As I write this I can’t believe I have been home for a year already, the time has flown by!

For the first time in 4 years, we have both been able to spend Christmas with our families. Whilst it’s great to have the memories of Christmas in Australia, China and Poland, for me Christmas is a time when you want to be with your family more than ever.

Looking back over the year, it really has been such a massive contrast to life on the road, on a bike. It has still been an adventure, but one of a different kind. Shortly after getting back, I moved to Manchester, found a flat and started a new job. Chris arrived back in February and slowly began to adjust to life in the UK again.

In April, we got married and had the most wonderful wedding with over 100 of our friends and family, in Cornwall. Everyone wanted to know what the Cornwall connection was, but for us, it was simply the case that we wanted to marry in a place that was as spectacular and beautiful as many of the places we went to on our travels. Cornwall, for those who haven’t been, is a glorious part of the UK, with rugged coastlines, fishing villages, traditional ways of life and gorgeous places to stay, not to mention great cream teas!

We chose an old fort from the 1860s, which had it’s own beach below the dramatic cliffs and we hired it (self catering) for the whole weekend, with many of our friends and family staying with us. The local B&Bs did very well too as 100 people descended on this quiet corner of Cornwall.

It was a wonderful opportunity to get creative as the Fort is a blank canvas and you can decorate and bring in everything (and everybody) you need. Deciding that I’d prefer to design my own wedding stationery and decorations, our flat in Manchester turned into something of a sweatshop in the few weeks before the wedding, with homemade bunting and order of services being printed and sewn all over the place! Heaven.

For the cake I decided I wanted to pick up on the theme of purple flowers and butterflies as the entire time we were cycling, in virtually every country there were wild purple flowers growing everywhere and butterflies fluttering alongside us as we cycled. Chris’ mum spent hours creating a beautiful silk flower garland to wind around the cake and I managed to buy two little metal cyclists for the top!

On the day we had so any helpers, it was a real team effort getting everything ready. Neither of us follow any kind of organised religion and we chose to have a registrar to marry us at the Fort, with a non-religious ceremony.  Getting ready was fun and after 2 years on the road without much in the way of glamour, it was so much fun to dress up in my wedding gown, have my hair curled and feel like a princess for a day. It was all I could have dreamt of and I was so happy.

As we entered the main hall, suddenly seeing all my wonderful friends and family, some of whom we hadn’t seen since we’d been back, was a little overwhelming and I immediately felt choked up with emotion. Walking down the aisle to  ‘All I want is you’ had the little ones dancing a little jig as I arrived, and it made us both smile.

The ceremony was amazing, I hadn’t expected it to feel so intimate and special. I was so overcome with emotion that I had to fight to keep the tears back, failing spectacularly when Chris’ dad got up to do his reading. By the time we reached our vows I was very emotional and I think anyone who wasn’t already welling up, was by the time I managed to compose myself and say the words! I’ve never been so moved by happiness like that before and it was so unexpected – I hadn’t really anticipated crying in front of 100 people!

Outside the photos were chilly and a big clap of thunder got everyone excited as the black clouds rolled in along the Cornish coastline. Trust us to have a bit of drama eh! The rest of the day was a great celebration with great food and a fantastic band, where we all danced our socks off till the wee hours. Chris and I attempted a ‘Strictly come dancing-esque’ dance to Crazy little thing called love, which we both loved and managed to remember all the steps!

The next day we were able to potter about on the beach and had a BBQ, the sun came out and Elly, our photographer was kind enough to do a second photo shoot on the beach, taking some spectacular photos. We were relaxed and messed about, in all sorts of poses – these are some of our favourite photos.

After the wedding, we hired an old VW campervan for the week and explored some of the west coast of Cornwall, eating great food and going for nice, but windy walks along the coast. It was exciting to be back home and exploring our own country for once!

Since then we have been working and settling into ‘normal’ life.  My job has been full on and I have been travelling up to Glasgow and down to London on a regular basis, but is all consuming! I’m relishing the new challenges and love being part of a creative organisation, surround by lots of talented people. Chris has been freelancing and has gone back to college to start studying towards a Post Graduate Diploma in Psychology. He is also taking over the web design company that I ran before and during the trip. The aim is to get that up and running again in full by the Spring 2013. Any freelancer designers and coders out there??  Do get in touch…

The last couple of months have been very exciting for us, as we have found out that we will be having a baby in June 2013! Whilst I’ve been wondering about cots and baby clothes, Chris has started researching baby bike trailers and baby carriers you can wear on your back! We have very excited parents who are looking forward to a grandchild and we are really happy to have a little one joining us in a few months, for a whole new type of adventure.

