The BIG bike ride - Land's End to John O'Groats

Some of you may already know that I'm cycling from Lands End to John O'Groats from 5th to 20th of May.
  I'm cycling with a friend of mine Rob Dentry who is 14 yrs my junior and a whole heap fitter, however he currently has the scars of a paintball pellet to the bum which makes sitting on a saddle extremely painful :o)
  1000 miles of pure hell I'm sure, but it will be for charity. Before you all reach for your wallets I won't be asking for your money. What I would like you to do is to donate a bit of your time to a charity or worthwhile cause.
  You'll be able to track our progress via this blog. Please feel free to leave some words of encouragement :o)

I'm not asking for your money!!(but...Rob is!!)

Fed up with the usual "give me your money" approach to charity. An idea came to me one day of asking people to donate their time instead. I thought my idea was unique until I found a whole host of sites and organisations who do such a thing. One such organisation can be found at
  http://www.volunteering.org.uk
  You will be able to find your nearest centre. There are a large number of different ways of donating your time. So don't feel that you will be pushed into something you're not comfortable with. Alternatively you can give blood for the first time or help out at a local youth group. The options are endless. There is no time limit on when to do this. Anytime from now until whenever. Your help will always be invaluable.
  It would be fantastic if you could post a comment on the site to say what work you would like to do and how many hours you have donated so that we can keep a running total. If you prefer send an email info@donatemytime.org.uk . If everyone I know can donate even just 1hr of their time to a worthwhile cause or charity then we would have achieved a great deal.
  If you'd prefer the easy option of giving money, Rob is cycling to raise money for the Wiltshire Air Ambulance and you can visit his fundraising page here.
  Thanks
  Peter & Rob :o)

Day Seven - Clun to Chester

May 12, 2009

Day 7

Clun to Chester

Distance  82.11 miles

Average 12.2 mph

Time 6 hours 32 minutes and 48 seconds

We started off with bright and sunny weather at 09.30 but we had a really strong headwind.  Clun YHA is a very remote but very beautiful place to stay.  It is an old flour mill and is one of the very first youth hostels.  We had our own room again as there were only three of us staying in the hostel for the night!  Thanks to Peter Walker who is a volunteer youth hostel worker for his wonderful hospitality at Clun YHA.  Peter told us that Shropshire is an under-rated walking area with some great hills.  Not as high as in the Lake District but still some lovely scenery.

We had a bit of a brutal climb out of Clun which was a bit shocking as I was left behind by Rob which is quite usual on the brutal climbs!   I was literally down to about three miles an hour and keeping balance on the bike is very difficult especially with all the weight but I got there in the end!  After that, most of the roads we did were pretty much flat so that was a bit of a relief but the headwind did make it very difficult.  Rob was therefore doing a lot of the hard work with me tucked in close behind him to slipstream which made a big difference to me for about 20 miles.

An injury that I had been carrying for the first two days seems to have gone but Rob is now suffering with a pain in his left calf.  This meant that I had to take the lead for the last few miles which I found tough going.  Fingers crossed that the injury he is carrying will be eased tonight by my superb massaging skills thanks to Anne’s advice.

When we went down to the local shops to get our food tonight, we both had the feeling we were sick of chocolate.  If you ever feel like you want to give it up, do something like this because you have to eat so much chocolate that you’ll be sick of the sight of it!

Apart from the hills in Clun, Shropshire, there was no spectacular scenery today but we did avoid the official route and stuck to a slightly straighter busier road which is probably why!  On route we darted in and out of Wales on three or four occasions today as we followed along the Welsh border.

We arrived at YHA Chester at 18.20 which is an incredibly elaborate building.  This is the first hostel that we have had to share our room!  I’ve got my ear plugs at the ready just in case there are any snorers!  However, it is quite luxurious and very much like a hotel rather than a youth hostel.

I bought a ready meal tonight at the local supermarket for my dinner but Rob wasn’t that hungry so he ate some fruit and a yogurt which I joined in with after my meal.  Without a doubt, the meal was nowhere near as good as Anne’s cooking!

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Comments

5 Responses to “Day Seven - Clun to Chester”

  1. Anne on May 12th, 2009 11:50 am

    Hey babe,
    It was great talking to you last night….. Missing you lots and I hope I can take a leaf out of your book and stop being hooked on chocolate!! Even though I have just eaten about seven gold coins left over from Christmas!!!

    Keep up the good work, you are another day closer to your final destination now - you’re doing so well xx

  2. David Maggs on May 12th, 2009 10:34 pm

    keep it up boys your making great progress, i’m very envious of you and at this rate you’ll be back before i go in for my op so if i’ll look forward to seeing you both in beds beside me after you finish and travel home to relax. cramps a bugger so make sure your cooling down properly

  3. Buggy JoJo on May 13th, 2009 4:23 pm

    I would like to comment that my robert hasnt bothered phoning me very much throughout the whole trip :-( .. obviously loving the time away from me, and therefore maybe will not stop at john o groats??…. Peter i hope you like cold weather, you may end up as far north as iceland…or perhaps the artic !!! :- )

  4. Buggy JoJo on May 13th, 2009 4:24 pm

    The long way up!! haha… I should have come a long to film it…

  5. Fraeya on May 14th, 2009 10:39 pm

    How on earth do you manage to cycle so far in one day!?!?! amazing stuff. Keep up the good work!

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