Day 15 80miles Portsmouth to Hemel

We both had a good night's sleep and got off the ferry at 7am. The streets of Portsmouth were very quiet which made navigating out a lot easier. We decided to cycle for a while and then find somewhere to stop for a nice breakfast a bit further on. This turned out to be Petersfield where we last visited while cycling the Shipwrights way for Clara's birthday a few years ago. We found a lovely cafe doing healthy style breakfasts and smoothies. Delicious and exactly what was needed 😋
Off we set again bracing ourselves for the South Downs and the Surrey Hills 😅. I'm sure we cycled past a number of friends' houses (Kirsty and Andy in Farnborough, and Sarah N and Rupert and Farnham) and would have loved to call in for a cuppa. I think if we'd stopped though we'd have struggled to heave ourselves back on again!
We hadn't studied the route beforehand so weren't quite sure which towns we'd be passing through. The route took us through the Windsor Great Park, which was a beautiful oasis of green and calm. We stopped briefly to look round the flower show that was on there, very nice but huge queues for all the food stalls so we quickly wrote it off!! Next we reached Windsor around 3pm and with only 20 miles to go we decided to simply press on and get the job done!! Max kept mentioning the Chiltern hills and I didn't know quite what to expect but actually it wasn't too bad. The nearer we got to home the nicer the route became and the more friendly cyclists we met. We started to see signs that told us we were getting close - Gerrard Cross, Little Chalfont, Flaunden (we climbed a steep hill at this point and overtook a cyclist who was pushing his bike up it 👍).

Finally came the sign for Felden and then we turned into Felden Lane. It was literally downhill all the way home from this point!
We reached Moorland Road about 5pm and I think we both felt a little stunned. After over 1,000 miles of cycling and nearly 32,000 feet of climbing we had arrived. It's been the most amazing adventure, we've met so many different people and experienced France like never before. We really hope you've enjoyed following us, all the messages of support we've had along the way made a huge huge difference so a massive thank you to you all 🙏

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