No, I wasn’t Everesting Shaftesbury’s Gold Hill; I was rattling up and down this famous “cobbled”* ramp to capture photos and videos. In a reasonably faithful recreation of Ridley Scott’s legendary 1973 Hovis TV advert I also pushed my bike up and, of course, came down legs splayed.

I also clasped a long selfie stick to my right-hand brake lever to grab some Insta 360 footage. Theoretically, that should look as though I’ve got a Jeremy-Vine-style drone above my head. We’ll see. I’ll be posting the edited video in a day or two.

I left Iwerne Minster at 5.30am in order to get to Gold Hill in time for what was forecast to be a sunny dawn. During the ride over to Shaftesbury 100 percent cloud cover made me doubt the forecast but as I started taking photographs the clouds parted just enough to light the rural Dorset backdrop.

Forty or so minutes later I had captured every angle I wanted. In the low light I’d’ve got better photographs from the drone but my clip-cloppy shoes were already loud enough for anybody in the slopeside houses — the Mavic 3 Pro is a great drone, but it’s particuluary noisy.

Launching the drone would also eat time, and I didn’t have much — I had an afternoon train to catch from Bristol, 55 miles away.

After almost two months away, and just two short visits back home, I felt that sixty days on the bike was enough for now. Anyway, plans for the book have changed, and I’ll have more news on that later. Sign up for my book info email down below to make sure you get that update.

Back to today, I felt strong and so long as I didn’t stop too much for impromptu photo breaks I’d easily make the train.

There had been nothing open in Shaftesbury for breakfast so I turned towards an Esso garage in the town of Nunney an was pleasantly surprised there was a Greggs shop there, too.

I’d had a £10 Greggs voucher on my phone for some time — ironically, it was gifted to me for volunteering for a NHS-linked health screening programme. Ironically because Greggs might be assumed to offer only highly processed food. A reasonably healthy Greggs breakfast is coffee and porridge, and I added some prepared fruit and a big bottle of orange juice too. Seven quid. The Greggs assistant even made the porridge with hot milk even though the tub comes with powdered milk — I’ll take all the protein I can get.

Back on the trail after drinking the milky porridge I flew the drone to get aerials of the dramatic 12th Century Nunney Castle bathed in sunshine. Less than an hour later the weather took a turn for the worse and I had to quickly don overshoes and my Rab rain jacket.

I’d checked the forecast for Shaftesbury but not Frome so the storm came as a surprise, reminding me painfully of the first weeks of this tour in Scotland when I was hardky out of the rain jacket.

The wind was fierce enough to blow recycling tubs across the road. I rescued one of them before it was hit by one of the speeding drivers that treat rural roads like race tracks. (At times this seems like all drivers, although some are courteous and thoughtful.)

I dried out on the climbs through the Mendip hills and once at the top of East Dundry lane, with Bristol far below, I could take off my foul weather kit for the steep descent to my first city for some days. With three hours before the train left I had plenty of time to fly the drone for an elevated view and some distance-compressed photographs.

I had no idea Bristol had climbs this steep. Descending East Dundry lane was a dramatic way of ending Day 60.

Home time. Time for a rest. Thanks for following my progress. There will be further updates to the site soon, including additions to the gallery and a couple of blog postings as well as at least two videos.

One of the videos will be a report on my kit choices and how the bike coped with everything I threw at it with zero flats and zero mechanicals.

* Gold Hill is shod with setts, not cobbles. And they are not the setts seen in the 1973 TV advert. The street’s setts were lifted and replaced in the 1980s with the help of a little bit of cash from Hovis.