After meeting up with Lynn the afternoon before, I then faced one of the biggest challenges of the whole trip - how to get the bike home. After phoning DHL, the notion of couriering it back to Portsmouth didn't seem cost effective. They wanted a whopping £245!
Putting it on the plane back to Southampton was another alternative, and Flybe would only charge £25 but a) could only offer on a standby basis, b) wanted the bike packaged in a certain way and c) would not accept liability for any damage to the bike. Given the way I've seen baggage handlers throw suitcases around, I wasn't keen on this option.
Our last hope therefore appeared to be the Royal Mail. so we walked the bike down to a cycle shop, obtained a disused cardboard box, got the pedals loosened and walked back to the Post Office where we spent the best part of 2.5 hours dismantling the bike and packaging it up so that it would not infringe on any postal Health and Safety matters. If ever the Krypton Factor makes a reappearance on television then I suggest the parcelling of a bike would be a credible exercise for the Intelligence round. After several metres of packing tape, two rolls of bubble wrap and a smaller box for the protruding handlebars we had a fine, strong parcel complete with lifting holes and we were very pleased with our efforts. Taking it to the counter after waiting in a long queue was another matter though and we were informed by a very officious gentleman that we were 2 cms longer than the maximum parcel the Royal Mail could take (150 cm being their maximum) and they were not going to budge, literally an inch. Nonetheless, being very kind people they did pass through a Yellow Pages so we could phone other couriers with a good recommendation for AJG Parcels. This turned out to be a great result as AJG charged us only £20 to courier it to Portsmouth! I carried the parcel a back breaking mile to the nearby Industrial Estate to drop it off and OK, the proof in the pudding will be that it turns up but I've got all the paperwork. I would rank this as one of the biggest achievements of the last fortnight.
Hired a car for the rest of the afternoon to leave at the airport the next morning, and I drove Lynn to Glen Coe retracing my route on the bike and showed her the sights of Loch Ness and Ben Nevis boring her with "look how hilly it was here" etc.
