And Finally...

Sue is feeling happy to be home, a little sad to have missed the last day, overwhelmed by the exciting finish line and seeing everyone and blown away (more than on Brighton Cliffs) by the generousity of the good folk at The Pilgrim Inn who raised a whopping £677.18! Official overall total now stands at...£2179.13 plus £242.56 Gift Aid!!!

Just discovered that the winds on the Brighon Cliffs were 25mph, gusting to 37mph!!!! At one point there was a sheer drop on the left hand side of me and a gust of wind (probably 37mph!) hit me and knocked me sideways.. At that point I got off and felt glad to have my feet on terra ferma. I walked for about a mile with my bike up and down the cliffs until i felt safe to get on again. A tough day.

Best cycling moments, include cycling along the promenades in the sun on day 2, where we stopped and people came from all directions to give money to us. Thank you to everyone who donated en route, we weren't prepared for that and had to improvise a donation bag - Louise's pocket.

Car drivers. Yes another great! The Soath Coast is full of cycle friendly drivers, not one caused me to issue an expletive! Sadly a number of pedestrians did as they walked out looking right through us as if we didn't exist or busy texting or rushing and generally not looking.

Scariest moments include negotiating deep pot holes at a moments notice that would have thrown us off, over the handle bars, the windy cliffs and cycling blind down hill praying my brakes would hold whilst the rain misted and drenched my glasses.

The team did great, with Rhod as the mechanic keeping our bikes in A1 tip top riding condition and having enough tools and spares to (almost) build another bike if the need arose. Jane, the one woman fuel and hydration squad keeping us strong all the way, blogger and photographer extraordinaire, map reader and fellow cyclist Louise who's homing pigeon instincts kept us on the right track all the way, Chris and all the staff at The Pilgrim Inn who made the finish line memorable, Richard for the loan of his workhorse to take bikes and all our gear (my little Peugeot wasn't really man enough) and Karen and Debbie for building the diary for the pub - which we'll keep forever as a momento of our great adventure - to add to the list of life's great moments. We couldn't have done it without ALL your magnificent support and sponsorship, on and offline, and raised so much for the SI Foundation xxx

And they did it!!!

At around 8pm this evening Sue and Louise pulled up to the Pilgrim Inn in Marchwood.

Sue decided to cycle the last mile!
Louise cycled all the way and found the whole thing quite amazing!

Louise said: "I don't actually remember saying yes to doing this!"

Sue said: "With community spirit behind us, we can do anything! What's next? But I'm not organising it!"

The welcome here was truly amazing and was a great welcome back .... great thanks to everyone who met us there (here, as I'm doing this at the pub).

This picture is from the Hythe ferry - the last of 4 ferries on the journey today.

Some pictures of their arrival in Southampton will be posted tomorrow as mine are pretty rubbish!



[Jane]

Lunchtime rendez-vous day 4

It's grim down south ... still not raining at lunchtime, but still ...

A warm pasta lunch and coffee went down well in Hayling Island.

Here Sue and Rhod joined us also and Sue gave Louise some detailed advice on the last miles which involves 3 ferries as well as lots of very small tracks.





I'm currently waiting in Hamble for Louise to arrive on the small pink ferry .... and it's started to rain... Louise is now finding it very hard going. I'm hoping she'll get here before the little café closes and I can get a hot chocolate in for her when she arrives.

Day 4 .... and then there was one ...

So, if you've read the last post you'll know that Sue is unable to continue today.
At 8.30 this morning, Louise set off on her lone journey from Worthing to Marchwood our end point - a 70+ mile journey for this long last step.

It isn't raining but the wind is still very challenging.

I met up with her again just before Bognor Regis at around 10.30am and she re-fuelled.

Our next stop, where we will also meet Sue and Rhod is at Langstone, just before Hayling Island.

If you are in the Hampshire area and would like to come along, we are at The Pilgrim Inn pub in Marchwood this evening.

Meet Dave ....

Dave together with Steve from the Littlehampton paramedic crew had to pay us a visit last night. Completely exhausted after a day battling against the wind and the rain, Sue managed to dislocate her shoulder. This hasn't happened for years but she is double-jointed ....

She was in severe pain ... I've certainly never heard screams like that in real life before. Any move lead to more and more pain. We looked after her as best we could, trying to keep her warm at least.

