50% of End-2-End done (dream on)

Left The Lizard, passing through Helston - resisted ANY temptation to sing the Floral Dance. St Micheal's Mount at low tide was my first photo opportunity.

Hoped to buy a fresh crab for lunch in Mousehole (real place) but there were no fish shops -or any shops there. Land's End was as tacky and commercial as I remember it, I resisted the temptation of paying £9.50 for a photo of me by the 'official' sign but snapped a few and will photo-shop me in! There is an official End-to-End book which I signed before passing the official Start, although the cliff path was the 'real' start.

Not only did I complete 50% of the End-2-End waypoints today but also 50% of the Cape-to-Cape points. I stared out to sea from Cape Cornwall (you can see Lana's artwork on my Hi-vis vest) - and saw the looming blackness of the approaching front.

As soon as I'd reached the YH it started to rain, hope it goes through whilst I sleep. The Highland cattle could have been in John O'Groats - but weren't.

At the YH were two wonderful grandmother sisters from Oxfordshire who were walking from Minehead to Poole (via Land's End) and another mad End-2-Ender who was being very civilised and taking 6 weeks - bliss!

Stats for today 48 miles , with about 4200 feet of assents.

Still raining - off to bed..

GPSed Track "Day 02 Lizard to Lands End"

View my new track "Day 02 Lizard to Lands End" started in United Kingdom, England, Penzance.

Powered by GPSed.com - Free Mobile GPS Tracking Service

GPSed Track "Day 02 Lizard to Lands End"

View my new track "Day 02 Lizard to Lands End" started in United Kingdom, England, Penzance.

Powered by GPSed.com - Free Mobile GPS Tracking Service

Don't Pay the Ferryman... ..

Bang on time l arrived in Falmouth and headed up to Pendennis Castle for lunch, taking the opportunity to put on shorts and T-shirt - hopefully not for the only time. I collected a couple of pebbles from the first sandy beach - they can't weigh much!

Was almost stopped within 3 miles of starting by a lorry totally wedged across the lane, fortunately the Devon and Cornwall Police were on hand and we lifted my bike over the hedge and l was on my way to the Helston Passage ferry. Nick (the ferryman in the title) waived the £6.50 as l riding for charity, well he said add £2 to the total and l got some shrapnel from the other passengers.

By the time l got to Lizard it was misty so the fog horn outside my window was honking. Anyway 'bagged' most southerly point, that was easy if only they were all only 20 miles apart . Large bowl of pasta and earlyish night. I'll need the earplugs tonight.

Stats for the dat 21.4 miles, 1,899 feet climbed., 1:43 h:m

GPSed Track "Day 1 Falmouth to Lizard"

View my new track "Day 1 Falmouth to Lizard" started in United Kingdom, England, Falmouth.

Powered by GPSed.com - Free Mobile GPS Tracking Service

GPSed Track "Track #32"

View my new test track, i'm still on the train! "Track #32" started in United Kingdom, England, Plymouth.

Powered by GPSed.com - Free Mobile GPS Tracking Service

I can see the sea!

The sun is shining and I'm in Devon, so far so good. This cycling lark is easy, I left it in a 'proper' guard's van at Reading and sat and had my high energy breakfast of a sausage roll, read the paper and had a snooze.

D-Day has arrived...

So this is what it's like at 6 a.m. Thanks to Nev for driving me to the station, just need someone to drive me the next 1300 miles.

45 blog visitor yesterday and two comments, watch out Mr Fry.

Wednesday - D-Day -1

OK - so it all fitted in (just) and I think I'm ready for my deaprture in the morning. Off for a beer with the cyclists tonight but I think I drive - lets not tempt fate. Lana also customised my hi-vis vest to include the charity and web site details. I'll get a photo tomorrow.

Emailed all and sundry telling them that I'm off - lots of good luck messages and 36 people hitting this blog.

Tuesday - the ground rush of re-packing (again)

Panniers unpacked and re-packed (again). Do I pack wateproofs on top of my repair kit ? - how many pairs of boxers are essential ? - is one tub of Udderly Smooth enough? ...... questions questions. We'll I think I am pretty much there but as I'm pedaling off at 4:45 am (yes a.m) on Thursday to get the train I want to make sure that it is going to all fit. Forecast is looking promising with an easterly to get me from The Lizard to Land's End on Thurs/ Fri followed by westerly on Saturday as I turn and head for Devon. Perhaps I omit the waterproos all together - perhaps not.

