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Friday 14 September 2012

Day 40: We've only gone an bloomin' done it - Carlsbad to the Mexican Border!

Up early and on the road by 7, we were both really excited and anxious to get finished. There was quite a heavy fog, but it was still pretty hot following one road pretty much to San Diego.

All of the towns along this stretch Enchinitas, Cardiff by the Sea, Solana Beach were really great little towns - all with surf shacks and java bars and spraling white sandy beaches. Even at 7am the towns were buzzing with people running and getting their surf in before work - total West Coast lifestyle.

A big climb into Del Mar definately got our blood pumping, but apart from the sweat dripping from my head it actually wasn't too bad - I must be getting good at this cycling lark... although after the descent I realised that I had a front puncture - noooo!

We stopped and changed it pretty quick, but realised after we had loaded the bike back up, that we had put the wheel in wrong... ah!! We finally got sorted again after about 30 mins and was back on the road with our fingers crossed it wouldn't happen again.

We took a scenic road through La Jolla entering San Diego city, the place was gorgeous. We stopped for a quick break to see a cove full of snorklers and seals. It was a pretty nice ride keeping to the coast. The bike path along Mission Beach was a similar, but more chilled out, ride to those boardwalks in LA.Taking the Mission Bay drive through Mission Bay Park and through Point Loma - we really wanted to power through, but were starving so stopped for a quick bite.

Past the US naval reservation, a bike path again took us into downtown where we met a couple of guys from Macclesfield who were also finishing at the boarder following the book route.

We had wanted to take the ferry to Coronado to take the scnic route along the strand, but we had just missed a boat and didn't fancy waiting 50 mins - we just wanted to finish. Now heading the same way as the guys, we followed the book route which took a less scenic route through the industrial section if town - not too pleasing on the eye but definitely a lot quicker. However, the road we needed was closed off for road works, but us and another cyclist decided to just go for it through the building site and nobody stopped us, thank goodness we didn't need a detour at this point!

The route took us into Chula Vista where Tijuana started to appear on the bike route signs. Reaching the summit of one hill we could see Mexico over the border - wow so close! Passing through the last small town San Ysidro which was full of money exchange shops and immigration "specialists". Turning the corner there it was... the San Ysido/Tijuana border!

Wow we made it!!! Can't believe we've gone and bloomin' done it.

There were so many times we thought we wouldn't but we're here, it hasn't really sunk in yet. It just goes to prove what you can do when you put your mind to something and have amazing people behind you.

Thank you so much to everyone from the bottom of our hearts for all of your support.

...you never know, maybe this time next year we'll be millionaires!

Miles today 59. Total miles 1840.




6 comments:

  1. Congratulations on a great effort. 1840 has a nice ring to it. Norman

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    1. Thanks so much Norman! Yes can't believe we did it still - amazing experience. You should try it :)

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  2. Great. Well done. A fascinating trip. We would like to follow in your tracks someday soon, hopefully by tandem.

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    1. Thanks so much! ...and yes you should - we saw lots of tandem bikes on tour.

      Now that would take real team work up some of those climbs!!

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  3. What a fantastic bike ride! Congratulations and cheers to more bike escapades.

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  4. I'm planning on doing this same trip this summer, so this blog has been really helpful. I've read the whole thing! http://maxwellsbike.wordpress.com/

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