Then the cavalry arrived in the form of Steve and Dave.
After gas and air, morphine and an hour of gentle coaxing, Steve and Dave managed to get her arm back into the right place and then take a rather shocked and exhausted bike rider off to hospital. Sue and Rhod were in A&E for 5 hours and so were back at the hotel at around 3 in the morning.


Thanks to the paramedics ... I hope your ears have recovered!
(and sorry for the poor quality of the photo!)

End of day 3 - stats

Miles cycled : 178.5

max speed: 35mph

Time : 9.5 hours of cycling that day

Collecitons: £9 collected en route

It was the most difficult day yet.
"Drenched thru, thights killings us. Still smiling and shaking with cold."

One drowned rat has arrived ...

"I've never been so grateful for a hot chocolate," she said.

(She's now on her second.)

Il pleut

Not only is it windy, it's raining quite heavily too!

I've just been out to get in provisions .... hot chocolate & mashmallows, cup a soup with some fresh croutons, cake, dark chocolate, milk for hot tea ... hope I've got something that Sue'll like ... I know that Louise will be fine with whatever.

Expecting 2 drowned rats any minute ....

[Jane]

Lunch time rendez-vous day 3

We met at Beachy Head for lunch today ... and I was late... all I did between the riders leaving and arriving in Beachy Head was .... have breakfast, prepare sandwiches, fill water bottles, have to leave the hotel due to a fire alarm going off, prepare photos and blog, send photos to friends in Southampton who are preparing the story board for The Pilgrim Pub, Marchwood (our arrival place) and then leave.

My TomTom got confused in the one way system in Hastings; the road on the seafront was being resurfaced, I got stuck behind a funeral cortège and I took a wrong turning once ....

Anyway, I got there about 15 minutes late and fed the thirsty and hungry riders.

It's very very windy today - especially high up in the hills and in front of the sea ..... and they are finding it rather hard going.






The wind also caught Rhod out and he's currently with the AA extracting his keys from the car!
Thanks to Rhod for the loan of his camera until we work out what's wrong with mine.

And thanks again to all our sponsors
- there's now £1110 bid
on-line.

[Imagine cycling these hills ... and with crosswind!!]

Day 3 and they're off ....

Today's route And they're off ...

Are you sure you know where you're going?

*** No comment ***

Start of day 3 ...

Day 3, 09h10 start

A few pix from today's start preparations ...








Day 3 is harder than the first 2 days ....

Wow! The start of Day 3 Already. Update in brief.

I'm having an amazing time. Cycling by the sea is great. I hadn't realised just how much of England is cycle friendly.

It is tiring and I know today will be tough: tired legs and over 60 miles to do.

Jane and Rhod have been awesome as the back-up team, making sure we get enough calories and fluids and generally making sure we're okay.

We've met some lovely people along the way: people asking us what we're doing; cheering us; smiling; donating. A big thank you again to all those who've sponsored us on line and to those who've stopped us to give us directions and/or money.

Today, the sun is out, a gorgeous start but also nice and fresh. Looking forward to lunch at Beachy Head.

End of day 2 - stats

Yesterday's stats in full:

Miles cycled: 120

Time taken: 16 hours

Top speed : 22.1 mph

Money raised: £12.76 en route + £1080 in total on the website

Thanks again to all our sponsors and to those of you who have met these crazy cyclists en route!


Quotes from the cyclists:


Lowlights:

"my thighs are sore!"

"Sue sailing past a perfectly good toilet!"


Highlights:


~ meeting 12 red-lycra-clad Belgian cyclists en route to Dover and jumping into their group photo :)

~ flying down the hills :)

Now onto day 3 and we start from Hastings going downhill!

[Jane]

End of day 2

Today the route started in Greatstone-on-Sea (see below) and the first stop was 20 miles away in Samphire Hoe. Samphire Hoe is a man made vantage point between Dover and Folkestone which I've often gone past on my travels.

Whilst waiting for Sue and Louise(for 1.5 hours) I chatted with Alistair who told me that it was constructed from "stuff" cut out from making the Channel Tunnel. Alistair himself is from Scotland and came down to work on the Channel Tunnel in 1988 and never went back. As I live in France, I'm quite grateful it exists!

