From home to home all the way home !

I've shaken that virus, whatever it was ? 10 days of feeling really poorly and not being at all able to focus on the job in hand, but I'm back ! Back at work and just a few days left to get all the loose ends tied up, then hopefully a couple of days to get some bits and bobs together for this here trip. Last week I really couldn't even get the bike out of the shed but tonight and the last two evenings I've been out on the road cycling just 10-12 miles and tweaking the bike as I go, little adjustments here and there to get the ride position just so. It's not quite there yet ...
I remembered, or rather was rudely reminded as I pedaled along that my left wrist is buggered after an awkward fall from a motorbike a few years ago and also that my right knee hurts when I stand up to pedal ! Great ! I've no idea what I've done to that but it was a while ago. I tried a sort of band thing on it tonight for support, it did feel more comfortable, didn't stop the pain though ! I guess the obvious thing is to not stand up ! Maybe it'll improve after a few miles ? Or a few hundred anyway.
Some of the hills around here are pretty big and can climb for a couple of miles or so. I feel pretty good as I reach the top of them ... But who am I trying to kid, surely they're just bumps compared to the Pyranees !? I've really no idea what to expect when I get going. A lamb to the slaughter ? A clanking heart, achey wrist, knackered knee and the furthest I've ever ridden I think is about 12 miles, and that was tonight ! I have to say though it didn't tire me, I could easily have done it again ... Still ,even if I had it would only have been 24 miles ! Who knows, anyway I recon I'm about ready to give it my best shot.
My bike at least, is fantastic, I'm really please with it and with all the attachments (thanks to Helen), it really does look like it's up for the job now. The pump works well, tyres are quiet and smooth on the road, speedo thing is great... Everything is looking good and working well.
So, here's the plan..... Dom and I leave for France on Brittany ferries, who by the way wouldn't even offer a 10% discount being that it's a charity event, explaining that they only help charities that effect them or their staff directly or some such excuse. I explained we all actually have hearts, even them and their employees and that the money raised will be directed at a new 3D scanner for Derriford hospital, Plymouth where many of their staff actually live ? Oh well, it was worth asking. Luckily I've had a better response from everyone else along the way making this whole thing possible and totally unique in it's linking of homes, like stepping stones across the country.
Yes, so with no thanks to Brittany ferries we'll be leaving next Wednesday night, then heading down to Bordeaux via Locmine in Brittany to rob a bank for some fuel and bagette money ! We'll be staying near Bordeaux with family for a day, then I get a lift all the way down to the south to a little village near my starting point, on the banks of the Canal du Midi, a canal that runs all the way in a north westerly direction to Bordeaux. The village is called Argens Minervois, there we'll find a Gite (holiday cottage) owned and run by Cathy Pugh, a lovely lady whose offered us the use of the place for the night with promise of food too! The next morning we head off to my starting point, a really beautiful place by the looks of it, a fishing port called Gruissan on the coast of the Mediterranean sea, boasting an ancient tower called Tour Barberousse or Red Beards tower ! A pirate maybe ? Anyway I'll be hoping there's a beach there for a dip in the med before setting off and heading west towards the mighty Pyrenees ! Spurred on by the promise of yet another meal, shower, comfy bed and hospitality by Joanne and Peter Mathews... I've a feeling I'll be ready for it too ! So, there we have it... The plan and the beginning of what's bound to be, one way or another an amazing adventure from home to home all the way home .... So stick around and keep logging onto my blog for a virtual pillion ride across the hills mountains, valleys and vine yards through every region of the west of France !