Riding into the Phoenix training ground this morning, I choked up again as Leigh and Tony greeted us with a big grin and handshake. The sun had come out for the occassion along with Helen of Castledown Radio who will be using some of today's interview over the coming weeks. (other press don't get out of bed on a sunday and so will be using our e-mailed words and our photos in articles, so an extra big well done to Helen for being more professional!) We spent the morning chatting with all of the Phoenix gang present, who feel more like our second families now, and drinking coffee until the time seemed right for the ride to be completed.

My trusty Colin Aprili-oops 650cc carried me faithfully over the remaining couple of miles as Sarah and Flick followed on Phoenix bikes, complete with 'L'-plates. Choked once again, I had to fob off tourists that were asking me to take their photo for them so that we could pose for a couple of our own pictures. A huge thanks to those that were there to see us finish, but as expected the finish felt massively depressing after such an awesome adventure during which such a vast number of people have really made our modest ride so special. Being offered the world by those who owned nothing and shown amazing hospitality by everyone we met was extremely humbling and has given us a drive to go and see more and re-visit those who were so generous. Over-populated Britain has a natural beauty of its own that so many are too busy working to buy iPods ad flatscreen to notice, and it is for this reason that our journey has been so magical - to see areas free from Capitalism and people whose wants are to be happy and not to be rich.

The ride over, we headed for a slightly spaced-out English fry up in a bid to begin the re-gaining of 2.5 stone that I have managed to carelessly lose somewhere en route. The final piece in my personal jigsaw was completed at 4.30pm when I rode up to the Chateau Impney hotel to meet my parents, as we had done on that 1st morning back at the end of July when, the ride having started, we grabbed a coffee before spending a manic morning repairing 2 broken bikes on the route to Newcastle. Then it was time to go home, compile some photos, think about writing a book and look for a job....!

Thanks again to everyone involved, whether you provided help, sponsored a charity simply followed the ride or some other form of involvement that I haven't thought of.

Thanks too to the bikes Cheese (who has decided to go into hibernation and wouldn't start this morning to ride to Stonehenge!), Sparky (who has gone into retirement on the coast of Italy, maybe to return to England in the next few weeks) and Colin (my trusty bike who is now looking into 'No win, No fee' cases to sue me for damage to his face in Albania).

Stay tuned for a full account of the last 60 days and please come to the party once organised - keep eyes on the site for the date.

Mike.