It is a beautiful vantage point and as it was a lovely sunny day, we did say, several times that there are worst places to wait.

===

So Sue and Louise arrived; and we fed and watered them... but they didn't need much water so they had to endure the wrath of Rhod ... to make sure that they do drink enough during the day.




===

From Samphire Hoe Rhod and I carried on to the end point, Winchelsea Beach. I stopped off on the way to blog what I could in a Little Chef (see below) but after 30 minutes the connection failed.

Shortly after arriving at Winchelsea Beach, Sue called to ask us to meet them at Rye instead. We hot footed it over there and waited 1.5 hours until they arrived. We topped up their water and gave them some flapjacks to keep them going for another couple of miles.

===

Tonight we're staying at the Travel Lodge in Hastings. Nowhere near as nice as the B&B last night. And unfortunately my camera has a problem! Some great big blobs of something have appeared on the sensor. This is really bad news for the camera and all the shots I've taken today. I'll try and find a camera shop tomorrow.


(example of shot ruined by blobs!)



[Jane]

Day 2 - a beautiful day dawns ....

The start of day 2 was very different from day 1 and the sun shined brightly!

(By the way I hope that soon I will be able to right longer blogs than this: so far, there has been absolutely no time available when wifi access is also available!)

End of day 1

So at the end of day 1 the stats were:

- 7 hours and 25 minutes of cycling

- 55.16 miles

- max speed of 27.3 mph


[Jane]

So they arrived safe and sound at the B&B only 15 minutes after me and 5 minutes after Rhod. It's hard work being in the support crew!

The B&B was lovely - the White Horses Cottage at Greatstone on Sea. They even put scones with cream and strawberries in the fridge for us - sorry no photos of those, they were pretty much devoured on sight :)

Photos here are from The Pilot pub just down the road where Sue and Lou just about managed to stay awake long enough to eat a fish supper.

At the lunch stop Rhod had a surprise for them ... a luxury pack of Champeney's smellies to lie in when we would reach the B&B... they were both very appreciative.

Quick update

It's been a busy 24 hours with no time for anything!

The pictures are from yesterday lunchtime... Sue and Lou arrived around 1 hours later than expected but then surprised us by arriving a lot earlier and their next location!

As I passed them on the road just now ....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAO95Q5IiYY

The bike song was playing on Radio ... how spooky is that?

Lunch time rendez-vous day 1

Words from the cyclists ...

Scariest moment .... cycling full speed downhill practically blind due to rain on glasses (Sue).

Scariest moment .... bit of a cross wind on the B2103 coming down into Eastbourne "managed to hold on though" (Lou).

30 miles in and they haven't drawn sweat yet!

£5 collected en route.
And total has reached £1030 today! Thanks!

[Jane]

And they're off!

At just before 9 this morning and despite the grey and murky weather Sue and Lou left Seaford in high spirits. Yesterday, although she didn't say in in the blog post, Sue was feeling distinctly fluey and was taking Lemsips every 4 hours. Seems to have done the trick!

Five minutes after leaving base camp though I spotted them asking for directions ... let's see if we meet them for lunch or not ....

[Blogged by Jane - power-picnic-preparer]

Weather & Stuff

The weather is changing for the better, a rosey outlook ahead.

We have reached and exceeded our target of £1000 - thanks so much to all those who have sponsored us and those who are still intending to sponsor us.

We hope to be greeted by all our supporters at the Pilgrim Inn at 7pm on Tuesday 14th AND a Southampton Echo reporter! Here's hoping they fit us in :-)

We just have to cycle now...!!

Weather

Hmmmm... I didn't plan the weather. Have you seen the forecast? Don't look it's too awful.

4 days to go...

Dead excited now...even though I'm not feeling my best. The dizziness is much less today and the anti-seasickness tablets are working well. The big things aren't spinning around now, just little things like the computer screen scrolling up and if i move my head too fast.

I've looked at the 1:25,000 maps and have been marking our lunch spots so we can meet Rhod and Jane for lunch and replenish water and fuel supplies.

All is going to plan, just my head to fall in line now!

OMG Can it get any worse?

I have Labyrinthitis. Which explains a few things like falling off my bike, the Vertigo at Land's End and feeling generally unwell for the past 2 weeks.

