When we woke up this morning everything was blissfully dry, a first in at least a week! As we packed up camp I continued my crusade of teasing Tara for being a slowpoke.

I realized today that the further south we ride the less sheep there are. I had grown accustomed to the ubiquitous bleating of our four legged friends :(. They've been replaced with vast (and silent) yellow seas of rapeseed.

We made quick work of another 30 miles or so (in spite of some pretty intense headwinds) arriving at my friend Ted's homey flat in Leicester around 3pm. When we rolled up he cheerfully greeted us and helped with hauling our bikes through the front door. With our things safe and secure we went for a stroll around town picking up essentials for the next few days (read: food).

When we returned I spent some time on the phone with Powertraveller trying to work out if they'd sent our replacement solar panel yet. Our first unit stopped sending power about two weeks into the trip. It has taken a long time to get them to understand that we are a moving target and numerous emails to confirm a place to ship a replacement. Hopefully it will arrive tomorrow morning before we leave or I will have to convince (and pay) Ted to ship it ahead to our next destination. What a pain!

After making salami/cheese/onion wraps (we decided we'd had our fill of sandwiches for at least a week) for tomorrow Ted and his girlfriend Rhiannon took us out to Sardar, a great (and cheap!) Indian restaurant for curry. I had paneer for the first time and it was excellent.

We finally caught up with the kids on Skype tonight. It feels like it has been forever since we talked last. When Tara commented that Gabe looked older it really struck me how much they will have changed by the time we return. Thinking about it really made me miss our Thursday night get-togethers. We love and miss you all!

We're off to curl up and sleep in a real, live, comfortable bed tonight. Thank you again Ted, we appreciate it more than you know!

Here is a picture of a flower I took during our ride today. Neither Tara or I know exactly what it is: