And they're off!

It's 8.30 and I'm about to check out of our little apartment in Sorrento. I've just gone down with the boys to wave them off as they kick off the challenge with great air and style. Thankfully they decided to leave the air horn for another time as 7.30 was deemed too early for such a thing

Yesterday was equally as boring for me and james. We arrived in Sorrento last night at around 7pm, which meant after we'd unpacked we would have time to actually go for dinner and talk about how silly we all are for agreeing to do this for a third time! Rather than go exploring, we went to the restaurant downstairs, where jake and steve had already been for lunch. If it ain't broke don't try to fix it! So we really haven't seen much of Sorrento at all. This is the view from our apartment

Right. Time for me to head off. I'm a little nervous to be honest. The streets are very windy and narrow and there are lots of moped which seem to just go anywhere. The motorway driving etiquette is very different here than the England. In England you generally drive in the slowest lane possible and move over to overtake and then go back in. Here, you stay in the fastest lane possible, and when someone gets up your arse and wants to get past, you move over a lane then back out in to the fast lane once they have gone past. Great!

I'm also going to take longer routes and avoid the tolls. In not fun in a right hand drive!! 

Good morning from our ski resort in Turin!

It seems we have found the least fun thing to do on a holiday - spending 16 hours in a car. 

We decided to push on a little further last night, which should make today a little shorter - around 11 hours of driving rather than 13. If we arrive in Sorrento at about 7pm instead of about 9pm today it will make all the difference - we can go out for dinner with the boys and have a bit of an unwinding evening and maybe see some of Sorrento before the fun and games start tomorrow. 

Here's a plot of our route from yesterday! 868 miles of driving...

600 to go today!

Last year I did little summary videos of each day. I'll be doing the same this time round too. You can find them on my youtube channel if you search for Emma Salter. Yesterday's is day -1 and to label it as a "highlights" video would be misleading...!

Here's the link: 

day -1

It's 7.30 am and we are on the road again. We spent the night in a basic b&b in a ski resort at 1000m above sea level. We are frustratingly close to the finish point of Ciclismo Italia, and the hills look immense. We've just driven past Mount Blanc, it's behind me so I can't take a photo, but here's some other little hills. 

The sat nav says we'll be at the apartment in Sorrento at 5.30, but that's if we drive continuously. So maybe 6.30 if traffic is kind...

Meanwhile back in England, Jake and Steve have arrived at the airport and are ready to go!

Day minus 1; East bound and down

We're on our way across the Channel!

While the cycle challenge doesn't officially start for another two days, James and I have the job of getting the support vehicle to the start line. Sorrento is about 1,500 miles from Sidmouth, and we've got only two days to get there. 

We were up at 5am this morning, to catch the 1020 Eurotunnel. Annoyingly, we will lose an hour, and will arrive at Calais at 1200 French time. 

The plan for the rest of the day is to get as far south as we can, ideally just across the border in to Italy. I have a cheap hotel room booked in a small French town called Chambery, which is about an hour before the border. It was a lot of logistics trying to think how far we can get today, in order to make tomorrow not as horrid. Chambery is about 550 miles from Calais. 

I'm hoping we can get a little further though, and push a couple hours further to Turin. This would mean losing the non refundable hotel room in Chambery though and booking another one. The plan is to reassess later this evening and decide how much further we want to go. If we can make real progress and get meaningfully further than Chambery, I will get on booking.com and book somewhere else. I've had a little look this morning and there are plenty of rooms available. 

Just for context - In total today we would have driven almost the equivalent of going from Exeter to Edinburgh and back again!! Tomorrow's drive will take just as long through almost the whole of Italy. 

Where are Jake and Steve?

Hopefully planning an early night, as they are flying to Naples very early tomorrow morning and meeting us in Sorrento. The should hopefully be able to enjoy a day of sight seeing - visiting Pompeii and having a pizza in Naples where they were invented. I'll be giving them a shopping list though and getting them to check us in to our accommodation. Every hour will be precious to james and me tomorrow. 

For everyone who has been saying how lovely Sorrento is, and giving us recommendations for restaurants and things to do - optimistically we will arrive at 10pm tomorrow and will be up at 6am on Thursday to start this challenge off properly!!!

So what's changed from last year?

Free EU roaming. This will completely revolutionise the trip, if not for the boys then most definitely for me. In the past I would arrive at the lunch stop and have a vague sense of how long the boys would take to get to me, within a couple of hours or so. This meant I was very limited on what I could do. Now, I can text them, call them, watsapp them, and generally pester them by whatever means I like, for free!

We have all downloaded this app called Life360 so we can each see where the other three are. I think it's aimed at parents so they can track their children - perfect!

In the past I wrote these blogs as staying in touch with home was tricky, intermittent and costly. It enabled everyone we care about to have just one point of contact for updates, instead of us contacting people individually. Now that we're better connected though I'm not sure what place this blog has, but I will start with good intentions and see how I go.