I have now been 'on the road' for 86 days. Allowing for a few nights that I have stayed in places for two nights. I reckon I have stayed in 80 different places. I was thinking about the different places I have slept in: I reckon I have maybe camped about 30%, B&Bs about 30%, 20% at friends houses and the rest split between yha (youth hostels), pubs/hotels and the odd caravan and beach hut.
It's a weird thing waking up each day in not just a new space (apart from my familiar tent) but also a new location normally about 50 miles from the last one. Thankfully normally I know where I am (which does surprise me a little).
I have worked hard to keep costs down and nearly always do a bit of bargaining, which nearly always works. Apart from the lady in Berwick who just shut the door in our faces (it was on one of Harriet's three visits).
There seem to be two types of B&B: ones run by people who really care and make their homes amazing to share with guests. The flip side though are the ones that exist just to make their owners money (no love here). These are often like a scene out of a Pinter play (the Caretaker comes to mind), but strangely I quite like them too, I suppose you can put up with a bit of oddness when it's for one night.
Camp sites are a bit similar, though I find myself a bit more forgiving of these. Mostly finding a place to lay my weary head is not a bad experience.
Sometime though it all goes a bit wrong. Like leaving a little northern town and attempting to cycle into a forest as it was getting dark (I had a romantic notion of camping in the forest). After taking a wrong turn I found myself trailing through soft sand (not easy with a heavy bike) on the banks of an estuary with an incoming tide. I was lost in the dark basically, so I followed my tracks back to the little town and decided, as I was pretty tired by this point, to put my tent up on a roundabout. The tent went up and as I opened the flap I realised that I had put the tent up with the porch bit directly over a big old pile of dog shit. Not a nice thing that.
The youth hostels have been a good experience, without exception clean and well run. Once you get over the thing of sharing a room with 4 or 5 other blokes its ok. You always meet some real characters in the hostels.
Staying with friends and people who have offered to put me up has been brilliant. It's been great to be looked after and to catch up with old friends round the country. And also to meet some amazing new friends along the way. I've been cooked for, clothes cleaned for and generally been spoilt by so many people. And I can't thank them enough.
Well I have just over two weeks left now of my trip and still time for some more experiences in the strange end of day thing of finding a place to rest my weary head.