In true tradition, our recent cycle tour round the South West corner of Iceland got off to the worst possible start. This time before we'd even left Southampton.

Having spent most of the previous day disassembling and tightly packing our bikes ready for our flight, we were distraught when our coach driver told us he wouldn't let us stow our bikes in the luggage compartment of his coach. Apparently, despite our best efforts, our bikes were packaged incorrectly (they should have been in cardboard boxes)! We had never had this problem in the past but soon realised no amount of harassing or bribing was going to change his mind.

We finally made it to Heathrow after paying through the nose for a taxi, where our second nightmare awaited us: foot & mouth. To comply with strict EU regulations, we had to unpack our bikes and roll each wheel over a piece of semi wet carpet masquerading as a disinfectant wash. As if we weren't running late enough already!