WHOOP WHOOP…. Well wrap my balls in bacon and send me to matron WE ARE BACK!!!

Unbelievably it’s less than two weeks until we head off….. close enough to feel very real, but also still far enough away to pretend that just maybe it’s not happening. Let’s face it there is no getting away from the fact that it is a very, very long way to Seville from my front door in south west London on a bike, but apparently that is what is happening and I guess some nerves are to be expected!

I am not entirely sure why but the planning and preparation this time around may have got a bit more out of hand than usual. What started as a relatively short list of “essentials” has turned into a pile of kit that suggests I could in fact be heading off-grid for a year. Amazon is very much not my friend at this point and I’ve bought so many things a lot of which I still don’t fully understand, definitely don’t need and will probably never look at again let alone use …..it’s important I carry them all the way to Seville though obvs!!! There are spares for everything, plus backups for the spares and in some cases spares for the backups for the spares. I suspect it has become much less about being organised and more about trying to control the unknown.

Anyway, conscious I haven’t really said much yet about the plan so here goes….. the route itself is I suppose pretty straightforward enough, on paper at least, although TMAAT being TMAAT we are not taking what you might consider to be the “conventional” road to Seville.

We will head off from home early on 15 May and the first leg will take us the 80 or so miles across country to Portsmouth. It’s not the first time we have started a trip with a ride to Portsmouth but we are both hoping that this is the first time we manage it without road works, muddy paths, breakdowns, numerous dead ends and sense of humour failures.

We then have a 33-hour ferry (I know….33 hours!) to Santander in Northern Spain , which will in itself be a whole test of mental endurance (and possibly friendship?)

When we land / dock / arrive / show up in Santander on Sunday morning we then head pretty much due west for the first few days along the northern Spanish coast. The Garmin already suggests that will be tough going in places with plenty of “bumps” and maybe a few unwelcome hilly surprises. Somewhere around Gijon we will then turn inland and head across country (and more bumps!) towards Santiago de Compostela. If all goes to plan we might get an afternoon off to clean stuff and have a wander about before heading off due south and picking up the EuroVelo 1 route into Portugal.

We them just keep heading South, Atlantic Ocean on our right, for several days all the way down through Porto, Lisbon, and eventually on to the southern most tip of Portugal before we cut due east across to Faro and then on to Seville and our suitably grand finish line in Plaza de Espana.

That’s the plan anyway!

For now, like I say, I am very much in preparation mode. Bike being checked, bags packed and repacked, lists tweaked daily and even more useless, unnecessary “stuff” being ordered on Amazon

It hasn’t started yet—but it’s close, very close….close enough to be exciting, and if I am honest ever so slightly terrifying!

Thank you to everyone who has donated so far and those of you that haven’t yet and are waiting for when we turn our first pedal, “thank you in advance”.

We are so super proud to be supporting Saint Catherine’s Hospice this year and want to do everything we can to raise as much money as possible for them. Every year we are totally blown away by the support we get from you so please, please, please do take a moment to donate…you will be making a huge difference…..thank you!

Ok well that’s it for now….the blogging muscle memory is clearly a bit rusty so I am off to browse Amazon to see if they have anything that can fix that. Don’t forget to come back on 15 May…see you then.