BIG Sponsor from Rowes Honda

This is Andrew Chance, (very handsome chap!) Sales Manager at Rowes Honda, Hayle. We had a meeting with him on Friday morning and he blew us away with the news of just how generous and supportive Rowes Honda are going to be!

They have agreed to donate £200.00 PLUS t-shirts, cycling tops, overshoes, possible accommodation, and a VERY nice car to drive us home from Land's End when we finish! We love you Rowes Honda!

And relax...

Since 9am it has rained. And rained. And rained.

It has been a very productive day - Richard visited the Marie Curie office in Truro this morning and collected t-shirts that are now with Paul at Mackrelbus Design. He's designing a logo & text so we can tell the world what we're doing. We'll post it if we can.

Then this afternoon it was time to wind down. Fiona Lockhart, a fabulous massage therapist, offered a while ago to come and treat us both before and after the event. Today was before, and it was just a little bit WOW! We are now just floating gently round the house with a pleasant glow about us!

As Fiona said - it's a horrible day outside, so stay in and have some TLC! Relax...

A little light relief!

Light relief in more ways than one - this stuff is fab! It deserves a blog all of it's own.

Sport Relief

We sat down on Thursday evening unsure as to whether or not we wanted to spend an hour watching seven celebrities doing in four days what we will be attempting over two weeks.

We are so glad we did! The scenery during the section through Scotland was spectacular! As far as going over Glen Coe, their route matched ours.

There are a couple of points we'd like to make to reassure our supporters: 1. We will not be cycling at night, 2. We will not continue if the temperature falls so low we get icicles on our chins & noses!, 3. We are both cycling the whole distance, not taking turns!

Well done to those taking part in that, even Jimmy Carr who admitted he had been a bit of an arse at the end of his stint! It was a seriously good effort, their average speed was about 13mph, (we're managing between 10.5 and 12mph on our training rides) given the lack of sleep and the conditions that was seriously good.

We won't be raising £1,000,000, but if we can hit our target of £2,000 we'll be very chuffed!

Donations!

The Just Giving box on the right hand side of the screen (please click on the donate button to go to our Just Giving site and donate!) does not tell the whole story of the amount we are raising. We have also received cash donations from friends, colleagues, and some of Joules' patients. All of these are being totted up continually and an official Marie Curie sponsor form filled in so the Gift Aid (another 18%) can be claimed from the government. A HUGE thanks to all those who have donated so far.

We have also contacted a number of businesses with which we have connections, or who have strong connections with Cornwall. The letters have only started going out this week and already we have had a responce - Swann-Morton of Sheffield, suppliers of surgical blades used by Joules since she set up practice eleven years ago, have kindly donated £50! Thank you very much to them! As promised a link to their web site is now on ours - see the list of links in the right hand column of this page.

As for the ride, we're getting more excited as the days pass and can't wait to be on our way!

The Route!

Sorry, this is only descriptive for now, but I'm sure you'll be able to follow it on a map if you have a road atlas. I am researching ways of publishing a map of the route, I may need to do it somewhere else and provide a link. We'll see...

Any way, the route:

We will be starting at John O'Groats, although we want to take in Duncansby Head, as this is actually the farthest North East, as Lands End is the farthest South West. We will then travel along the North Coast visiting Dunnet Head, the farthest North point on the British Mainland, through Thurso and on to Bettyhill. We then turn South to Lairg, Bonar Bridge, Alness, Dingwall, Beauly and then down to Drumnadrochit. From here we will follow the Great Glen South West along the banks of Loch Ness and Loch Lochy to Fort William.

We will ride out of the Great Glen and up over Glen Coe following the A82 to Crainlarich and then the A85 to Lochearnhead and Crieff. We will be heading down to the Forth Road Bridge and over into Edinburgh next, where we are staying the night with our friends Mhairi and Jim.

From Edinburgh we will follow the A7 South to Selkirk, Hawick, Langholm, and then over the border and into England heading to Carlisle. The plan is to follow the A6 from Carlisle, I am informed that as most of the traffic takes the M6, this is a good cycling road. This takes us to Penrith, over Shap and down to Kendal. Staying on the A6 we will head South to Lancaster and then on to the section we are least looking forward to - Preston, Wigan, Warrington. The route through is yet to be finalised. Reaching Northwich will be a relief as we leave the industrial North West behind us and head through Cheshire.