I've got tablets from the doctor who assures me that most people don't even have to take a weeks worth and it's better.

All I can do is hope and pray I'm okay for Saturday.

Keep your fingers crossed everyone.

6 days to go!

A thought for all of those people in New Zealand including my friends John and Susan who were caught in the Earthquake. It was very frightening even though no lives were lost.

Saturday - 30 miles done and dusted. This weekend I decided to do some cycling but not too much. Saturday saw me setting off along the Bristol to Bath cycle path. Weather was cool and clear. The path is fairly flat so I decided to just keeping cycling until I reached Bath which is 15 miles away. I enjoyed the traffic free experience and it was straightforward. Feeling confident, I did a little sprint at one point and almost killed myself! What happened to my youth?

Once I reached Bath I ate coucous with mackerel, celery and the rest of Claire F's chutney she made last year. Very good. Then I headed straight back. A total of 30 miles for the day. The big thing for the actual event will be to just keep going, breaking through the psychological and physical pain barriers.

Sunday was a much tougher day. I had originally planned to do a repeat of Saturday but decided that I needed some hill work. Boy, did I get hills? Out to Wells and back there were some long torturous hills both ways. Along the way I saw plenty of road kill, but the worst moment for me was seeing the Owl. I think it was a Tawny Owl. It made me so sad. Anyway, the hills. The start is up the Wells Road through Totterdown and Knowle and then out to Whitchurch. The trouble with hills is they are hard work. I could probably cycle 250 miles along the flat with my hands off the handlebars. Hills are a whole different ball game. The only way to do them is head down, and think of England! Of course it's always satisfying getting to the top, particularly if there's a downhill bit the other side. WHEEEEEEE! Of course, Sunday it poured with rain so by the time I got to Wells, I was tired, wet and slightly cold. My couscous didn't have too much appeal so I went into a well known chain of takeaways for a hot chocolate and foot long breakfast meal. It hit the spot. I definitely needed something hot. Then head down and back the way I'd come. The hill which had been such fun coming down into Wells was the start of the journey back. Push, push, push. It was pretty tough going all the way back. 40 miles total. I know that the 250 miles are going to push me to my limit. But in the words of A J Hackett, 'If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space!'

Dress Rehearsal 2

10 miles out, puncture Doh! Try again today. New handle bar bag, with place for music, SAT NAV and map. Lets se ho far I get....

30 miles. And a lovely route throught Beaulieu, down to Lepe and Calshot,to Exbury and home.

BIG MISTAKE THOUGH. Stupid. Didn't take enough food with me. I 'bonked' Legs started shaking and wobbling. I had to stop before I fell off. Rhod rescued me with Mars Bars. Thanks Rhod ;-)

A series of little mistakes caused that. I had 3 big meals yesterday but the last one had very lttle carbs. So the porridge for breakfast and banana for a snack just wasn't enough. Didn't take any money either.

So lesson learnt. Take more snack than we need and take cash and make sure carbs on the the men at every meal time.

'Bonking' means hitting the wall.


Equipment all works except for map blowing about too much in high winds. Music was great!

Monday 30th Log

Good day for cycling. Sunny, nice breeze. Set off from the centre of Bristol along the National Cycle Route 41 along the Avon Gorge to Pill. A gentle start. Then on over the Avon Bridge which has a cycle track next to the motorway. Get into my stride. Through Avonmouth. Have you ever seen the Flour Mills building - beautiful in a historic sense, ugly in an aesthetic one. Past Severn Beach. I often wonder what visitors from abroad think when they visit Severn Beach with its mud and views. I can see the Severn Bridges. I follow the cycle track round. Bump into Sharon and Chris and we have a quiet drink in the local pub. Then it's Chepstow here I come. I've never cycled over the Severn before. I've chosen a good day. The sun is bright and bouncing off the water below, making it glisten. Then I'm in Wales. I carry on along the Cycle route 4 for a while, narrow country roads, cows, peace. Great hill just coming out of Chepstow on the 4. Wheeeee! Glad I didn't have to cycle back up it. Then back to Chepstow, over the Bridge, through Aust, Olveston and back into Bristol via Bradley Stoke and Stoke Gifford. A good day. Probably about 40 miles. Huge bowl of pasta and plenty of fluids when I get back. Happy with my day.