Every holiday has them – the days that don’t go to plan or the off-day. The days that you’d quite like to delete. This was one of them. Today should have been an excellent day, beginning with the final 40 miles of Oregon coast and ending with the start of the superb giant redwood forests. Although we got both, fate also intervened leading to some less favourable occurrences. First we had headwind almost all day, as any cyclist knows this saps your soul. It also holds your speed right back, (so we didn’t reach our goal of averaging 15mph today).

Second we had punctures. Not one but two – one of which was a slow one which we pumped up twice to keep us going.

Finally we had cold fog. So much for welcome to sunny California! From the moment we passed the state border it was a virtual ‘white-out’. It made climbing through the redwoods pretty eerie – although reaching the viewing point above the clouds was amazing, (it was like being in a plane above clouds) before we descended at high speed (terrifyingly) into the fog again. All of this made our ride the longest yet and very tiring. It was a huge relief to get to the Ravenwood Motel in Klameth, our (very comfortable) refuge for tonight. A good night’s rest is what’s needed and a less challenging day tomorrow (fingers crossed).