Gone to print…

The manuscript of The Way of the Waves has gone to print. That means it’s all over bar the shouting. There is nothing more I can do. We are committed!

It’s a scary moment when that happens because it means it’s too late to make changes. Everything I have said in the book - good or bad - will be on the page when anyone buys the book. My innermost feelings will be laid bare for all to see.

That this trip was the greatest adventure of my life is indisputable. It really was. And yet it was also the hardest thing I have ever done. There were times when I had to dig really deep to carry on or to simply keep turning the pedals. I gave in to those feelings on some occasions - when we checked into hotels for a bath or a day off - but mostly I had to confront them. You can’t go around the mountain and you can’t turn around and go home. So you better just keep pedalling.

It’s the sense of the inevitable that’s similar to the feeling that the book has gone. The next time I see it will be when it is in my hands. It will smell fresh and new, with a dust jacket and a hardback, a proper book, written by me, about something I have done.

I never thought that would happen.

Years ago, when I said I wanted to be a writer I had no idea how I would go about such a thing. It wasn’t on our careers list at my school.

I never thought I’d have anything to say.

But now I have. I cycled 3400km to the end of Europe from Tavistock in Devon, following a path many have done before, and it was absolutely amazing.

11th September.