Alright, yes, I’d said goodbye to everyone for a while, but then today happened and I had to add a few lines as a postscript.

I got to this isolated and peaceful spot between Fishguard and St David’s by car – yes, I do have a car – but the bike is still here too, having a rest by the water tap without its saddlebags, like a fatigued horse.

And Susie’s train doesn’t arrive till late tonight, so it’s still a solo bike blog, in a way. I felt I should add this bonus posting to the Irish adventure just because it was such a crazy coincidence and does in fact involve that most essential of cycling meals, the second breakfast.

…and chatting to Dirk and Natalie from Holland who wanted to know why I was sitting on a wall talking to cows…

…when shortly saying goodbye to them, up walked Nick and Eva, friends from the music world back in London, who are camped in the pitch directly next to mine. How do these things happen? And so often it seems to happen to me around cycle trips. Eva had actually begun by asking this chap on the wall why one cow in particular was making so much noise, and I was just about to make up a reason when Nick walked up and the penny well and truly dropped. Anyway, once we’d all recovered from the shock I was invited to sit quietly on a proper camp chair by their tent whilst they prepared one last Second Breakfast of the trip: a bacon and egg butty with mushrooms on the side. I was overwhelmed by the generosity but only managed to add one ketchup and one brown sauce sachet plus a second pan for the eggs in return. My camp kitchen is pretty bare by now.

They even gave me the last little bit of bacon after we’d wolfed down the rest of it:

And to round things off, a very superior cup of coffee from Nick’s camping Aeropress. He takes camping coffee to a new level.

Eva has her own gear too, equally well secured against misuse:

Thanks so much again you two, for the bacon butty and the dymo labelling and for making this last day of camping solo such fun. And also for so thoughtfully picking up the new gas canister. Have a great summer! Bx

Some Slightly Random Space Stuff

And finally, since I’m here, I want to tell you that I was just sent the link to this amazing footage from the Mars Rover Perseverance website. The rover lost use of its gimble steadicam arm thing a few weeks back, in the constant Martian wind, but in this clip was in the process of having it repaired remotely from NASA. A fellow space junkie forwarded it to me and I couldn’t resist sharing it here. An absolutely incredible last couple of seconds, so do please watch to the end!!