Durham - Whitehaven (getting to start)
Prologue, 14 May 2008
the day's photos | the day's stats
It all began on Wednesday the 14th May when Pedro headed over to Peter's house. His trusty steed Green Hornet (GH, a Dawes Galaxy) had already been stashed there on the previous Sunday.
The plan was to load up Alison's (Mrs Peter) car with the bikes and gear and drive to Whitehaven. Jennifer (Mrs Pedro) was also coming along to give moral support. The journey was scheduled to take about two hours.
Driving over to Whitehaven was not our preferred option, but the train was not a good idea. Why? Read Pedro's first rant for more details.
After a mostly uneventful journey, we arrived at sleepy Whitehaven around 20:00. A quick spin around the one way system had us totally missing the Waverley Hotel due to its position set back from the road. Some head scratching, a quick wander up and down the street and a phone call finally located it.
After a quick check-in and lock up of the bikes, it was time to treat Mrs Peter and Mrs Pedro to some fine dining... Fish and chips all round, consumed by the harbour. After our hearty meal, the time came for Team Pedro to head back to Durham, leaving us to our fate
We waved off our support team and took a leisurely stroll back to the hotel. On the way we checked out the C2C start and its bird poop encrusted ramp. They don't show you that in the publicity pictures!
Finally making it back to the hotel, it was off to bed for an early night. As a final note, Pedro wants it on record that he doesn't have much luck with TVs in hotel rooms. The one in the Waverley appeared to work fine, except there was a fault with the sound. Everything was several octaves lower than normal giving every voice a deep booming sound. The woman on the 'visit Australia' ads who says “So where the bloody hell are ya?” sounded just plain scary. A shemale, if you will. Perplexed and disturbed in equal measure, he gave up watching about 'Half Ton Dad' and went to sleep.
Tomorrow would be a long day. Would we find enlightenment and self-discovery? Or just sore bottoms? Only time would tell.