I remember on some of the hard days on the bike – struggling up a mountain pass… not being able to find a good camp spot and it getting dark… waking up to a tent full of hornets… running out of money in Mongolia….being too cold in Ukraine – and thinking, ‘well a crying baby at 3am is gonna be a walk in the park compared to this!’ However the closer the due day gets, the more I realise that life’s challenges are not necessarily harder or easier than each other, just different.

One thing I do know though, is that 2.5 years on the road together, has made us an awesome team and there are times when it seems we can read each other’s minds. So I am confident we can handle whatever a tiny baby wants to throw at us, so long as we stick together, keep talking and be there for one another.

I’ll keep you posted!

Finally, I want to wish all of you, wherever you are in the world, a fantastic New Year and a wonderful 2013. We’d love to hear your news too, so please email us when you get chance: hello@bikeabout.co.uk.

Liz xx

All photos by Elly Poselthwaite of PhotoBaby: www.photobaby.co.uk

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Bikeabout London our amazing party that raised £1070.00 for Child’s Dream ended with Liz and I at my Mums in South West London. We were both exhausted Liz having just completed her first full week of work in nearly a year and I still catching up from my three days with only five hours of sleep from the day before.Sunday was a day of rest and the first day since leaving Prague that I did not cycle anywhere, it was a great family day.

Bikeabout Ambleside was a week away. Liz had to go back to work but my sister, Sarah a teacher, who was on half term was going to join me for the ride from London to Ambleside. I was looking forward to seeing some of my own country again and excited to see how I would perceive things two and a half years on

By midday Monday we were finally ready to leave, I had got rid of a lot on unnecessary things as well as a few luxury items and the bike was now feeling more like a racing car than a tank. We inched our way out of London and started making our way north.

I was really interested to know how free camping was going to work, now I was back in the UK. Most of the land in Europe and Asia that I had passed by and camped in was free from fences. My memory of the UK was fences and gates but I was presently surprised at the offering the UK had. Anyone that has spent time cycling and free camping will know that you are subconsciously always looking out for somewhere to sleep. Even here in England there were plenty of spots and the first few nights were spent in small woods right next to the main road or in lovely parks on the outskirts of towns.

The weather started quite well, we had a few showers but generally we were blessed with good cycling conditions, however towards the end of the week misty skies and heavy downpours went hand in hand as we made our way north. Sarah’s answer to this was to swap the tent for a hotel. A little begrudgingly I accepted, we found a motel that to me was costing a small fortune but apparently was the going rate.  We splashed out further on a takeaway and a cold shower.  Yes cold, to my disappointment the hot water was not working but when I found out that I would get the room for free as a result I was instantly happy. It was like camping in a big tent with pillows.

What was most intriguing about this experience was peoples attitude to the problem. Anger, harsh words and raised voices.  A number of guest at the hotel took their frustration out on the lovely receptionist who had not been to Hogwarts or plumbing school and could not fix the hot water situation.  The plumber, that had been to plumbing school, had tried his best but could not fix the broken pump, it had to be replaced.  In my mind there was nothing that could be done, there was no point in getting angry about the situation, the hotel had said sorry and were going to give people a refund.  We were all getting a free roof over our heads and we still had cold running water that you could drink from the tap as well as kettles in the room.  This was more than most of the countries we had visited over the last few years  Yes my reference points were quite different but still I was amazed at the anger people had and the way the displayed it.

How would you feel if you were in this situation and what would you do about these feelings.  Remember there is a difference between feelings and behaviour.

We skirted around Manchester and slowly started to edge around the Peak district I started to feel like I was getting home again. The rain and hills were reminding me of the Lakes and it was not going to be long before Kendal fells would welcome me home again.

