It was an early start, leaving my £50 glamping @ 6:45am for a breakfast meeting in Arnhem. The 19 mile cycle was notable, not just for the 7% hill (the one and only ?) but also because it passed the Arnhem Oosterbeek War Cemetery which contains the graves of most of those killed during the September landings, and fighting in the area. And today was the day when London’s black cabs brought World War veterans involved in the operation over free of charge to mark the occasion.

The breakfast meeting was with dutch friend Steve Core to catch up on the meaning of life…. given that’s what he does.

Thirty miles and two ferries later (the first of which was a 2 Euro private boat trip), I was down in Millingen aan de Rijn for an early lunch before entering Germany. Being a Sunday it was quite busy on the cycle paths, especially with electric bikes which are great for those battling the Race Against Time.

The afternoon was then spent trying to catch up on mileage to get to Duisburg YH for my second appointment of the day, made worse by closed cycle paths and dubious directions necessitating a short cut across a field. I also met three other cyclists heading up the Rhine, countering the dozens coming down, including a Belgian bike-packer who was camping near Duisburg and on a similar schedule…..

The evening was spent with Martin Wren, on holiday from work, dining on a much-needed bowl of salmon pasta after a 97 mile day, impressed that he would complete a 30 mile round cycle, just to come out and catch up. Thanks Martin.

Very luckily I had the four bed YH dormitory to myself to regroup repack and recharge at my leisure. It had been a hard day, but far better than being on ‘Teams’ all day.

So that’s the end of Day 2 (or 3) and probably the start of the end of my cycling shoes. They’ve served me very well for 17 years and I just hope that they can last another 10 days because removing the worn cleat will be near impossible and therefore probably mean new pedals !