It hardly seems possible but it is the morning of the final day....one way or another our London to Rome adventure will come to an end today.

 Ideally this will mean all three of us cycling up to our hotel (and bed!!) for the night having already thrown our three men and a tent pennies into the Trevi Fountain, opened a bottle of champagne and celebrated with our medals. It could however also still end with me in the back of a taxi... but regardless, it will end today. 

I cannot describe, not least because tiredness means each day has now started to blur into all the others, what a truly surreal feeling it is waking up and knowing that we actually cycled all this way, nearly 1300 miles and all the crazy amazing things we have experienced since we left London sixteen days ago.....I mean just for a starter we cycled through the Alps for heavens sake! 

Just before I tell you about our final day please remember why we are doing this and how your support is so very important to helping us achieve our goal and in turn transforming the lives of children who suffer a bereavement. Despite all the amazing work Winston’s Wish do, and it is amazing, the devastating emotional impact of tragic loss at a young age is still, in my opinion, an often overlooked and misunderstood issue. 

Marc, Dan and I are trying to do our bit to help raise money and awareness with our ridiculously hard cycling adventures....you can do yours my making just a small donation through our Just Giving page. The amount we have raised so far is enough to fund the free Winston’s Wish National helpline for over 2 weeks. This is the gateway to their services and often the first step in getting the vital support needed to help children understand and cope with their grief. 

Yesterday my niece and nephew, Harriet (11) and Rowan White (9), donated £5 of their own pocket money and left such lovely messages of support (if you are reading this now Bernard and Deirdre (long story!) thank you so much, you are amazing! X).

Let them be an example to everyone. Please please please go ahead and click donate ....you won’t regret it I promise. Thank you so much.

For the second day in a row rainfall hammers us awake at around 530. The Roman Gods have clearly not been made aware of our imminent arrival but nothing (short of rear wheel failure perhaps) can dampen our spirits today…..we are here with one goal in mind.

Last night we ate at the campsite restaurant which was all very civilised and lovely particularly since it was still raining and so the now almost traditional three men and a tent pasta by the tent seemed both inappropriate and to be honest very unwelcome! 

The only thing to report here (that I can recall) relates to the campsites “toilet experience”. I am not entirely sure what the ethical, and perhaps even criminal, position is on the use of video equipment in the male wash block of a Rome campsite but I was keen for you to experience as close to first hand as possible the joy that is loud classical music being played whilst you are doing your doings, whatever those specific doings may be....

.....it certainly has the potential to add a bit of drama to “proceedings” don’t you think?

We have our final breakfast with the official London to Rome colours festooned across the table / log…..

.....and then we are off. Unfortunately the wheel fixing pixies didn’t come during the night and so my rear wheel is still in a very sorry state. Reluctantly (I genuinely feel like a bit of a fraud) I agree that we should err on the side of caution and Marc and Dan should carry my panniers again for the final leg.

Given our precarious mechanical position we decide not to go ahead with our planned tour of Rome and instead just focus on the basics....get to the Trevi Fountain, finish the challenge and then get to our hotel.

The thing is with Rome, as i am sure you know, is that once you are in the centre it is actually quite hard to not see amazing things and within about 30 mins we stumble into Vatican City and Piazza San Pietro....

....I am not a religious person but I find the whole experience just completely overwhelming (I am honestly welling up now as I write.....I should also warn you there is a fair bit of this type of thing in today’s blog sorry!). I think the combination of its scale and beauty along with the fact that we actually cycled here (I know off the scale unbelievable right!) well it’s really too much to take in and basically l blub like a baby….oh and I am not the only one by the way.

Once we have composed ourselves (a bit) we set off again in search of the finish line, the Trevi Fountain. Given Rome’s propensity for cobble stones, my dodgy wheel and Marc and Dan both weighing eleventy billion tons (their bikes I mean not them personally) it is very slow going and because it is still teeming with rain, it’s also very wet going.

Eventually though we round the final corner and it’s there….16 days, nearly 1300 miles and so many thousands of feet climbing ago that it makes me feel nauseous we each threw a coin into the fountain at Trafalgar Square. Now we can finally do the same again here in Rome at the Trevi Fountain (and ok yes, I admit it I am blubbing again!)……

Two weeks of effort, sleeplessness, pain and tiredness just fall out of me …..we have done it. 

It really is just way too difficult to put into words what this really means to each of us, I certainly don’t have the skills. It has though by some margin been the hardest most challenging thing we have ever done either together or as individuals …..really, it’s just all too much.

Once we have composed ourselves we throw our pennies into the fountain, pop the cork and celebrate our incredible achievement…..

After savouring the moment, the attention for a while (we do get some) and the strange looks (we get a lot!) we decide enough is enough and it is time to seek out a real bed, in a real room where it is really dry and really warm….(I am welling up again!)

Not long after leaving we wind our way up some more cobbled streets and find ourselves in front of the coliseum…..

….this also seems like a good time for the medal ceremony (largely because I was so busy bawling my eyes out at the Trevi Fountain that I forgot!)

The final six or seven miles across a still rainy Rome are very strange, surreal experience. We still have a destination in mind but because we know it’s our last it feels really very sad.

Then all of a sudden the hotel is there and it’s done, we have made it, the bikes have survived, we have survived and we have achieved everything we set out to to do…..their is no more cycling to be done and no more camping….it’s over.

We obviously have to have a final photo shoot capturing the unadulterated joy of entering a room (this is a big thing!) with an en suite (this is totally off the scale amazing) and a bed (yes I am openly weeping again)

So to the thank yous……

Thank you so much to everyone who has supported us, messaged us, shared our story and of course donated….you are each and everyone of you amazing, thank you so, so much.

A very special and enormous thank you to our simply unbelievably fantastic partners Gerry, Kate and Jo…we simply could not have even contemplated such a ridiculous challenge without your patience, selflessness and understanding…thank you (although next time one of us suggests something like this perhaps you could be a little less understanding please!)

As self appointed editor in chief I also get to say thank you to Marc and Dan….I am still after nearly 4000 miles together no closer to understanding why this works but it just does. I simply could not imagine these adventures with anyone else and without you i would not have pushed myself as hard as I have and experienced the things that I have…..I certainly would not have cycled all the way to Rome which is frankly a bloody stupid idea. Thank you guys, you really are heroes both.

Finally a thank you to mum and dad. Even after all this time I still think about you and miss you every day. For me this adventure has very much been about you both. Today is the day I cycled from London to Rome. I like to think that would have made you smile. Thank you….x