London`s leaving present to us was a slow drizzle as we eased out of the door in Putney just before 7am. With winter coming on, it was still very dark and we crossed Putney Bridge, onto the Kings Road, feeling slightly vulnerable in the already heavy rush hour traffic.A white van man slowed down just to yell at us, “where`s your lights”, even though we had front and back ones on and plenty of reflectors. On we pedalled, through Chelsea where three young well-to-do women waited to cross the road, the rain splashing off their high-heeled leather boots but their perfectly coiffed hair still protected as they huddled under one umbrella. Through Sloane Square we went, past swanky bars and chic boutiques, then across Victoria with its tangled knot of roads around the train station and into Parliament Square, where a solitary bell rang out from Westminster Abbey. Up Whitehall, past the Cenotaph and Horse Guards Parade, it was still dark but a few more people were walking to work, coming off buses, clutching morning coffees. We opted to walk across Trafalgar Square, before hopping on our bikes again and moving past Leicester Square, then turning right towards Holborn. By now it was getting light and as we wove our way through Leather Lane Market, traders were setting up their stalls for another day. Vegetables, fruit, clothing, fabric, mobile phones, jewellery, all on offer. A left turn put us on the path for the great Saint Paul`s Cathedral and Bank – now we were truly in City of London territory. A sea of suits darting in and out of traffic, preferring to take their chances with the cars rather than wait for the crossing lights to turn green. Only a group of construction workers broke up the wave of black, in their neon safety vests, all of them carrying coffee in a simple styrofoam cup and bacon sarnies from a greasy spoon down a side street. No Pret-A-Manger for those boys. Just a few turns later and we arrived at Liverpool Street, where the streams of people coming off trains was truly a sight to see. For five minutes, hundreds of souls got off the train and headed for the tubes. Once they`d cleared, we got our bikes on the same train and left Britain for the last time in a very long while.

Well, that’s it. After months of planning, weeks of packing, tomorrow we’re off to Gatwick to catch a flight to Canada, where the first leg of our bicycle trip starts. We’ve had a hectic week or so, saying goodbye to many friends, our jobs, clearing out our flat and packing but it’s all done now. All we have to do is start pedalling!

We went to the marriage of Kevin & Julia on Saturday, one of our last weekends away before the big trip. Andrew met Kevin when they both worked at the FT. It was a lovely afternoon for the wedding, despite starting out a bit rainy. After dancing the night away, we then drove down to Kent for a meet-up with some of Friedel’s friends from the Recipezaar.com website.

A couple weekends ago we did our first trial run fully loaded. We took the train to Ashford and cycled from there to the curling club, near Tonbridge, via the National Cycle Network Route 18. It was quite the challenge for us: a hot day, more hills than we’d expected and the weight of all the gear slowing us down.

Still, we managed a respectable 75km (including getting lost!!) and without a proper lunch too or many breaks. Once at the club we got our tent up and slept very soundly, then were able to fire up the stove in the morning and make ourselves a coffee and porridge. Not bad for a first go!

All in all we were pretty pleased with ourselves. We did learn a few things. Don’t leave your gear in the tent porch because the tent is very attractive to slugs which will crawl all over your stuff! Also, we really needed sleep sacks because our bags stuck to us in the heat. We have since made those out of old sheets. Oh, and we need to make sure we stop for good breaks. I think we would be in danger of exhaustion if we tried to go as hard as we did that day, every day.

We tried loading up our bikes for the first time the other day and surprise, surprise… it worked fairly well! Everything fit (phew!) and the bikes didn’t feel too heavy. The only downside is now we feel tempted to get more stuff. We are trying to resist this temptation!