Thursday 22 July 2010
Final Update!!!
Hello everyone,
Sorry for the delayed update. We arrived in St. Tropez on Saturday 17th, day 10, as we had hoped.
Continuing from the last time we updated you, the next morning we faced an awesome headwind. It was about 22MPH and, as it was Archie’s day-off of map reading, he found great pleasure in blaming Tom and Kells for the wind, and that we were too close to the hill which was apparently making it a lot stronger. Anyway, the target we set looked unlikely, when after our morning shift we had covered a third of the desired distance. To be fair, it felt like we had been cycling uphill all morning. As an example of just how strong the wind was, whilst standing around having yet another breather, a piece of bark was ripped off the nearby tree and slapped Jamie in the face. As none of us were in a very good mood at the time, this certainly cheered us up, although Jamie still complains about the ‘massive cut’ he has on the inside of his mouth.
Unfortunately, spirits were not very high at the end of the day, when we had to find a campsite 50K from our original destination, in Viviers.
The next day we set ourselves the target of making up for lost ground and trying to reach Aix en Provence. This seemed daunting but we got up early and really turned the afterburners on… By Brekky, we had already covered the same amount of mileage we had done the day before so we were in good stead, yet still had some hills to cross before the we got close. We hedged our bets and took advice from JCR, who advised a clever, yet high-risk strategy of cutting off 20-30 Km off our journey. The decision went to a vote, for the first time, Jamie won a vote leaving Archie and Barney complaining. Usually Tom and Humphrey were the deciding voters!
So after a few hills early on, still with momentum from a good mornings work, we took fewer breaks and peddled hard. It was a great feeling, cycling into Aix en Provence, down from the hills into the city centre, even though we found ourselves on a 4-lane motorway for part of it, with Kells stuck in the left hand lane holding up traffic, however, he didn’t fail 4 driving tests for nothing, with the experience of a seasoned driver, he didn’t look, he just turned and came back over to the right.. ( he probably wasn’t the only one to do this as Tom was also on his second!) Unfortunately we had a couple of problems finding the campsite in the evening, and to make things worse Archie dropped his phone whilst asking for directions, later to be collected by Skipper and K’naan, however mysteriously not working..
The next day, we had high spirits in the knowledge that we were getting close to St.Tropez, and again set off at lightning pace… Feeling so confident, we decided the rucksack was not needed for the day; we had only experienced three over the past 8 days (although it turns out Archie had actually experienced one, however kept quiet to maintain his pride after giving Barney so much stick – He cycled 20Km with a nearly flat back tyre!)
But by 11 O’clock, Sods law struck, as we were forced to call the Landrover after a third puncture. Barney was battling up a hill, when he suddenly realised he had his first puncture. So, taking the sole inner tube we had in Archie’s saddlebag, he replaced the tyre... But, disaster struck when that tube proceeded to burst just minutes later. Barney, looking quite sheepish had to tell us what had happened and we then waited 45 minutes for the Landrover to locate us. But the rest of the day went well, we arrived in Le Luc, only 30Km away from the final destination and were thrilled to only be so close, and for some the knowledge that we wouldn’t have to bother packing up our tents and tidying the campsite every morning. When we were greeted at the campsite, we were asked if we minded noise, which we said we didn’t, and they warned us that there was going to be a party that night at the campsite, which got us excited as we thought we might be celebrating one night early. However, when we went down for a drink, this turned out to be the most depressing sit-down supper and dancing, which we were clearly the only guests not to be invited to following an incident at the pool earlier on. This was when we all went to the pool soon after arrival and were greeted by stares from everyone there, which admittedly wasn’t unusual to us by this stage, as we seemed to stand out wherever we went… however, we got in the pool and started playing volley ball when the manager came over and absolutely let rip at us in extremely poor English, shouting at us in front of everyone about the fact that we were wearing the wrong swimming trunks. Needless to say, we were far from happy about this, and skipper in particular made a point of exiting the pool extremely slowly, and as he kept reminding us, if he had been able to speak French, he would have given this guy a piece of his mind… also unhappy about this was JCR, who again was the only one wearing skimpies in order to fit in amongst the frogs.