From Northwich we will be aiming for Nantwich, Audlem, Market Drayton and then into Shropshire cycling past Harper Adams College - hopefully one or two students could keep a lookout? and on through Shifnal. We are aiming for an overnight stop at either Richard's Uncle Allan's or his cousin James' home near there.

The next target is Worcester to Julie's cousins for lunch, so A442 to Bridgenorth, and then the B4555 to Bewdley then following the River Severn to Worcester. We will continue along the Severn on the B4211 through Upton upon Severn (provided it isn't flooded this year!) and on to Gloucester.

Like the A6, the A38 is said to be a good cycling road as most of the traffic is on the M5 and there is lots of space, so we will follow this out of Gloucester to Bristol. How we get through Bristol is still open to debate... We want to be heading to the Cheddar Gorge next, but I get a headache every time I try to map a route through. Any suggestions or help gratefully received! From Cheddar we will be riding through Wedmore and on to Taunton, picking up the A38 again to Wellington and then to Tiverton.

From Tiverton we will head to Crediton and then Oakhampton before skirting the Northwest corner of Dartmoor to Tavistock, one of our favorite places. From Tavistock we are taking minor roads virtually due West to cross the Taymar into Cornwall at Horsebridge, then carrying on through Stoke Climsland, Bray Shop, and Rilla Mill before skirting the Southern edge of Bodmin Moor to reach Doublebois and pick up the A390 through Lostwithiel to St Austell. We are then aiming to cycle down onto the Roseland Peninsular, through Tregony, to take the King Harry Ferry so that we avoid the busy roads round Truro.

From here we have a choice on roads we know quite well. Our aim is to go via the Lizard, so that we pick up the most Southerly point on the British Mainland. we will obviously be spending our last night at home, but whether we go to the Lizard the day before we go to Lands End, or do it on the same day will determine the route from here.

There is no "easy ride" from our house to Lands End, or back for that matter! Our current thinking is Penzance then Newbridge, St Just and then down to Lands End!

I'm Jake the Tandem, tiddle-iddle-iddle-um

We had our first training ride with the Extra Wheel Trailer attached today! (see the web link to the right) And it was a very hard ride. 45.62 miles in 4 hours 23 minutes, so just short of 10.5mph average. We are VERY happy with this time as the route was VERY hilly - nearly 2,500 feet of climbing!

We decided to head out West today for a change. Due to the issues with sore legs we decided to head down towards Marazion though Townshend and Goldsithney so that we could turn back and do a short route easily, however at Marazion we both felt fit and well and so carried on.

Heading out through Penzance and Newlyn we rode through Mousehole and then up our first (if you ignore the one out of home) big hill of the day up to Paul and then Sheffield. Honest, there is a tiny village to the west of Penzance called Sheffield, there are folk round here who haven't heard of it!

Dropping back down to Newlyn we discussed where we would go next, the decision was made to head out to the North Coast. Dropping down to Pendeen the sun came out and the ride round to Zennor was lovely. Along this stretch we were passed by a man on his racing bike - "Wow, you look like a train! I like it!" Joules said "It's an Extra Wheel - like Jake the Peg, tiddle-iddle-iddle-um". We stopped at the the Tinner's Arms in Zennor for a bite to eat. We should have thought about this as it was Mothering Sunday, and like everywhere else they were full. So two packs of crisps and a J2O made up our sugar and salt intake. The ride out of Zennor to St Ives was a PIG. Short hill after short hill.

The drop down from Halestown to Lelant was a relief and a joy - quick and easy! The problem is the hill up out of Hayle. It is a long hill, and at the end of the ride it seems very hard.

During today's ride we consumed five bananas, two packs of crisps each, two and a half bottles of water, a J2O, Orange & soda. Something amazing happened though: every time Richard threw one it went over the hedge or out of sight! He thinks it was the wind direction that helped, the East wind has finally left us after two or three weeks!

After the ride we were treated to the most wonderful Chinese meal prepared by Joules' Dad. You can't ask better than that!