anything too hardcore.  So we ordered a $125 tent from AliExpress and it did alright, but after three months it was very worn and we gave it away.  The things we didn’t like about it were that it had a very small vestibule (front porch) and the tent inner was only 210cm long and when we lay on our sleeping mats, our feet often hit the end of the tent – and we’re only 175cm tall.

So we devised a list of what we wanted in our new tent – and if we had to go slightly heavier to get it, we would.  We needed:

220 cm length (at least)

110 cm height (at least)

A big vestibule (for cooking with a bit of shelter from any wind and/or rain and ease of entry into the tent).

Green colour (for wild camping)

Under 4 kg

Freestanding (in case we have to camp on gravel or the ground is really hard)

Good ventilation – preferably two doors.

Not outrageously expensive

Not too flimsy

Bearing all these things in mind, we opted for the Vango Mirage 300+ for a total cost of $400NZ, including shipping.  It weighs in at 4.2kg but after reading about the minimal effect weight has on cycletouring (thank you www.cyclingabout.com ), we were happy to let this slide.  Otherwise it had everything we wanted and seeing as we are touring in the European autumn, we felt we needed to be able to expect a bit more from our shelter.

Pete and Jimmy pitch our tent - you'll notice how brown the grass is after the long hot summer they've had here.

Our tent -note the nice big vestibule

You have to pitch the outer first and this takes a bit of getting used to, but once it was up it looked magnificent and we can’t wait to test it out.

As we were doing the tents, Pete’s cousin Stu and his wife Vicky arrived from Chichester – I don’t think we’ve seen Stu for twenty years and we’ve never met Vicky, but they are here for four days so we’ll have plenty of time to catch up.  We had some lunch and then Jimmy borrowed Andy’s old bike and joined myself and Pete for a jaunt down the Wirral Way.  He did very well on a foreign bike and into a strong headwind that had sprung up round lunchtime.

Pete and I then cycled to Sainsbury’s to get a few necessaries for a barbecue we’re going to tomorrow.  Peggy refused all offers of help to cook dinner so I got on with the blog while Pete caught up with his cousin.

Like Julia has mentioned, it was great to catch up with Stu, who we last saw when he was out in New Zealand all those years ago. We’ve been hoping to meet Vicky for years, but circumstances never allowed it, so it was nice to be able to just sit around and catch up and have a laugh.

Pete and Jimmy on the Wirral Way

The weather by this time (late afternoon) had packed it in, so we’d been fortunate to get the ride in with dad. I’d noticed that whilst riding that he’s not as confident. Someone else’s bike doesn’t help, but I think that when he had ten weeks off with the melanoma surgery, that put him back a lot. We’ll only get another couple of rides with him before we leave and then he’ll have to be out on his own. It’s a huge bonus to have the Wirral Way to train on, where he is off road, but even so, there are plenty of other cyclists and pedestrians with dogs to look out for. As long as he takes his time through obstacles and watches his mounting and dismounting he will be okay.

Had our dinner with the gang before Stu and Vicky headed off to Birkenhead to stay at Mariner’s Park and Andy went with them. That left Peg, Dad and myself to sit and chat for an hour, as Julia had turned in at 7.30pm. She was totally knackered as she’d been up since 3.30am. With all the dishes done, it was off to bed for the rest of us by 8.30pm. I thought I may have trouble sleeping at that time, but it didn’t take long until I was in the land of nod.