Finally, the last day started off with another one of Barney’s interesting choices of route. This one, he assured us, was a shortcut. On paper it did look so, but as we turned off the flat, concrete main road onto a dirt track, which led up past a landfill site, our doubts emerged. The track did, however avoid a 300m climb so this turned out to be one of Barney’s better gambles. By the time we reached the Garde-Freneit route we were all glad to be back on smooth concrete, we now all knew we were on the home straight and not even the massive hill climb ahead of us could slow us down or dampen our spirits. We blasted up the hill and cruised causally in St Tropez.
Arriving in St. Tropez we were met by all our families (Tom’s included much to his surprise). As we crossed the line there was a universal feeling of great excitement and satisfaction. The champagne was flowing, mostly from Hec’s hand and despite a minor incident of Nelson Snr. splitting his hand open on a bottle, it was an overwhelming experience and will not be forgotten.
We would all like to thank you so much for your generosity and support. An especially large thanks is due to all the parents who were absolutely fantastic in the way they helped with organisation and fully supported the idea from day 1, before Christmas when we first had the idea. We are delighted to have far exceeded our sponsorship target of £10,000 by more than double that. However we are still hoping to see a couple more donations so please see our justgiving for an ongoing, almost final figure. A special thanks must go to Henry Thornton and the Thornton Trust, who’s £10,000 donation spurred us greatly on our way.
Many pictures to follow!
Sorry for the delayed update. We arrived in St. Tropez on Saturday 17th, day 10, as we had hoped.
Continuing from the last time we updated you, the next morning we faced an awesome headwind. It was about 22MPH and, as it was Archie’s day-off of map reading, he found great pleasure in blaming Tom and Kells for the wind, and that we were too close to the hill which was apparently making it a lot stronger. Anyway, the target we set looked unlikely, when after our morning shift we had covered a third of the desired distance. To be fair, it felt like we had been cycling uphill all morning. As an example of just how strong the wind was, whilst standing around having yet another breather, a piece of bark was ripped off the nearby tree and slapped Jamie in the face. As none of us were in a very good mood at the time, this certainly cheered us up, although Jamie still complains about the ‘massive cut’ he has on the inside of his mouth.
Unfortunately, spirits were not very high at the end of the day, when we had to find a campsite 50K from our original destination, in Viviers.
The next day we set ourselves the target of making up for lost ground and trying to reach Aix en Provence. This seemed daunting but we got up early and really turned the afterburners on… By Brekky, we had already covered the same amount of mileage we had done the day before so we were in good stead, yet still had some hills to cross before the we got close. We hedged our bets and took advice from JCR, who advised a clever, yet high-risk strategy of cutting off 20-30 Km off our journey. The decision went to a vote, for the first time, Jamie won a vote leaving Archie and Barney complaining. Usually Tom and Humphrey were the deciding voters!
So after a few hills early on, still with momentum from a good mornings work, we took fewer breaks and peddled hard. It was a great feeling, cycling into Aix en Provence, down from the hills into the city centre, even though we found ourselves on a 4-lane motorway for part of it, with Kells stuck in the left hand lane holding up traffic, however, he didn’t fail 4 driving tests for nothing, with the experience of a seasoned driver, he didn’t look, he just turned and came back over to the right.. ( he probably wasn’t the only one to do this as Tom was also on his second!) Unfortunately we had a couple of problems finding the campsite in the evening, and to make things worse Archie dropped his phone whilst asking for directions, later to be collected by Skipper and K’naan, however mysteriously not working..
The next day, we had high spirits in the knowledge that we were getting close to St.Tropez, and again set off at lightning pace… Feeling so confident, we decided the rucksack was not needed for the day; we had only experienced three over the past 8 days (although it turns out Archie had actually experienced one, however kept quiet to maintain his pride after giving Barney so much stick – He cycled 20Km with a nearly flat back tyre!)
