(picture: early morning on Coinjock Bay, NC)

Date: 2 May 2011
Woke up in: Bells Island, North Carolina
Fell asleep in: Bodie Island, Outer Banks North Carolina
Miles ridden today: 64
Total miles ridden so far: 663
Weather: Sunny. Warmish. Very bloody windy.

Some fantastic cycling today, despite the heartbreaking headwind we cycled into for all 64 miles of the ride.

Today we made it to the Outer Banks, a chain of barrier islands along the North Carolina Atlantic Coast. We arrived there via a long, long bridge and lunched in Kitty Hawk, where the bicycling Wright Brothers kick started the age of aviation.

The first sixteen miles or so of the Outer Banks are fully of gaudy shops and crab leg restaurants. We rather liked it – and got to experience it in the pre-season, when everywhere is waking up and opening up, rather than in the madness of the full-on summer, when it’s supposed to be bumper to bumper with hot, bothered and harassed vacationers.

The best bit though comes when you hit the 8.5 mile long Cape Hatteras National Seashore. No houses, little traffic, beautiful sand dunes and the Atlantic Coast in all its glory.

We camped overnight in a national park service campsite, eating and drinking the provisions we’d cycled in from the last town. The setting was spectacular, the sunset beautiful, the star-filled night sky one of the best I’ve ever seen.

(picture: Will and Austin, our camping neighbour, preparing dinner whilst I climbed sand dunes)