For the 30-mile hop from Crayford to Tower Bridge, Steve and I brought along our respective other-halves, Clare and Sonia, to experience first-hand the excitement of our round-the-coast trip.
Although cycling through the outlying London suburbs was never really going to be representative of tackling the real coast, it was a good opportunity to involve the girls, being nice and local and a manageable distance to cover comfortably over a weekend.
Knowing that the ladies would take none too kindly to our usual practice of finding somewhere dodgy to pitch our tents well after dark, we had also taken the precaution of booking into a B&B in Greenwich in advance. This made the whole setup more of a weekend city break than a cycling adventure, but Steve and I were safe in the knowledge that in just a few days' time we would be heading straight off onto leg 6, heading out of London again on the northern bank of the Thames, and out into the wilds of the Essex coast.
For now though, we've got a 30-mile jaunt up the Thames to look forward to, and hopefully a few pub stops thrown in, so after a preparatory pint at London Bridge station, let's get started...