After years of dreaming, months of planning, weeks of buying, days of worrying and a sleepless night of paralysing fear, we are finally about to start. We have just finished our breakfasts and I’m writing this from Stansted airport as we wait for our flight to Lisbon.

“I’m really scared” has become our catch-phrase, and as we packed up the bikes over the last couple of days, and on the way to the airport, through check in and breakfast, we must have said to each other “maybe we shouldn’t go” a hundred times. But we haven’t stopped packing, or turned around, it’s like voicing our fears makes them smaller, or us braver, and we keep going, heading towards something so big it’s hard to properly comprehend what we are doing.

It’s just fear of the unknown, but we know conquering this fear will be worth it. And soon we will be cycling, and be too concerned with what’s for dinner, how long the hill is, or if it might rain to worry about anything else. And it’s going to be so good.

We have just been 10p short on our breakfast bill so now will be carrying £20 in cash all the way to China. But our plane is about to start boarding, So everyone at home, see you later, with later being at least 9 months away.