4hrs 35mins. Steady progression to the coast.

The last day in France, the final one in mainland Europe. Hugh played a solid innings with a a straight bat, wanting to finish off the continental tour in style, and he did.

We started north of St Omer cheered off by Rosie and Big Charlie. Little Charlie had decided to stay for another day and go back with us over the water so he and I formed a tag teamed to keep Hugh company. I did the first half with him and after a break Charlie sped along before changing tack to become a cameraman - lying prostrate on the road as Hugh went past then springing up to take more. Athletic stuff indeed, of which our supermarket photographer from yesterday would have been jealous.

The route was very flat today, winding slowly north along canals and rivers towards Dunkerque before banking left, finishing in farmland close to the coast, just before Calais. Again we were lucky with the weather, the cold mist of the morning being burnt off by the sun before midday and glorious all afternoon. Not a sign of the Icelandic ash cloud - though perhaps there's a pea souper awaiting us over the channel.

Mixed feelings going back to England. On the ferry we found a loud and boisterous crowd and felt hemmed in. Not actually used to a lot of people having seen very few on our European crawl northwards and we had got used to our cocooned existence, travelling purposefully and moving on each day. The drive from Dover to Brighton showed how built up England is compared to the countries we had visited and though we love old Blighty it did seem very crowded.

Finally we reached the Grand Hotel where Hugh and I we had been put up by the Brighon Marathon as VIPs. Jonny PR was down, delivering various sponsorship bits for the next day and we had an obligatory whisky and did a bit more work before el collapso in a rather nice suite. Next day heralded our first organised marathon and it was a blessed relief not to look over the route or work out how long it would take to drive there, also in the knowledge we would have a decent English breakfast, delightful though croissants have been.