The day after arriving in Bournemouth we headed to Poole to get our bikes from our storage unit to check if they needed any work done before our cycle tour. We decided to walk to stretch out our legs after having been sat on a plane for 24 hours the previous day. The walk is only 7.5 kms so it made sense.

After a quick tour around Poole Quay, we ventured to our garage, wondering what condition our bikes would be in. Mike inserted the key, and it didn’t open. Then we remembered they’d changed the locks on us a while back and we dug out the correct key.

The garage door opened with a theatrical groan, cobwebs dangling like candy floss, eight legged creatures lurking within. My fear of spiders meant there was no way I was going in there. I watched safely from a distance as Mike entered. He grabbed a broom, and brushed the cobwebs away.

I didn’t see any critters scattering, so I deemed it to safe to enter and followed him in. Our bikes were suspended from the ceiling and apart from flat tires, they seemed to be in good order.

Mike lifted them down and pumped up the tyres. I took mine for a ride to see if it still worked. The gear changes were smooth and the brakes worked. Maybe we don’t need to do anything to them.

We rifled through our stuff and found our panniers, and a few other surprises. We loaded them onto our bikes and cycled back to Bournemouth without any issues.

I’m getting a bit of an Amazon addiction. I ordered one thing and it signed me up for one month free Prime membership. I immediately cancelled the membership but the free month remained. So now, whenever I order anything, it arrives the same day. How remarkable is that? It’s actually just as well as the shops in England have very little stock in them. But it’s not an easy job to buy cycle shorts without trying them on first. I’ll have to make do with what I’ve ordered and hope I don’t get a sore bum.

Now to try and fit all of our stuff into our panniers.