Thank you all for your votes of confidence! I will make sure to be well prepared. I have patch kit and tool kit and two spare tubes. I have two bottle cages for water (and will be passing at least a dozen pubs for refills.....does wine work as a sports drink? or perhaps cider?). As for contingency plans, it's a bit tricky. I won't be able to follow along the railway for easy access to trains home. But I will have my phone and there are busses around so I'm sure I won't be too stuck.

Did have a good talk with BF last night too. He is just worried about me, but definitely thinks I can do it. I promised I'd send him regular updates along the way so he doesn't worry too much.

I'm getting excited about it now, despite the weather forecast. On the news last night the weather map for Saturday shows a big raincloud covering pretty much all of England. But I've got raingear and can handle any weather. Just hope the headwinds aren't too bad (although that can be considered training for the AIDS ride hills).