29 people read today's blog - a long way to go to beat Steven Fry. The Iranian spy (see yesterday) has not logged on again.....

Monday - packing and physio...

If I squeeze stuff in hard enough I'm sure it will all fit in the panniers....... I treated myself to some chilli & lime mayonaise in Tesco which will accompany my lunches for the next three weeks. Also got pasta, some packet sauces and a tin of tuna - I'm not taking 3 weeks of food with me!

Good news on the knee front, I visited a sports physio in Stratford Today (Andrew Holbrook - highly recommended). He thought that there was no serious damage and probably just some inflamation on the bone that the ibuprofen has controlled. He had a good push and prod without me whincing too much, a bit of ultrasound and gave me some exercises. Recommended that I sat in the bar with some crushed ice every night - I think I'll make sure I do that.

Sunday - the Iranian cycling connection .....

With the bike sorted and my knee recovering slowly (ibuprofen, comfrey and more ibuprofen) I only ventured out as far as the village for a paper this morning – no problems, so spent much of the rest of the day with my leg up reading it (the paper not my leg). Started to get all my gubbins together for Thursday – it is starting to look more than I thought I’d need.

A good send off from church this evening with a few more people threatening to edge my total over the £2,000 mark (have to raise the target again!) My hit counter now says 224 – of which about 10 were Lana (daughter) trying to up the total a bit. Digging through the ‘back-office’ stats I discovered that one visitor was registered in the Islamic Republic of Iran – if this is you please do add a comment as I’m dying to know who you are…… In fact anyone can add a comment now – I think I get to vet them before they go live – it will give me something to do while I have my leg up and have finished the paper…..

Saturday

OK - bike now 'serviced' for the ride - basically I gave it a bit of a clean, especially the chain. Also fitted new inner tubes and tested my CO2 tyre inflator which was OK and put 35psi into the tyre in 10 seconds leaving the pump to bring it up to 70psi. I guess in the pouring rain I will appreciate it.

Friday's shopping trip - fundraising update

On "friday"'s trip to Leamington I popped into Boots for some Comfrey cream - obtained from the roots of Comfrey plants (Symphytum officinale to give it it's Latin name) - apparenty the large Doc leaves you see in woodlands! I'll slap it on my knee after a bath and see how good it is! Read a very disheartening blog online about a super fit guy on a fixed wheel (no gears or free wheel) who gave up his end-to-end yesterday with sore knees - Um...... Mine seem Ok once I've been going a while - probably need to do some stretching / warm -up before I mount up in the morning.

More exciting than my knee (difficult to believe I know) is that the donations are now around £1,600 which is truly astounding and a huge thanks to everyone for their generosity.

Banbury Station to home in the rain...

After the day in London I pedalled back from Banbury "thursday from banbury" a somewhat circuitous route - at least it gave me the chance to test my waterproofs....

Wednesday's Blog.....

View my new track "wednesday night again" started in Kineton, a quick bit of practise before heading out with the Kineton B Team at 7.15. Waterproof top and pannier cover arrived today along with a new tub of "Udderly Smooth" (yes it was developed by the dairy industry) to keep all all those intimate places soft and lovely! More later .....

Now it's later - good off-road route on Warwickshire's best Bridleway to Traitor's Ford a swift pint or two at the Norman Knight at Whichford and a blast back home. Even managed to get the GPS finally logging whilst in 'battery save' mode - this bodes well for the trip next week. 46 Mile today - a good day.

Back in the saddle again

View my new track "tuesday practice" started in Kineton, 22 miles around Edgehill, knee not perfect but seems OK now I've stopped. Also dropped off over £600 of donations to CORD and picked up three T-shirts - after all the sun may shine for three weeks. Forecast for end of next week look reasonable - but lets not get our hopes up....

Easter Monday

More tinkering with the bike, this time moving the toe clip and replacing a missing pedal reflector. Still laying off the training but my knee seems a lot better.

