It's getting close now.

Had the last of our vaccinations today, signed the final settlement docs for the sale of the house so there's only a few more things on the list to do.....OK there are alot but it feels like with four weeks to go we are going to be able to get everything done in time.

We have a lift-off date

We fly to Perth on the 13th Feb then cycle to Bussleton for the big party then head to London around the end of March.

Pav on a bike

How else do we get the pavlova to Turk's place for Xmas lunch?

Dont drink wine and teach Mum how to Skype

The Ortlieb Esky

So we're going to Turk's Xmas party, naturally we are going to ride our bikes but what to do with the drinks.  We all know that Ortlieb panniers are the best panniers for keeping water 'out' so why wouldn't they be able to keep water 'in'?

My pannier had 12 beers and half a bag of ice, Sandy's two bottles of bubbly and the rest of the ice.  We parked the bikes under the house, leaving the panniers on.  There was still ice in them at the end of the night.

My first loaded ride on the Thorn Raven

This morning a filled my panniers with stuff to roughly equate to a normal touring load.  Headed off for a couple of hours to test the bike and it was supurb.  Handling was predictable and it tracked straight.

The action shot is of the Rohloff hub , it is a thing of beauty.

The best political cartoon I've seen for a while

I couldnt help but steal this from Copenhagenize.com

by Joel Pett.