Day Eight - The wait goes on

Good evening all,

Well its been a busy 30 hours or so me. I've gone from a good mornings progress of 100miles yesterday, to being no further on a day and a half later and, as you'll know from Kirsty's post this morning, I will be staying here till at least Tuesday when I find out if a new tyre (and maybe wheel) can be fitted to the bike which is currently being stored at a local recovery garage.

While my milage may have ground to a halt my adventure certainly hasn't. I'll start with the hire car. At about 6pm local last night I was handed the keys of a brand new Toyota Yaris. Hertz seem to be a bit more relaxed up here, there was no run through of the controls or even how I am to return it. Just given the keys and a 'bye bye' off the crazy Swedish manager. Now I've only been driving a car since September (and not that well as I'm sure some ex-passengers would have u believe) so to take my first drive in a left hand drive car on foriegn roads at rush hour wasn't fun. I did the classic knocking my left hand into the door whilst trying to change gear more than a few times but after driving around town today I'm getting more used to it.

So what have I been keeping myself busy with in a 'city' with a smaller population than whitley bay I hear you ask? Well a trip to the tourist information to find out what's on turned up an answer I'm starting to tire of hearing - 'that's closed till Tuesday'. Yep that's right people apart from burger king, lidl and my campsite pretty much everything is closed until after the bank holiday weekend. So I did what any man in my shoes would have done... I hit burger king. Whilst chomping on my spicy chicken burger I hear a sound I'd not heard since the Sea France ferry, an Englishman! I promtly turned to the gent with a very geordie 'alright mate?'. After 10mins or so of chatting the guy told me what I already knew, nowt is open till Tuesday round here.

Since then I've experienced children throwing knives at a tree on my campsite and some reindeer meat in the local supermarket. Do to spice things up If we make it over £1,100 in sponsorship before I leave town I'll fry some reindeer burgers up and video me eating it for your viewing. So all those who haven't get donating. It's only £3. And if anyone has any other challenges they want me to try then mressage me or Kirsty and we'll set a target for it.

A big shoutout to all the US and other non-UK readers. I hope you are enjoying reading and get in touch.

Big thanks to everyone for all your sponsorship and kind words. Keep them both coming. It's been a tough and lonely few days but looking at how much we've raised and all your messages are whats kept me going.

Also thanks to those who have helped pick me up when I was down and for keeping me fighting. You know who you are and I wouldn't be here without you.

Ride safe and speak to you all soon.

Gordo xx