Those of us who grew up in the 1970s will remember the action children’s TV ‘The Red Hand Gang’. This group of inner-city American kids would solve crimes and then leave their red hand mark on fences in the neighbourhood to show where they’d been.

Mike and I have not been solving any crimes on our travels, (fortunately there haven’t been any for us to solve), but we have developed our own mark. Despite the use of factor 55 sun cream regularly applied, the strong sun on out pale northern European skin has left us with some distinctive marks. Between our cycle glove and the cuff of our sleeves our arms have been well and truly toasted to a reddish-brown. We are the red arm gang! A similar shading happens from the cycle shorts down, Mike calls these tan lines ‘the cyclists badge of honour’. I’m sure I’ll be wearing this particular badge for several weeks after we get home, so perhaps I need to get the tan centre to fill in the white bits in between with a bit of spray!