The gang arrives back at base camp. This morning, we augmented the modest offering supplied by the motel with muffins and some excellent coffee from the coffee house two doors away, and enjoyed our breakfast "sitting on the dock of the bay." After a quick walk to a British War Graves Commission cemetery, where four Royal Navy men were buried, after their anti-submarine converted trawler was torpedoed by a U boat with the loss of all hands, we packed up and left Ocracoke harbour. We had all agreed that this had been an excellent place to stay - such a perfect location.

It was13 wonderful miles to our first ferry of the day. We rode along the narrow part of the island, barely 200 yards wide in places. At times, gaps in the sand dunes on the right gave us the view I had been looking forward to: the seashore on both sides of the road.The ferry crossing between the islands of Ocracoke and Cape Hatteras, passed sandbanks on which was perched the occasional pelican. We rode through Hatteras, with high dunes on our right, sand spilling onto the road in places. Reaching the northernmost tip, we stopped just short of the bridge which took us to the spit of land forming the northern end of the Outer Banks. This is a spectacular bridge, arching high above the sea below. I hope the GoPro video worked!

We rode on, into Nags Head, where we stopped for lunch at a restaurant that extended over the beach, the attached pier jutting into the Atlantic Ocean. As we ate, we watched a couple of surfers riding the rollers that came crashing into the beach. Well done Craig, you've done it again - the perfect spot for a lunch stop! The waitresses in the restaurant all looked well past retirement age, and being attired in very short shorts and low cut T shirts, this is a semi-retirement placement for Hooters retirees! A short distance further on, and we reached the Wright Brothers' museum at Kitty Hawk, the site of the first powered flight. Sylvia and I paid a quick visit to look at the replica of their plane.

Although a long bridge took us back to the mainland, we caught another ferry from Currituck eastwards across the Currituck Sound to Knotts Island, thus cutting our distance back to Virginia Beach, but more importantly giving us another bracing ferry ride. Just forty miles to go, and we will be home. Even this part of the journey was a good ride, with some great curves (American for bends), and waterways by our side. Ah well, we are now back chez Mandy-Jane and Craig. It seems an absolute age since we left here just fourteen days ago. We have crammed in so many memorable experiences and there are more highlights that we we can immediately recall. No doubt, as we re-read this blog, and prepare our photo books, it will all come flooding back. Time has accelerated in the last few days, so our song of the day is "Funny how time slips away" by Willie Nelson.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSxFiM41u8s

We should add a song of the tour, and here we will diverge from Country: "(I've had) The time of my life" from Dirty Dancing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9BbUqHrWFI

155.5 miles today, and - I'm sure you'd like to know - a total of 2,166.7 miles for the whole trip. By the way, this is not the last blog of the trip. Craig and I will do separate epilogues. We have learnt a lot, we have so many memories and themes to pull together, and thoughts to share. So, if you're interested, look out for just two more notifications in the next few days. Bye for now.

The breakfast table:

Ocracoke's main road

The bikes wait

Here comes the transport...

How can they have anything left to say?

What is now known as "Stuart's dream bridge."

Oh a wonderful bird is the pelican. Its beak can hold more than its belly can!