We set off at 0715 in soo much time for our 1001hr train at Preston. Previously during our Prep Phase we had preloaded the route which Garmin had selected for us to travel from Grimsargh to Preston. With Garmins preprogrammed and panniers locked and loaded, we set off. Garmin had selected a nice route which I would imagine compares well to an urban Somme. Lots of broken glass and rough tracks. The twenty minute ride took some 40mins, but little did we know as we arrived at Preston that the evil Garmin had more in store for us later.

Anyway, we soon carb loaded at the station – I took a sausage and cheese roll from a most cheery operative (sorry Gayle, I’m talking about food!) and Karen took the cheese and egg option.

We engaged with the train operatives to make them aware we were bikers, and they were super nice, pointing out the location of the bike storage area and the loading procedure.

We were both very impressed with that service. We had prebooked our bikes, at no cost. Train tips up, we stow bikes – all very stress free.

Arriving in Euston (London) I had pre-briefed Karen that the cyclist is one of the most hated beings on earth here, and to be on guard for twats. So again, with the Garmins preprogrammed we set off for Waterloo station. The Gremlins had other plans. We had two hours to travel 4km, that’s heaps of time, a snail could do that. We had provisioned about 20 minutes, bearing in mind London is busy. The start was not good as the Gremlins pointed us in the wrong direction at the off! We followed the ‘route’ for some 20 mins, lots of turns, before we became suspicious of our guide. To seal the deal the Gremlin suddenly reversed the whole route and starts to demand we do a 180. At this point we reverted to Karens phone using google. This worked well, and we took a direct route to Waterloo. During this rather stressful phase of the ride Karen warned me that I was about to be undertaken by a delivery cyclist. I nipped that in the bud and advised him that he was a twat and left it at that. Well he finally overtook us and it took a fair bit of will power not to educate him on the basics. That’s just London – everyone in a rush, apart from declaring a pedestrian a wanker I think I did very well with that leg.

We could not prebook our bikes on the Waterloo to Portsmouth leg, it was first come first served. So after being told by a Train operative that it was leaving from platform 16, another one told us is was actually 12. So we rushed over to find the cycle car already ½ full. Strolling up the train we found the second and final cycle car empty. We filled it.

Train to Pompey was slow. Setting down at Pompey we trusted our Gremlins and they actually worked fine this time. We queued with many motor cyclists and met our first cycle tourer Dave (normal) – he is cycling from Spain back up through France. Nice bloke.

Boarded boat, bike tied up by crew to lashing rail. We have a very nice cabin.

Dinner was very good and it gave me an opportunity to hone my French with the waiters.

After beer, wine, and lots of very nice scoff it was time to rest for day 2.