Royal Artillery Barracks - Venue 11

For some reason we hadn't got a contact at the Royal Artillery Barracks (RAB) and what's more, on the late night trek to Greenwich we had passed the Venue.

It was not a terribly popular move to back-track along our route to go and view the RAB probably an impressively grand barracks behind black and gold railings and impossible to view.

Some fine figures outside the Royal Arsenal

We did indeed see the smart barracks and the railings but we'd also 'spotted'  some strange polka dot structures beyond so kept pedalling.  Carefully avoiding making tyre impressions on the newly laid tarmac we located Kim, the Venue Manager.  What was in front of us was undoubtedly the funkiest venue we have seen to date.

May we present the funkiest shooting galleries imaginable.
Locally, it is affectionately known as
Teletubby land.

These fab buildings are made of the 2012 version of the Millenium Dome material and those round discs serve the dual purposes of air vents and frames to stretch the fabric.  Pink and blue buildings and qualifying rounds the red monster is for the finals.

Jake with Amy who explained all the
technical stuff so we could understand.

All in all, the team found this one of their favourite Venues partly because it was so unexpected and partly because it's just brilliant!

Brands Hatch to Greenwich

We did the whole run, Hadleigh Farm - Brands Hatch - Greenwich in one day.  It was a very, very long day.  However ... we passed the 2000km marker and inevitably, the 2012km marker -WOW!

2000 kilometres

2012 kilometres - the target distance already achieved!

As we finally made it back from Brands Hatch to NCR1 at Bean, it was late and there was a long way to pedal.

The team headed for the Thames Path but this was no paved pathway.  This was the back of beyond or to be precise Dartford Marshes after a lot of rain.

That storm was heading our way.
Could we get to cover before we were drenched through again?

We don't want to moan and we try to be upbeat.  We would like to assure everyone that this challenge is incredibly hard.  It was a long day, the weather was playing tricks again, we had breakfast at the hotel, a muffin in Gravesend, a cup of tea at Brands Hatch.  Despite covering our water bottles, the road/path conditions meant that it wasn't safe to drink from them because of mud and grime.  Sometimes the team get stressed after being over 1 month without a break.

Anyway, once we got to Erith, took a little shelter from the storm, the path improved considerably.

Trying to shelter - there are some turbines
out there in the fog

These are the turbines as the thunder moved north.

Brands Hatch - Venue 10

Brands Hatch Circuit
Philip, Jake, Nic & Mike Grove,  Circuit Manager

Brands Hatch, venue 10, will be home to the Paralympic Road Cycling competition.  The athletes will have a circuit around the perimeter of the track (as cycled by the team) and then come onto the actual circuit (not cycled by the team - Jason Plato and others were doing a far quicker job at the time!)

Thanks very much to Kevin Ritson and Mike Grove, the first venue providing cups of tea to the weary travellers and a great explanation of how the Paralympics/Olympics will come to a close at Brands Hatch.  Thanks too, to the drivers completing practice laps whilst we were there - great excitement.

Taxi on circuit 

The team, taxi and Brands Hatch entrance

Hadleigh Farm - Brands Hatch

Oh my goodness, it's tricky negotiating roads to these venues!

Anyway, good jaunt down to the ferry at Tilbury from our Basildon base.  There are some great parks/nature reserves just to the south of Basildon - most unexpected.  Intermittent, drizzle, rain etc just to keep us on our toes.

Yes, he is yawning - and the day's only just begun!

Crossed the Thames by a ferry captained by a very generous (free passage) stereotypical ferryman - fascinating face! Nice bit of ironwork as we left the jetty..

Mind your Step

By Jon the Welder

 Into Gravesend for the obligatory coffee and phoned ahead to Brands Hatch.  Kevin Ritson, PR department, gave us a 45 minute expected ride time.  2 hours and much tension later...

The roads from the north are tiny, busy and not suited to cycling & it rained off and on for good measure.
Still, we were not disappointed.