Easter Sunday

Finalised the planned route and loaded it onto SATMAP and Phone GPS software as well as updating the copy on the Blog. Tinkered with the solar charger and managed to fix it to the top box behind the saddle with a 'semi-permanent' USB cable to link its rechargable battery. This should prevent the phone for going flat whilst I'm cycling.

What a Good Friday

The plan was to have a few friends around for lunch to give me a bit of moral support ahead of me setting of on 23rd. Delighted that over 70 people came and that we munched our way through brie and bacon croissants, mini roast beef yorkies, waffles straight from the waffle iron, a multitude of home made muffins(savory and sweet), green chilli (yes chilli) pancakes, honey roast sausages all washed down with bucks fizz and the occasional bottle of Stella. The little ones were entertained with garden egg hunts, "pick an egg to find an egg" and the old favourite - pin the tail on the Easter Bunny (not a real one). For the more technically challenged was the game of skill 'guess the weight of the panniers' - with all of my kit (laid on the table in photo) packed into them. Jane Hill winning the adult prize and Becky Hawkins the junior prize - and the answer was 18.145kg

CORD and NOTDEC UK had provided videos and leaflets and there was even a fly virtual through of the route from my PC software. I'll try and upload it here in a while.

Thanks to the superb support of you, our friends, the sterling work of Chris at the AGA and Lana and Kirsty to keep the little ones entertained the day flew by. Also a huge thank you to everyone who came and also to everyone who has donated to date. Today raised £673.65 so we have now exceeded the £1,000 target - which is fantastic. Many thanks. I'll obviously still welcome donations via the link on this blog or give me cash or cheques (payble to CORD) - If we include the Gift Aid that will be reclaimed I reckon that we'll be heading for £1,500 very soon and even £2,000 is not impossible!

For those who have been following my sore knee saga I'm please to report that it's much better today and although I'll rest it over for a few days the doctor thinks I'll live. So there we are - A GOOD FRIDAY..

Wednesday night & trip to quack

Part of "wednesday night" route, I chickened out of the off road bit due to road tyres and a bit of sore knee. I went to the Doc today who prodded it and said it looked OK, nothing swollen so I may have pulled a ligament or something. I think I'll lay off the bike for a few days to let it recover.

My training ride Monday evening

View my new track "monday night" started in United Kingdom, England, Leamington.

Powered by GPSed.com - Free Mobile GPS Tracking Service

Monday - I really ought to be doing more practice.....

OK so just over 2 weeks to go and only 50 miles last week - that's not even a day on the trip. So the plan is to cycle into Leam tonight for the church bloke's pub night armed with sponsor form and clock up 40 miles by the time a get home aftetr the pub closes. If I get lost it could be a whole lot longer... Anyway total donations now over 1/3 of the way there - good news.... I'll also see if I can master this tracking gadget on the phone. More later.
OK now 10.54, good blokes pub night and it's raining so off home now.

Friday - all I went in for was to tighten my gear cable...

John Atkins cycles in L/Spa came up trumps again today. I'd been trying to get my gears working properly after they had serviced it a few weeks back and decided to take it into the experts. Sure enough not only did they sort out the gears but also told me my chain was worn out. This was the chain they changed 3 weeks ago, it was apparently the second one with a similar problem. The gave the mechanism a good clean, apparently the 'wet' lubricant is not ideal for the dry days in March and that combine with 150 miles on minor roads and towpaths had collected dust to form a gritty slime which needed to come off.

Anyway with a new chain, cleaned mechanics and a tube of 'dry' lube I am set. Also stocked up on 4 new inner tubes and patches, CO2 tyre inflator, rehydration mix and a new sey of gloves to replace my two right handed gloves I'm using at the moment. Just under 40 miles around L/Spa and Warwick coming home along the canal in the sunshine.

Also made a stock of small Don't Stop till Orkney 'business' cards to hand out..... good day.

Small article in CORD's latest newsletter...

I make a small appearance on Page 14 of this newsletter...

http://www.cord.org.uk/downloads/065_issue%202.pdf

Wednesday

So fund raising has reached 25% - good news - with more being added off-line, so I'll update that when I have the chance. Bike hat arrived back by post yesterday - even without my dad writing the house name on it.....