But by 11 O’clock, Sods law struck, as we were forced to call the Landrover after a third puncture. Barney was battling up a hill, when he suddenly realised he had his first puncture. So, taking the sole inner tube we had in Archie’s saddlebag, he replaced the tyre... But, disaster struck when that tube proceeded to burst just minutes later. Barney, looking quite sheepish had to tell us what had happened and we then waited 45 minutes for the Landrover to locate us. But the rest of the day went well, we arrived in Le Luc, only 30Km away from the final destination and were thrilled to only be so close, and for some the knowledge that we wouldn’t have to bother packing up our tents and tidying the campsite every morning. When we were greeted at the campsite, we were asked if we minded noise, which we said we didn’t, and they warned us that there was going to be a party that night at the campsite, which got us excited as we thought we might be celebrating one night early. However, when we went down for a drink, this turned out to be the most depressing sit-down supper and dancing, which we were clearly the only guests not to be invited to following an incident at the pool earlier on. This was when we all went to the pool soon after arrival and were greeted by stares from everyone there, which admittedly wasn’t unusual to us by this stage, as we seemed to stand out wherever we went… however, we got in the pool and started playing volley ball when the manager came over and absolutely let rip at us in extremely poor English, shouting at us in front of everyone about the fact that we were wearing the wrong swimming trunks. Needless to say, we were far from happy about this, and skipper in particular made a point of exiting the pool extremely slowly, and as he kept reminding us, if he had been able to speak French, he would have given this guy a piece of his mind… also unhappy about this was JCR, who again was the only one wearing skimpies in order to fit in amongst the frogs.
Finally, the last day started off with another one of Barney’s interesting choices of route. This one, he assured us, was a shortcut. On paper it did look so, but as we turned off the flat, concrete main road onto a dirt track, which led up past a landfill site, our doubts emerged. The track did, however avoid a 300m climb so this turned out to be one of Barney’s better gambles. By the time we reached the Garde-Freneit route we were all glad to be back on smooth concrete, we now all knew we were on the home straight and not even the massive hill climb ahead of us could slow us down or dampen our spirits. We blasted up the hill and cruised causally in St Tropez.
Arriving in St. Tropez we were met by all our families (Tom’s included much to his surprise). As we crossed the line there was a universal feeling of great excitement and satisfaction. The champagne was flowing, mostly from Hec’s hand and despite a minor incident of Nelson Snr. splitting his hand open on a bottle, it was an overwhelming experience and will not be forgotten.
We would all like to thank you so much for your generosity and support. An especially large thanks is due to all the parents who were absolutely fantastic in the way they helped with organisation and fully supported the idea from day 1, before Christmas when we first had the idea. We are delighted to have far exceeded our sponsorship target of £10,000 by more than double that. However we are still hoping to see a couple more donations so please see our justgiving for an ongoing, almost final figure. A special thanks must go to Henry Thornton and the Thornton Trust, who’s £10,000 donation spurred us greatly on our way.
Many pictures to follow!
Tuesday 13 July 2010
Day 7
Hello all,
First of all, we all apologise that we have not had time to post on this blog for a while, this is the second time in a week that we have had internet though so I hope you understand.
So anyway, I shall start with days 3 and 4 - On day 3 we stayed in a nice campsite called les cochards. It followed a day of hard cycling, and what felt like pretty much unbearable heat. By the afternoon, having had a wonderful lunch cooked up by skipper and K'naan, (pasta avec creamy tomato sauce, plus ham and other delights, - roadside shade) We were beginning to feel extremely tired, as we were warned days 3 and 4 were the hardest. Therefore in temperatures of around 35degrees, we were swimming in swear facing a 'relentless beating heat' so hot we were forced to stop on the road and knock on someones door, asking for water. Tracker Rogers Junior, got a bout of sunstroke, braving the conditions and complaining no end about everything, he ploughed on to the campsite.
day 4, a long days cycling ended us in the popular campsite resort with a swimming pool and other resources. upon arrival to the pool it became apparent that there seemed to be a 'french' lycra only rule. Members of the backup crew appalled. Yet JCR ensured us as he swanned down to the pool in his 'skimps' that 'skimpies' 'were coming into fashion.' However the lads beg to differ. None the less it was a refreshing dip. Knaan Nelson (tom) had convinced himself that the waterproof outer layer of his tent was unnecessary, to the contrary, we ran into the camps first thunderstorm. All hell broke loose.. Freyne began to move like a headless chicken in his boxers, despairing at this un-forcasted downpour. Morning came only too soon as the crew awoke to more rain, however, humphrey came up with a good plan of eating 'daily snacks' for brekky and then stopping along the road for pan au choc and some more food. Indeed after a few kilometres, and endless moaning, especially from White about how little fuel he was running on, we found a 'Super U' and got some food inside us. The day went well from then onwards with a refreshing swim at lunch time..
