I've had a couple of emails from Confused of Camberley asking where on earth I am heading and what has happened to Thelma. One minute I'm bike travelling around Japan, the next I'm on a KLR in Guatemala and then I'm suddenly in Iceland.

Well Mr Confused (and I think there are likely to be several more people feeling the same way). I arrived in LA in early November with the knowledge that I should have been home by then but with the realisation that I was still halfway around the world from England. Having got to North America I decided I wanted to bike to Nova Scotia to visit friends there, however, even I will agree that this was an inappropriate time of year to head across America.

Therefore I've decided to leave Thelma in storage in LA for the winter while I fly home to spend Christmas with my boyfriend and the rest of my family. I will then stay in England for the winter months working and saving hard so that when the weather is warmer I can head back to California and ride Thelma across the States and Canada to Nova Scotia and ship home from an East Coast port.