Difficult to say what my Grandfather would have made of all this. I mean all that kit and a coffee machine? Let alone a coffee machine made by Krupps powered by a Honda generator (Who won the war?). GPS, why in the hell couldn't we have navigated by dead reckoning and gout. Outdoor cinema, surely the local towns had dances to go to. And there's that old standard you spent a lot of good money on the bike and now your going to do what with it?

My Medico's final words "Make sure to take your Asthma preventer as soon as you have any onset of problems and be careful" had nice elongated ring of your being stupid, as I went off to the pharmacy for a good ankle brace and double load of Seretide. Asthma medication became a weighty issue, redundant and carefully separated Ventolin, Bricanyl and Seretide applicators take up a significant amount of pannier space.

As a social experiment it would have had the soft science types agog, all those grumpy middle aged men. Didn't they have to read Lord of The Flies when they went through school?

The Trail itself? Fantastic. Horrific hills, screaming descents, moderately dangerous river crossings. The Guide Book gave the thing a nice Jumanji touch, as you could never truly know what to expect, excepts hills they were a constant. Camp sites we visited at Gog ranges and Bracknell were first rate. Well maintained and peaceful. Cluan (even with the burnt out cars) was interesting, needed a refresh to repair some of the damage. The site at Ouse needed a good tidy up and some stock poo removal. The town itself had a great mechanic and a fine Pub with bangers and mash.

Hard to do justice to the views they were big, big and big. The only real downside was the logging, employment for a few and dangerous work at that.