Sunday

More off-bike preparation on Sunday with a trip to the Outdoor Show at the NEC, £8 for parking - scandalous. Anyway, lots of boy's toys, came away with a second battery for my Freeloader solar charger.
Also spent a while with the 'very nice' Satmap GPS team, they replaced my duff battery pack (see Thursday's blog) and we worked through a lot of the glitches in their web-based planning package. A very worthwhile hour.
Dropped off some sponsor forms in Orpington and Kineton. Left bike helmet at my folk's house - bother. .

Lunch by the 'rustic' river Wandle, Carshaloton Ponds, Bridleway Surrey/Kent border, Keston Fishponds and horses on Wimbledon Common.

Jordan's YH is certainly rustic, very 1930's wooden hut, but perfectly functional.
55 miles today 80% off road which included growing through London. Grand Union Canal for 20 miles all the way to the Thames. The bike barriers aren't wide enough for panniers so it is a bit precarious to lift it over without the bike toppling in.
Safely across the Thames at Kew and down the towpath to the end of the Boat Race at Mortlake, negotiated some real roads to get to Richmond Park and felt chuffed I passed 2 city cyclists.. No Wombles or Wimbledon Common but plenty of rain - didn't last long.
The River Wandle meanders through the rural idylls that are Mordern and Carshalton Ponds. Good place for lunch on a bench. More proper roads in Purley and a proper hill - London is SO flat.
Plenty of Bridleways to get to Keston - one puncture and got to my folks for tea and a bath. . .

GPSed Track "beaconfield orpington"

View my new track "beaconfield orpington" started in United Kingdom, England, Slough.

Powered by GPSed.com - Free Mobile GPS Tracking Service

A mere 75 miles today down through the Cotswolds and Chilterns to the Youth Hostel just outside Beaconsfield. It is certainly rustic with a small and sociable set of regular guests (where else can you get a bed for £14?) and Nicola the Warden making me welcome. This-room sleeps 6, but its just me and my bike.

Disaster on the GPS front the lead on the Li-polmer battery broke on the bumps on the Oxford canal towpath and my spare batteries were flat. Added to that my MP3 speaker rubber cover split so I was music-less for a couple of hours. Fortunately at my lunchstop in Thame with Kate I raided Steve toolbox and under sink cupboard for a circuit tester, soldering iron and old rubber glove. Little David helped me after I brided him with choc. Hob-nobs.

Some bizzare sculptures on old railway line towards Princes Risborough. Fully tested waterproofs in the squally showers.
All in all a good day.

GPSed Track "kineton beaconsfied"

View my new track "kineton beaconsfied" started in United Kingdom, England, Leamington.

Powered by GPSed.com - Free Mobile GPS Tracking Service

Wednesday

Packed panniers for Thursday's trip to Kent, surprised how easily everything went in. Only three of us onthe pub cycle tonight, 26 miles ending at Whatcote, very pleasant.

Fundraising steps up a gear

It's far too windy to go cycling today so I've emailed around my 'begging' email to ex colleagues at Arqiva, Balfour Beatty etc.

Blimey you can even follow me as I cycle in real time - VERY SCARY......

View my new track "Track #3" started in United Kingdom, England, Coventry.

Powered by GPSed.com - Free Mobile GPS Tracking Service

Friday

Trip to Leamington, 31 miles and a beautiful day by the canal. Popped into Mountain Equipment to buy more essentials, waterproofs this time. Managed 10% off buy completing internet survey on trusty phone whilst standing at the till... Every little helps. This is lunch on the Grand Union Canal. Hopefully my GPS tracker is now also blogging where I am ...

Wednesday night

29 Miles to Lower Boddington, good trip

£100 donated so far, that's good news. Starting to send out invites to local friends and neighbours for a Good Friday event. Decided that digging veg patch counted as exercise so spent an hour on that today, saving myself for Wednesday night ride to the pub, more later....

Fund raising goes LIVE.....

The first wave of carefully crafted begging emails disappeared into the ether, so I 'll await the torrent of support that these will generate. I even managed to get some very smart route maps on the Blog (see links) thanks to Google Maps and some more help from Jonathan (him of the panniers - see below)......

