Pre-bike nerves

I'm currently on an overnight train from London Euston to Inverness. I set off with Jonny from London and Gareth is about to join us (logically) in Crewe. In itself, this is quite an adventure. I've never been on a sleeper train before and I'm a sucker for this sort of thing. Of course it's just an average train, but it goes through the night. That's cool right? Anyway, as usual I'm struggling to sleep on public transport. I'm at the end of a carriage and looking up it seems as if everyone else, including Jonny opposite me, is deep in sleep. After this I will try to get some rest. After all I do have the encouragement that my seat reclines to a full 45 degrees. We are due into Inverness at 8.30am.

Nothing of too much excitement has happened in the past week or so. I went for one more longish bike ride on Monday, before using my parents' house as a base camp after finishing work on Wednesday. It seemed a practical measure seeing as I have had various items mailed to their house over the past weeks. Also, it meant I got Shepherd's Pie and copious amounts of Mother's chocolate cake, which is pretty unbeatable. After packing up my panniers and loading up my bike I set out to Diss train station yesterday afternoon, destination London.

Apparently travelling through London with a heavily-laden bike, during rush-hour, isn't too much fun. I was rather surprised just how heavy it was fully loaded. But after a struggle and having annoyed numerous Londoners I arrived at the girlfriends.

Then, after a relaxed day today, with further needless packing and re-packing squeezed in, I headed to Euston for my train. As I said, nothing of too much excitement. That will probably come tomorrow, when one of us with doubtless fall off our bikes or something. For now though, I should sleep. But first, we're arriving in Crewe, so it's time to greet Gareth.

Night.