Our last day started out wonderfully well. We had slept under the stars in the desert, woke before sunrise and were on our bikes as soon as it began to get light. The air was cool (ish) and the trail was good, and although we were a little bit sad that it was the last day of the ride, I think both Marco and I were excited about reaching our goal; the Mexican border post of Antelope Wells.

We still had about 80 miles to go, including the infamous (among Divide riders) Lonely Highway; the seldom used road that covers the final 45 miles from Hachita to Antelope Wells.  Naturally, it is uphill (if only very slightly) and of course we were riding into a headwind but the hardest thing about the road was the complete lack of traffic; I counted around 15 cars during those miles, and most of those were Border Patrol vehicles.

The silence gave me plenty of time to reflect on the trip overall. It seems like light years ago since we left Banff, but at the same time, the ...

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I’ve been following the SPOT on and off for most of the day following Simon and Marco’s progress as they have made their way from Silver City across the desert to Separ, along the dirt track parallel to Highway 10 down to Hachita and then south down the 47 longest miles in the world in the heat to the Mexican border.

At 12.28h (New Mexico Time) 19.28 (GMT) they made it to the Antelope Wells and the Mexican Border. In doing so completing nearly 3000 miles of cycling from Banff, Canada in just over five weeks.

Well done guys! Hoe you enjoyed the beers!

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Final preparations are now well under way;  Marco has had his legs waxed and we are almost ready to go!

If you haven’t already had a look, you can now track our progress in real time, thanks to the SPOT GPS tracking device we will be carrying. The device is a little bit difficult to operate, but we hope to have it working well as soon as we set off tomorrow morning. You can follow or progress on the “Live Tracking” tab at the top of this page.

We’ve also updated the “Charity” tab. We aren’t riding for one single charity, instead we are letting you choose your own. If you enjoy reading about our adventure and are able to make a donation to charity, please just leave a comment or send us an email giving the name of the charity and the amount donated, or the amount per mile / kilometre.

Thanks to everyone who has helped us prepare - now I guess it’s all about the bike

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