They think it's all over

Brown sauce
Baked beans
Tetley tea
Porridge
Coronation street theme tune
Shreddies
Three pronged rectangular plug sockets
Left hand driving
PEOPLE I KNOW (and understand)

Conclusion, definately in the UK.

The last two days of riding on English shores were far too much fun to be classified alongside the monotonous, dreaded days I had begun to associate with my neverending bike ride. Five friends riding around me and three others down to visit at the half way point it felt more like I was on a social ride with friends than crawling my way to the end of my nemesis. I didn't even register getting lost around Chichester, little was able to penetrate my euphoric mood, having bypassed all responsiblity for the route and not even carrying my bags. Meeting my mum in the ferry port in the dark predawn hours was quite surreal, my first shower in four days, baked beans for breakfast and speaking English left me excited to ride. This area of Sussex was jolly nice, the median and modal car brand being BMW, passing TWO horse laundrettes and a hunting party, portrays both the demographic of the area and the relative patience of the locals towards cyclists. Two instances of completely unnecessary abuse and aggressive swerving towards us, left me in a tyraid of swear words however not in the uncontrollable floods of tears I was usually embarassingly reduced to prior to this trip. Flashbacks will always be with me, but now they are more controllable. I'm not plagued for hours following a trigger situation (watching or being part of a near miss or emergency team call out) I am able to deal with the thoughts myself, put them aside and continue with my day. Miles of roads and many such scenarios have renormalised the statistics more safely in my favour. Almost back to my previous risk taking attitude. In London, Gilbert comments as I sneak through the umpteenth red light that this road trip has made me disregard the traffic laws, I point out that in Asia there are no laws, in Australia no traffic and in Europe traffic and laws but no budget or mind to enforce them.
It wasn't long before my muscles began to fatigue, my jaw muscles that is, simply unable to keep up with a prolonged level of conversation it was well before midday that I sounded like I'd contracted laryngitis. We did cycle directly to our destination despite pleas from Stuart John Hodgson for the train and Bowers for the pub.
Overnight I stayed with more friends, I had my second shower and hot meal in one day, was baked a giantic cake and narrowly avoided attending a stationary cycling competition consisting of 5x1min efforts max...Having just completed 5x 1month efforts I'm not even sure if I know what an anaerobic threshold is, but I was keen for pain, less keen for the £500 indoor turbo trainer prize. 
I left the co-incidentally named 'Hare and Hounds' pub the next morning with five members of the Hare and Hounds ( Cambridge running club). Once inside the m25 immediately after celebrating our proximal finish to the ride, we climbed the second steepest hill I'd encountered in 14000km, Polly's single speed bike reduced her to a walk and Stuart John Hodgson's weak mental resolve saw him exiting the pain cupboard through the emergency escape, only to have to reenter a minute later to make it to the top of the hill. Another function of our direct over main road route meant that we also cut through several 'wooded' sections, a solid favourite of mine as for 0.5% of the 100mile ride, my heavier, thicker tyred, less aerodynamic monster of a bike was at a significant advantage over the lean, carbon racing frames of the others.
Surprisingly we made it to Greenwich without getting lost, or taking the train although Bowers did finally manage to divert us into a pub. I was slightly unsure as to what form the finishing line would take, but it made itself more than apparent on arriving at the Greenwich meridian line. Wearing the triumphant (and freshly laundered) Cockroach costume over the finish line, I realise that I am not the only one in uniform, swarms of chinese students are also wearing matching red coats, and spotted by Lowri amongst this tribe two of the chinese students that I taught this summer, that I waved off the day before setting off into the unknown. One has to assume that (the self named) King and Harry took a more direct route here and potentially via a more efficient method of transport. This earth-shatteringly massive coincidence has to make '(camp) Harry' and 'King' the starting and finishing posts for my journey. 

So it's the end, it's all over. Since being back in Cambridge I have been astonishing friends with my ability to sleep (at least 9hours per night) and I have become a full time coffee drinker (which is having little effect on my ability to sleep). I have been asked how I've been changed by the trip, sadly I have to report here that I don't think I've changed too much, well probably at all. But I could say that I've learnt a thing or two, some chinese, a touch more geography, my respect of public transport has heightened as has my fear of birds. I have also found out that I quite like people and economics takes a higher priority than safety in my decision making although being able to enter an unknown situation without fear usually turns out well. So what next? Someone has mentioned that perhaps I could swim up the Amazon, if there is one thing I have learnt on this trip it would be that direction is a crucial consideration (in addition to not taking Dr James Gill's geographical advise) and thus swimming down the Amazon would be a much more favourable plan.

Thanks to everyone who has supported me along the way, there is an incredibly long list of people who displayed an amazing level of kindness and I hope to keep in touch and to one day be able to return the generosity that you showed me. I would like to thank my bike for holding out, my bike knowledge was poor to say the least, with a solid ratio of punctured tyres to punctured lungs 2:1, even the basics were escaping me. So my £180 Beijing bike held out well and certainly complained less than I did. Thanks to everyone who has donated to my charity, I have now reached my target although every little really helps, the air ambulance saves thousands of motorists and cyclists every year, you never know who may need their help next, without donations both they and I would have ceased to exist. I would also like to make a special thank you to Tim j who hasn't failed to miss an entry and whose comments have become part of the blog itself!

Total km riden: 14 241 Most depressing moment: Having my tent stolen in the middle of the outback
Toughest moment: Trying to get myself on a bike every morning in Europe
Happiest moment: Seeing family and friends on my arrival in the UK

With a dedication to my grandad who died 12 hours after completing my journey.