Day 86: Greenwich to Eton, September 25th.

Awoken by Jack around 10. I had a couple of crumpets to wake up. I had asked Nikolas if I could stay with him in Camberly. I spent half a day waiting for a response. He finally responded around 1:30 while I was in the middle of an important TLOU2 cutscene. He has a girl staying over. Fair enough.

I cycled over to Tom’s (the other brother) to pick up a (pretty shit) tent. Tom gave me a cuppa and half a bag of sriracha pop chips, and we chatted for a while. He recommended me a good wild camping spot under a bridge near Eton.

I left his around 2. When waiting at a crossroads I dropped my phone as I set off and was helpfully informed by a car beeping its horn and a teen picking it up for me. Thanks guys.

The first half of the cycle through London was lovely. I went down to the Thames past the Shard, London eye, houses of parliament, big ben, Buckingham palace etc. Soon though the parks gave way to long multilane roads where I had to cycle on the pavement. I stopped at a Greggs around 6 to charge my phone a little and get some food, despite already having purchased a Tesco meal deal for dinner.

I arrived at Victoria bridge near Windsor and Eton around 7. It is in the countryside – just barely. After a little explore I found a hidden away spot near the river. Once again I found myself setting up a tent by head-torch light. Tom is right. Aside from being very light everything else about this tent is pretty shit. Ah well. It does the job.

Last wild camp of the trip

Once it was up I spent a while by the river messaging people, reading my book and eating my Tesco sandwich. Once it got to 9ish I went to bed. There was a lot of noise – from the road, from airplanes flying over, rustling in the bushes and at one point rap music which played loudly nearby for some time. Luckily it quietened down eventually.

Aside from having to deal with a leaking camelback at 11pm, all went well, and I slept okay.

Video of this day (and others)