The bike was just holding together, I had had an excellent bicycle service in Prague from a lovely bike shop called Kola Na Statku that had not charged me a thing to get the bike going again. However back then I did not have the money to buy any new parts so really the bike was held together with love and duck tape. Unfortunately this was not enough and in a rather spectacular way the back spokes started snapping leaving the rim cracked. I was a little disappointed with the rim, it had only done 5000k  since it broke in Mongolia but considering the weight I had been carrying and the terrain I had cycle on maybe it was so not all bad.

The bike shop in Coventry the Coventry cycle centre managed to do a quick turn around on a new wheel, thanks again guys and with only a morning lost we still made it to Kendal to my friend Chris Woodcock’s house on Saturday afternoon ready for Bikeabout Ambleside the next day.

Liz and my Mum arrived on Saturday night and Sunday morning saw Sarah, Liz, Mum and I led by my friend Chris and his daughter ridding the last leg to Ambleside. We were joined by Niki from Bramwell International the company that provided my great boots and sandals.  Also Chris Loynes and Kate Rawles from the University of Cumbria.  Or St Martins as I remember it was the birth place of my cycling.  In 2003 Chris Woodcock and I had cycle down through France to get to the Picos in Spain. Although I never made it as my bike broke I had such a good time it made me want to do a bigger trip.

Catching up with Kate and Chris was good.  Liz and I had attended a lecture given by Kate shortly before we left to go bikeabout.  Her lecture was about her cycle trip in America, one of its aims was to look at peoples attitude to climate change.  Kate has now written a book The Carbon Cycle: Crossing the Great Divide. This is a lovely example of combining doing something exciting with work and being a responsible human being at the same time.  I look forward to reading it!

Arriving at the Water Edge Inn we were greeted by friends, followers of bikeabout and a few people that had heard about us on Lakeland Radio that morning.  One amazing couple greeted us with smiles and praise, we were bowled over and then almost fell when they gave a lovely donation towards building the school. Also greeting us were the two teachers from Yorkshire whose students had been following our trip for over a year.

With some amazing help from Chris Loynes and Kate we held a great raffle with prizes donated from Bramwell International and Millican. This combined with donations from people on the day we raised a healthy £390 for Child’s Dream.

A big thanks to all that took part.

The cycling had truly ended, I now had to make sense of all that had happened over the last two and a half years as well as adjusting back to normal life. Importantly I also decided that I would dedicate the rest of this year to try and raise more money for Child’s Dream.

So all the money that I generate from public speaking this year will go towards our fund raising pot for Child’s Dream.  With this money we aim to build a school  in South East Asia. Find out more on our Charity page.  If you are interested in hearing more about my trip then please get in touch.

Next time: Find out how it was to meet the kids and teachers from the two schools that have been following our progress over the last year, learning and dreaming through our blog.

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A big sorry for the sudden drop off in blogging, the end of the cycling suddenly hit me and I was finding it quite difficult to cope. Life seemed fast passed and everybody seemed so busy, I went from having one focus, cycling, to having to think about many things at once.

Over the next weeks I shall be finishing off the bikeabout blog, telling the story of my journey back through Europe last winter, the return to England and finally what’s next. Although I suspect that some of the latter will be up to you. There will also be a big kit review for all the geeks out there. If you don’t want to miss anything make sure you are signed up to get the blogs by email, RSS, Facebook or Twitter.

I was asked ‘Is it strange to be back’; initially I said ‘NO’. Things were quite normal, I was moving from one place to the next seeing people and still living out of pannier bags. It was not until I finally got to spend two consecutive weeks in our flat in Manchester and was surrounded by so much stuff crammed into boxes that I suddenly felt strange. I hate to admit it but I was depressed. I decided to leave everything bikeabout behind, ignore emails and let it be. Perhaps I was delaying the end, the final blog posts that would mark the end of what has been an incredible adventure. So another sorry if you have felt let down in some way by my lack of communication it’s nothing personal I just could not cope.

However as the last of the boxes were unpacked and the flat seemed less like the biggest pannier explosion in the world, things started to get better and my attention was diverted to our wedding. What was once a distant event was now only weeks away and there was a lot to do.

Well the most magnificent wedding has been and gone, Liz and I are married and the next chapter of our lives begins. Before the pages of the next chapter can be written though I fell it is important for me to write and perhaps interesting for you, to read about how the previous chapter ended.

Coming Soon!

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