Jour cinq: mood was high, camp was good and nothing so far had gone wrong. Beers and rugby in the lake was the order of the rest morning.
let us now take you through day 6: we feel it only appropriate to portray the contrasting sides of the day, naturally the 'view from the cockpit' and the 'riders'
Rider:..... Day 6 did not begin brilliantly, though we couldn't really complain as nothing had really gone wrong yet. HOWEVER, it seemed our luck changed by lunch time as the brilliant route plotted by Barns began to lead us to the hills. The sudden change of mood was, as one would expect, not a good one. Archie who had been so dynamic all morning, taking the piss and joking about - came to an abrupt stop. As we powered up the first few hills ( at 10 mph) we came to the real high ones. By this time it was abut 2 O'clock, and we were al beginning to feel a bit hungry.. (little did we know the next tine we would eat would be at 9:15) On top of this, at 1 O'clock, we entered a thunderstorm. With lightning flashing on the hills around us, and incredibly hard raining pouring down, we seeked refuge in a small village called "curtil sur baffiere', By the time we had reached the village it was 3 o'clock, and it had come to our attention that there was no sign of the landrover, despite claims they were on the same road as us. As it finally transpired, the land rover happened to be on a different D17 at a different village called mont about 100 miles away. As spirits were fairly low at this point, we were glad to find a small lorry drivers hostel close, which turned out to be the most depressing and dingy place we had ever seen. The proper bed, however, was very much welcomed.
Today we decided to make up for lost time and managed to power our way from curtil, past Macon and Lyon to a town called Serriere. unfortunately, navigator Nelson took us straight through the heart of Lyon which was pleasant but very time consuming. Again Barney's map proved successful as we follow the Rhone valley downhill along the river. We arrived at this campsite in the hills next to the river at 9:30 after almost 14 hours on the road. So all in all a very successful day. Whitey and Kells have taken on the task of navigation on day 8 to give Arch and Barns a break so hopefully all will go smoothly.
Hopefully more updates to follow...
First of all, we all apologise that we have not had time to post on this blog for a while, this is the second time in a week that we have had internet though so I hope you understand.
So anyway, I shall start with days 3 and 4 - On day 3 we stayed in a nice campsite called les cochards. It followed a day of hard cycling, and what felt like pretty much unbearable heat. By the afternoon, having had a wonderful lunch cooked up by skipper and K'naan, (pasta avec creamy tomato sauce, plus ham and other delights, - roadside shade) We were beginning to feel extremely tired, as we were warned days 3 and 4 were the hardest. Therefore in temperatures of around 35degrees, we were swimming in swear facing a 'relentless beating heat' so hot we were forced to stop on the road and knock on someones door, asking for water. Tracker Rogers Junior, got a bout of sunstroke, braving the conditions and complaining no end about everything, he ploughed on to the campsite.
day 4, a long days cycling ended us in the popular campsite resort with a swimming pool and other resources. upon arrival to the pool it became apparent that there seemed to be a 'french' lycra only rule. Members of the backup crew appalled. Yet JCR ensured us as he swanned down to the pool in his 'skimps' that 'skimpies' 'were coming into fashion.' However the lads beg to differ. None the less it was a refreshing dip. Knaan Nelson (tom) had convinced himself that the waterproof outer layer of his tent was unnecessary, to the contrary, we ran into the camps first thunderstorm. All hell broke loose.. Freyne began to move like a headless chicken in his boxers, despairing at this un-forcasted downpour. Morning came only too soon as the crew awoke to more rain, however, humphrey came up with a good plan of eating 'daily snacks' for brekky and then stopping along the road for pan au choc and some more food. Indeed after a few kilometres, and endless moaning, especially from White about how little fuel he was running on, we found a 'Super U' and got some food inside us. The day went well from then onwards with a refreshing swim at lunch time..
Jour cinq: mood was high, camp was good and nothing so far had gone wrong. Beers and rugby in the lake was the order of the rest morning.
let us now take you through day 6: we feel it only appropriate to portray the contrasting sides of the day, naturally the 'view from the cockpit' and the 'riders'
Rider:..... Day 6 did not begin brilliantly, though we couldn't really complain as nothing had really gone wrong yet. HOWEVER, it seemed our luck changed by lunch time as the brilliant route plotted by Barns began to lead us to the hills. The sudden change of mood was, as one would expect, not a good one. Archie who had been so dynamic all morning, taking the piss and joking about - came to an abrupt stop. As we powered up the first few hills ( at 10 mph) we came to the real high ones. By this time it was abut 2 O'clock, and we were al beginning to feel a bit hungry.. (little did we know the next tine we would eat would be at 9:15) On top of this, at 1 O'clock, we entered a thunderstorm. With lightning flashing on the hills around us, and incredibly hard raining pouring down, we seeked refuge in a small village called "curtil sur baffiere', By the time we had reached the village it was 3 o'clock, and it had come to our attention that there was no sign of the landrover, despite claims they were on the same road as us. As it finally transpired, the land rover happened to be on a different D17 at a different village called mont about 100 miles away. As spirits were fairly low at this point, we were glad to find a small lorry drivers hostel close, which turned out to be the most depressing and dingy place we had ever seen. The proper bed, however, was very much welcomed.
Today we decided to make up for lost time and managed to power our way from curtil, past Macon and Lyon to a town called Serriere. unfortunately, navigator Nelson took us straight through the heart of Lyon which was pleasant but very time consuming. Again Barney's map proved successful as we follow the Rhone valley downhill along the river. We arrived at this campsite in the hills next to the river at 9:30 after almost 14 hours on the road. So all in all a very successful day. Whitey and Kells have taken on the task of navigation on day 8 to give Arch and Barns a break so hopefully all will go smoothly.
Hopefully more updates to follow...
Thursday 8 July 2010
End of Day 2
Cheif biker White reports:
At the end of 2 gruelling days, we sit in a camp site just south of Le Mans, with a thunderstorm predicted for later tonight.
At the beginning of day 1 in France, the first 30 miles was somewhat leisurely on long straight d roads. The only slight problem was getting clear of St. Malo. What was to follow was not what we had forecast for the first day. A combination of small roads that were melting in the afternoon heat and a constant flow of hills made the job harder than we had expected. We overcame these conditions to arrive at a campsite in the fairly remote town called Andouille around 80 miles later (after some at best interesting map reading) costing 2 euros per person, after almost 10 hours on the road.
The good news is that this effort left us with an easier job today, when, after a productive morning, we covered about 70 miles arriving at the campsite in Luche Pringe at around 5 o'clock. Day 3 is a biggy, so we are planning on getting an early night in as preparation. We plan to start early and get around 50 miles under our belts in the hours leading up to lunch (hopefully its not raining) . We can then deal with the remaining 40 miles at our own pace given the situation that we find ourselves in.
More news and photos to follow...
At the end of 2 gruelling days, we sit in a camp site just south of Le Mans, with a thunderstorm predicted for later tonight.
At the beginning of day 1 in France, the first 30 miles was somewhat leisurely on long straight d roads. The only slight problem was getting clear of St. Malo. What was to follow was not what we had forecast for the first day. A combination of small roads that were melting in the afternoon heat and a constant flow of hills made the job harder than we had expected. We overcame these conditions to arrive at a campsite in the fairly remote town called Andouille around 80 miles later (after some at best interesting map reading) costing 2 euros per person, after almost 10 hours on the road.
The good news is that this effort left us with an easier job today, when, after a productive morning, we covered about 70 miles arriving at the campsite in Luche Pringe at around 5 o'clock. Day 3 is a biggy, so we are planning on getting an early night in as preparation. We plan to start early and get around 50 miles under our belts in the hours leading up to lunch (hopefully its not raining) . We can then deal with the remaining 40 miles at our own pace given the situation that we find ourselves in.
More news and photos to follow...
Monday 5 July 2010
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