I decided to make my little weekend visit to meet friends in Swanage into my first mini tour, and what a joy it was.

Day one: Set out in good time from Brighton aiming for Hamble, just short of Southampton. A fine sunny day to take my mind of the 50+ lb of kit over the back wheel. Following the Southcoast Trail the going was easy going until I forgot that you cannot hop such a laden bike, resulting in a broken spoke. Damn It! Not good for only 2 hours in. Finding the local Bogner bike shop a replacement and a few spare spokes were found and I carried on a little wiser. Reached Hamble in great time, pitched the tent and spent an hour replacing what was now two broken spokes and slackening off the rest of the wheels spokes by half a turn. This reduces the stiffness and allows the wheel to flex against the bumps, feeling a little more jelly like to ride but less likely to result in a broken wheel. Finished the evening with some local ciders in the pub, sunset n all.

• Map URL: http://j.mp/arW5Jj
• Ride Time: 4:52:04
• Distance: 105.63 km
• Average: 21.70 km/hr
• Calories: 3815

Ride data provided by the brilliant Cyclemeter iPhone app.

Day Two: Starting of at 9am Southampton was a little busy with not much room for wide panniers and a few duel carriageway flyovers to sprint, the New Forrest then providing the perfect contrast. I was in Bournemouth by noon with plenty of time to kill, so to avoid the drizzle which had lasted all day I ducked into the cinema to see Shrek 3, which was actually quite good. Came out to sunshine and got to Swanage in no time.

A big thank you to Jack and Gemma for inviting me, always and amazing time wether spent roaming the coastline or in the Square And Compass, easily one of my favourite pubs of all time. We had a good hack round the Pitch n Put and the finest BBQs known to man, was fantastic to see everyone but brief as ever.

Day Five: At 7am I was off again back home, the plan was to see how far I could cover and use the train to finish back in Brighton. After crossing on the chain ferry I raced excitedly through Bournemouth only to notice my pannier open… and my wallet gone… I backtracked 8km to the ferry but it was lost. This was annoying yes, but would mean I couldn’t buy any lunch and worse still couldn’t camp or catch any trains. Bike would be the only means.

Eating only a few flapjacks I bought that morning I was able to keep going. I stopped at the amazing Barreg Cycles outside Fishbourne for water and stumbled across one of the most amazing bike shops I have seen in a long time.

Just outside Worthing I was struck with more fun luck, there was a bang as my pannier rack sprang a nut and fell onto the wheel, grinding everything to a halt. I was able to lash one pannier to the other with my belt allowing all the weight to balance the rack away from the wheel, this still also required one hand to steady the bags. Into town and I able to find to find a shop where I could fix things, as long as I return some day with biscuits to repay the favour.

After the wallet back-track and a few wanders off-track I was only a 15km away the magnificent target of 200km but almost home, so I stuck in an extra loop of Shorham harbour and was home.

First mini tour done. Chuffed n Bloody tired. Single speed maybe not the best choice.

• Map URL: http://j.mp/9YcPP6
• Ride Time: 9:13:43
• Distance: 202.29 km
• Average: 21.92 km/hr
• Calories: 7617