My bicycle was expertly guarded during the night from all of the rogue wildlife looking for a bike to chew on by Sally’s two lovely cats. They may not have been awake for most of the time, but they were there in spirit.

• Today’s Distance (miles): 76
• Time in saddle: 6h 45
• Max/min temp – in full sun (°c): °/°
• Climbing (feet) : 711
• Calories used: 4,012
• Today’s 2nd Breakfast: Coffee, egg and bacon ‘croissanwich’ and hash browns, Burger King in Shallotte.
• Cafe time: 3h 15

A LITTLE HISTORY:

Sally really was the most wonderful company, and even got up early to make me oatmeal, toast and lots of coffee to set me on my way. For some reason I had sat almost bolt upright in bed at 3am and thought, ‘Got to go!’, then realised I didn’t, and went back to sleep.

I knew two things for sure about today: it was going to be a long ride, and I was gong to get wet. A first it was only passing showers, but as I approached the 25-mile mark and my first coffee stop, it turned into a proper downpour.

Being English, I can’t honestly say the rain bothers me too much because of how often you end up riding in it at home, but also because here it’s always so warm. It feels like I’m rolling around in the ‘gentle’ cycle of a washing machine. I entered Burger King in Shallotte with water still running off me like a rock by a waterfall. I spent the first 5 minutes just wringing out water in my own homemade puddle, and putting on my anti-aircon warm layer so I didn’t get a chill. Then the coffee and food began.

At one point I passed an airfield, and remembered a race I once had against a light aircraft taxiing out for take off. I looked for another sucker to challenge, but no one wanted to play today:

At one point I passed a golf course, and wondered why so many people were gathered on a viewing boardwalk beside it, so I slowed right down. Then I noticed that a fisherman had stopped fishing and was holding up his mobile phone. Looking at the lake I suddenly realised what was causing all of the commotion: an alligator, the first sighting of my trip, was drifting slowly towards us in the water:

Once it had crossed to our side, it slowly swam to the water’s edge and just stayed there, motionless, very to close to a sign that said ‘Please Do Not Feed The Alligators’. This was as close as I dared to get (still up on the boardwalk):

As the afternoon went on the rain came and went, mostly not too bad but occasionally full-downpour. The worst was luckily just after I crossed into South Carolina!

I visited the, er, Visitor’s Centre and got a free road map, chatted to the woman at the desk, then got back on the bike. Up ahead the sky and the land had become indistinguishable, and I thought ‘That looks bad’. The rain started almost immediately, so I swung round and got a great spot under a large cedar Pavillion.

As the hot sun finally came out, I got to my Warm Showers host around 5pm and was treated to a wonderful meal prepared by Zander, who lives in Myrtle Beach with his wife Kai and baby son Archie, who was irresistibly adorable. Tomorrow is another pretty long day in the saddle to a campground, so its early to bed for me again.

But before I go – did you think I’d forgotten? Here’s the State Song suggestion to mark my arrival in South Carolina tonight. A bit of nonsense from Dean Martin (there’s another version on YouTube if you like seeing people who are the wrong side of a bottle of whisky and recently fell asleep in the sun singing live on TV. You’ll find it)

SIGNS THAT ARE ALSO BEATLES:

SIGNS THAT ARE FUNNY: