The End!!

Who'd have thought it? Back home, 9 days and a lifetime later. I returned to a hero's welcome with balloons and champagne and a magnificent cake. It's been quite an experience, and one I'm glad I had. It was a whole lot tougher than I expected. I was naive enough to think that I wasn't setting out on anything particularly tough. I thought "It's only Britain. Britain's a tiny island. It'll be fun." But I never expected it to be the test that it was. In some ways the weather contributed to that, but to be honest, I think it would be tough under any circumstances. So, if I'd known how hard it would be, I probably would never have done it. So I'm glad of my stupidity/naivety. If I had been brighter, I'd never have done it!

I have learned a lot on my way round the country. I started out thinking it was about the bike. Then I thought it was about the places. Then I thought it was about the challenge: End to End of the UK. But I look back and the thing I realise is that it ended up being about the people. I met so many amazing people, and not one of those encounters was a negative experience. Some were friends of old, some were people I only knew through the Internet, but most were complete strangers. All were kind, helpful and considerate. And all contributed in some way to help me reach my goal. It is so easy to focus on the negatives when you do something like this, but when I look back, each and every negative experience resulted in a positive. The Sat Nav failure allowed me to catch up with an old mate I would otherwise have missed, and allowed me to meet Lucy. She was the friendly face that I needed to meet right at that moment. The rain was awful, and yet it gave me a focus. Something to keep my mind occupied during those long gruelling days on the bike, mile after mile. Sale and the Sat Nav made for a delay and a setback, but they made me think about what I was doing and why I was doing it. They made me think about what was important to me about this trip and gave me the push to keep going. I've realised that it's adversity that makes life memorable. The things you remember are the problems and how you got through them. If it had been as easy as I expected, it would probably not have been an overly memorable trip.

This trip has changed me, and that's not something I expected. Whether it's a long term change, or whether it fades over time remains to be seen. But over the last week or so I have become more focused on solutions than on the problems. I have become a more positive person. And I have learned that, despite what we think about the modern world, people still have time for other people and want to help. Maybe in a couple of weeks I will be back to my grumpy old self. But I sincerely hope not.

So thank you to everyone who supported me through this adventure. All the texts, all the blog comments, all the phone calls and the people who took time out of their lives to meet me. Thank you. Each and every one of you contributed in some way to make this possible.