Left home at around 1300…nice and warm day around 16 Dec C with a bit of a breeze.  Thought i would take it easy on first day…only 22.4 miles to a campsite adjacent to the A1 radwell mill.  Very quite but very basic….but only 8 pounds.  Very freindly owner came to check me in.

  Got the tent up fairly quickly, first time with this new tent.  It’s a ‘3 person’ big agnes copperspur bikepacking type.  Easy to put up in about 10 min.

Rather cold last night and did not sleep that well… made mistake of not putting thick socks on or sorting my pillow out properly….best to do it before and not at 2am or so.

Up at 7am….packing up took a long time, but practice will make it faster.

Day 2 was 27.4 miles to my parents (not a direct way to London by any means) it was cold all day max 8 deg.  Very up and down on lots of small lanes about 550mtr climb…took a toll on the legs.  Took 4 hours near enough.  Felt much better after soup n cheese on toast.

Saw a fair few pheasents and partridge today, and many red kites circling around. Yesterday I saw a fox, it was looking the other way but was less than 15mtr away as i went by silently.