May 9, 2014

We pull back the curtains expecting black skies and rain, but instead the sky is blue and dotted with clouds.  The worrying thing is the pace with which they are moving, that and that the trees are nearly bent flat to the ground. It is hard to tell exactly from which direction it is blowing, if it is the same as it has been for the last few days we’ll be in Nottingham in no time. 

Once we set off we find that the wind is in the same direction as before, but there are lots of twists and turns in the road and so most of the time it is a cross-wind and occasionally a tail-wind, but at least we don’t have it in our faces.  We’ve not got far to go, only about 50 kilometres, and much of it is on roads we know well.  Once we arrive we will take a few days off to stay at my parents’ house and catch up with friends and family.  We plan to set off again for Harwich on 14 May and then the adventure will really begin. 

We are only about 2 kilometres away from our destination when big spots of rain start to fall – I shout back to Ken to see if he thinks we should shelter for a minute or two to see if it will pass. “Keep going, it isn’t far enough for us to get wet” was his reply.  That was the cue for lashing, horizontal rain.  It wouldn’t be the same if we didn’t arrive dripping wet and muddy.