Must do some more cycling today...... bye

Monday bash in the sunshine

Warmest day of the year and 1:32 (6 minutes shaved off previous best) on my 23 mile 'training' circuit. Up Edghill, Shutford, Epwell, Compton Wyngates, Whatcote, Oxhill and home....

Sunday morning.....

Met up with CORD on Friday and have finished setting up Justgiving web page ready for its launch next week. Also wrote this article for the Kineton village magazine…..

Don't Stop 'till Orkney – charity cycle ride

Little Kineton resident Richard Young is heading off on his cycle to pedal from Lands' End to John O'Groats in April. He plans to clock up over 1,200 miles on his journey raising money for two Leamington based charities. Richard is raising money for NOTDEC which supports the work at an orphanage in Uganda and CORD which works with people affected by violent conflict in developing countries.

"I decided to cycle solo and unsupported staying at Youth Hostels mainly because I don't want to slow anyone else down, and also because I want to explore some of Britain's other extremities. I'll try and get to the The Lizard (S), Ardnamurchan Point (W), Cape Wrath (NW), Dunnet Head (N), Duncansby Head (NE) and Cape Cornwall (Britain's other Cape) whilst I'm out there."

You can follow Richard's daily progress from now until he returns and you can also donate to these charities through his blog www.dontstoptillorkney.blogspot.com or through Jane Hill at St Peter's Church who has a sponsor form.

Wednesday

30 miles into Warwick and Ruddles at 99p a pint at Lloyds No 1, good trip.

Avleston to Kineton (with a following wind)

As predicted the heavy rain was overnight and Tuesday was a good cycling day - dry, wind behind me. Headed off from the Moore's up the River Severn (cycleway 41), joining towpath for the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal until reacing Gloucester Docks. Skirted around Cheltenham (first day of the Festival) and slowly started climbing towards Winchcome and Broadway. Fish Hill out of Broadway is long and steep, fortunately there is a reasonable path up the old road and then next to the new one so at least I didn't have to vie with the lorries. From the top it was another swoop down and up to reach the top of Illmington Hill then the last 9 miles home through Halford. Total for the day was 75.7 miles and a climb (most of it Fish Hill) of 919 feet.

The Blustery Day

Headed off from Kineton and was surprised by the wind, it didn't stop all day and the 78 miles to Alveston (Bristol) was REALLY hard work. Passed the Four Counties Stone (Ox, Warks, Glous, and Wors) and had lunch sheltering in Northleach church. Even in the wind the Cotswolds were stunning and the drop down to Wooton-under-Edge almost made the 4500 of uphill worth it.
Josh came out to show me the last bit to his parent's house and Tim and Dan were on fine form. Had a great meal with Pete and Adele and slept well.
Both Adele and I moaned that the new BBC weather web site is so much worse than the old one, they have removed the symbols showing temperature and wind and replaced them with text- useless! We must be getting old..

Thanks to Craig (bicycle repair man) my gears are now sorted and I've borrowed his Haynes book of cycle maintenance so I can spot the difference between a bottom bracket and a loose chainset.

37 miles today around Leamington Spa and Warwick, still tinkering with new gears but they seem to be getting better. Just in case i didn't know where I was...

Bike serviced....

Collected Trek from John Atkins Cycles (L/Spa)and took it for a 30 mile shake down. New 'external' bottom bracket, cables, jockey wheels, pedals, chain and block all managed to get me home without any of the squeaking I'd got used to, so that was good news. Also came away with some more 'lightweight' goodies for the tools kit, a chain splitter, chain repair link, two spokes (with nipples) and a spoke spanner. My improvised personal hi-fi speaker works a treat, its mounted just behind the handle bars and it connects directly to my phone/MP3/radio gizmo in my crossbar bag. Surprising what you can make with an old light fitting, some batteries, and old speaker, some 'medical grade latex', a bit of plastic card and electrical tape. So I reckon the bike is pretty much ready for the trip - just me to get sorted now. Swift trip over to Gaydon Inn to join the Wedenesday night cyclists for a beer or two.

Bike in for servicing

Dropped trusty Trek bike off for a service, looks like it will need a fair amount of work on it to get it ready for next month. This means that I've not done any miles so far this week.... UM.....