Yes – it is true. We have bailed, bottled, bolted. The trip is suspended. It is on pause. Sad but true.

With Samuel’s head and neck problems we struggled to get anywhere and any treatment we have given him doesn’t seem to last more than a day. With this in mind, we have opted for a prolonged period of rest and a more thorough treatment so it is back to London for us (having no home of our own to go to!).

From the dismal campsite of Yvonand on Lac Neuchatel (actually it is not so bad if you focus on the lake), we planned the tactical retreat one day and then made the hasty withdrawal the next. Quick train back to Geneva, packing of five bicycles into a tiny storage unit and then Easy flight back to the comforts of family in London where we have since been idling idly between medical appointments.

The good news is that Samuel is underway with his phsyio course but on the other hand we still don’t have a complete picture of what is the underlying problem. There are still some tests to do.

From here we plan to sit still for a while. We are hoping it won’t be for more than a month but who knows? Try to get to Cambridge. Maybe elsewhere. If it all goes swimmingly, we may be able to resume the cycle trip on a reduced itinerary but more likely we will skip over it for now and bring forward the rest of the trip and then do a bit of cycling next summer at the other end of the trip. As ever, the future is uncertain.