Firstly, Mo, Rasool, Bill, Sue Colson and Hannah Jukes you are all missed and always in our thoughts and hopefully you'll be back next year.
I'm starting off by sharing that I didn’t sleep well last night as my roomie and I thought it would be a good idea to sleep with the window open to allow cool air into the room…how wrong were we! The only thing that came into the room were the sounds of the city all through the night. A lone dog barking endlessly, the sound of a club and then just as I’d got to sleep, the morning call to prayer at 5.30am!
I’ve never heard that before so always good to start the day with a new experience! I’m so tired now, I've missed breakfast for the second day in a row, probably not the best prep for our 4 Peaks challenge today, but never mind.
Anyway, got to shower and pack, and then remembered to plaster on the suncream to avoid getting sunburn strap marks on my face again!
So here we are, we had arrived on the farm. Let me tell you about our day…and as my new friend and roomie Ben Worlock always says, every day’s a school day, so I’ll tell you what we’ve learned…
Albania is so hilly! Everywhere you look, all you can see are mountains. Even when you’re cycling on the flat, the mountains are just staring at you saying “you’re just doing the easy bit now, you’ve still got to take me on". But we did take you on and we won!
I’m no cyclist but what an amazing day on the bike. Hat’s off to everyone who took part today, whether you did the whole thing or just a section or two, you did yourself proud. Give yourselves a round of applause. I think Ian Sanderson is still on a high, he was buzzing so much at the end.
We started the next morning spinning around with Kylie and Ali Mayfield shouting instructions to us, I thought I was in boot camp for a minute!
Can we ask the mechanics to check Ben's bike as I’m sure he’s got some form of turbo boost! In fact, can you ask them to check my gears at the same time as I’m sure he’s sabotaged them too!
Anyway, what else have we learned? Well as stunning as the scenery is, it’s not a place for vegetarians, is it Lesley McMillan? Thank god for chips and at least there was fish on the menu tonight, so I hope you enjoyed that.
Anyway, we’ve had an eventful day, full of challenging ups and awesome downs, so thank you all for sharing it with me. Let’s raise a glass to each other, the friends at home who couldn’t join us, but most importantly, the people we’re here to raise money for: https://openwork.enthuse.com/cf/owf-albania-2022
We’ll write to you again soon, until then…
Love and hugs,
Rutz