Good Morning All,

It is day 11 and we are on Camping 'de Merelhoeve' in Nieuwe en St. Joosland.

We are all ok but Libby was bitten by a horse fly two days ago and seems to have had an allergic reaction to it and may have to stop  riding for a couple of days. We are in the process of deciding what to do and will let you all know the outcome a.s.a.p.

Otherwise the ride is going well and we have now ridden more than 500km. The days have been hot and our water bottles are being refilled on a regular basis.

Jimmy has been a real trooper and has helped keep the moral high, his jokes make us all laugh and he never moans about anything. Lou has been my legs and her cooking skills are second to none, we ate a three course meal last night that she prepared on our trusty Trangia, I challenge anyone to beat that especially after a 55km ride in 35 degree heat towing 40kg and carrying another 20kg. As for me, I am doing fine so please don't worry yourselves, we may look as if we're hanging but this is the life we enjoy and it gives it a new dimension doing it with a spinal cord injury and I can now show that there really is life after a spinal cord injury and watch out because I am not prepared to stop untill I decide to.

The scenery on the ride has been magnificent and we saw the sea for the first time last night. We are going to buy a card for our video cameras soon as we can so we can take some still photos and of course we keep filming too. we didn't manage to take any photos on the first part of the ride but this is good because it gives us a good reason to go back and ride it again at a later stage. So if any of you want to come next time, let us know and perhaps we could cycle on mass.

I am off to get a shower now and after that we are heading towards Renesse, our route goes over Neeltje Jans which should be interesting. We will take photos and post them if and when we can.

Just before I go for my shower I would like to let you know that Libby seems ok again so she is going to give it a shot and cycle with us.

Bye for now

Matt