After 15 hours on the road (and boat)...

...we have arrived at our first port of call: Ballinacourty House, County Tipperary, Ireland.

After a gruelling night travelling through England and Wales, at 3am we finally filed onto a near-deserted ferry. Along with the few passengers who chose to travel at such a ridiculous hour, we bedded down wherever we could, finding comfortable nooks and crannies in what was essentially a giant floating Irish pub. A few hours of chilly, restless sleep later, we squinted out of the port hole to be greeted with a magical and totally unexpected sight: The sun emerging into a clear blue sky above Ireland. Fearing the lack of sleep was causing hallucinations, we quickly went back to sleep, leaving a fellow passenger to finish his 5am pint of Guinness!

As the van touched Irish soil for the first time, we had to concede that the sun was real. Tropical palm trees basked in the early morning light against a backdrop of rolling green hills and neat little cottages - the place looked fantastic. As we drove West across the country, the hills steadily became more mountainous, and the sky more grey. After a hair-raising descent down a steep, narrow mountainside lane, we found our first campsite. The team started a routine that will soon become a subconscious response: tent, food, tea, bed. We've got a lot of sleep to catch up on before we get on the bikes and take on this year's first stage tomorrow. Night night!

Leaving England

Mum after too long in the van

The first campsite of TPC2012 (and what a magnificent erection)

All ready for the first stage tomorrow!