And so it begins.

I am typing this from my hotel room in Vancouver.  After a year of thinking about this trip I am actually here!

It’s been a long day, Zoe and I left home just after 5am and its now midnight UK time. We had a easy drive down to Heathrow and arrived at about 7am, too early to check in as they were still checking in earlier flights.

After a very difficult goodbye Zoe left me in departures and I had to wait about half an hour to check in. The guy on the desk was brilliant, he waived the extra bag charge, I only paid £22 for the bike box and he checked my tent in as a third bag for nothing, top bloke.

I shot upstairs and amazingly walked straight through security and found myself with 3 hours to kill before our gate opened.

I was still coughing and spluttering so I bought some drugs and had a bite to eat and then just wandered about until we boarded.

I wasn’t looking forward to the flight, but I had forgotten I had reserved a bulkhead seat so I had loads of leg room. Even better though a young lad asked if we could swap seats so that he could sit next to his mate and I ended up sitting at a door seat with about 6ft of space. The stewardess sat opposite, the couple next to me and I struck up a conversation as we took off and she spoilt us for the rest of the trip. If I hadn’t been coughing and sputtering I could have got hammered!

Two films, Invictus and The Hurt Locker, food and a bit of dozing helped pass the 9 hour flight and we touched down on time in Vancouver at about 1230 local time ( 8 hours behind UK time). 

The bags came through quite quickly but I had a bit if a scare when I saw the bike box had been banged up a bit. I dare not open it at the airport so I jumped onto the hotel shuttle and got sorted at the hotel before looking at it.

I got chatty with the driver and he’s already agreed to run me down to the Purolator office to drop of the box in the morning, he then sorted out a meeting room so I could have plenty of space to rebuild the bike. They also gave me $60 of food vouchers so I can have a free dinner and breakfast.

The box had been bent a little but as I opened it the locks reset themselves and it all appears functional, I think they must have yanked it when picking it up. The main thing is there is no damage to the bike and as I sit here typing it is rebuilt and leaning against the wall in my bedroom.

The hotel is a bit far out of town but I’m only here for one night and the town centre bus goes right past the front door so I’ll pop on that in the morning and get my shopping done. Sometime late tomorrow I’ll get a taxi up to the university and meet the other riders. This will be my last night of luxury for a long time.

The big news here is the shocking weather across the middle of Canada; they are having unseasonably bad rain and thunder storms with Tornadoes and very high winds. There has been quite a lot of damage.  I hope it clears before we get there as I can’t see my tent lasting long in those conditions!

That’s all for today, not sure how often I will be able to update but I’ll try again before we set off. I just hope my cold clears up before we set off on Sunday.

Onwards and Upwards!!!