Thoughts of last day etc.

Now that I am sitting in front of a lovely log fire, having had a good night's sleep, I have had a chance to look at my GPS and Roz's to see what we achieved. We covered 289.84 miles, achieved in 93 hours 32 minutes of cycling time - although that does not account for stops or pub lunches!! We did nearly 28,000 feet of vertical climbing - to put that into perspective, Mount Everest is just over 29,000 feet!!! Cornwall may not have mountains, but it sure has some hills. I have no idea about calories consumed, but I was eating a lot and have lost 3 kgs in weight. I was tempted to measure my thigh muscles before and after, but that would have been really sad. Suffice to say that our hill climbing abilities improved hugely. Although we all live in Cornwall, we had never realised how stunningly beautiful our county is - and we were staying around the coastline, not venturing inland at all. The area from Polzeath up to Bude, despite the steep hills and narrow valleys, was magical and an area we had not really visited before.

Final Day!!!!

At 1.20pm on Sunday we crossed the finish line in the tiny hamlet of Mead. What is so strange is that I had predicted we would arrive about 1pm when I was planning the route several months previously, so to arrive only 20 minutes late was pretty good!! The day was not without its dramas though. I had thought that we were done with all the big hills, but we faced one of our toughest climbs in the whole ride up to the radar station above Bude. We just managed it though, but as we passed the crest I fumbled a gear change - by now the Beast's cables had all stretched, making gearchanging a bit of a lottery - and we bent a link in the chain. This would have made further progress impossible, particularly as I had forgotten to put in my chain splitter that morning. Luckily, Conrad had one, so we managed to split the chain and rejoin it using a pin from the broken section. (Split links do not work on a chain this old, we discovered!). So all was well and we were able to carry on about 30 minutes later. Unfortunately, we had had to shorten the chain quite considerably, so I lost all my lowest gears - essential for climbing with!! That meant that the final hill, by our standards now quite easy if we had had the gearing, was walked up. But then a swift swoop along lovely country lanes to our final destination, the Old Smithy Pub in Mead. We were greeted there by all the team, quite an emotional moment for all of us!! I will update this later with photos and more comment on the past 3 days. But a huge thank you to all who have helped us - too numerous to mention, but you all know who you are!!

Day 8

Following a hearty breakfast my good friend Conrad & his wife Jackie joined us. Conrad for a day and a half of pain - little did he know what was in store!! & Jackie to do some sightseeing. If we thought Day 7 was hard, Day 8 proved even more so but the scenery was absolutely stunning in beautiful sunshine as we were pounding up yet more Category 1 (so steep that cars were in 2nd gear!) hills. A pleasant lunch followed in Tintagel, followed by a nightmare climb out of Boscastle, which should be renamed Stairway to Heaven (Or perhaps Hell would be more appropriate). More nameless unmentionable hills followed and 4 very tired bunnies cycled into Bude. A very welcome cream tea at our delightful B&B was wolfed down in seconds flat - a certain Catalan gentleman? who shall be nameless took the lion's share of the cream and the homemade strawberry jam!! We then tottered into Bude for an excellent curry followed by a very welcome bed.

Day 7

This proved to be our hardest day yet and not because of hangovers from the superb fund raising party the night before. We did over 2000 feet of vertical height gain and 34 miles that day. Our first major climb was the Blue Hills out of St Agnes - a bit of a shock to the system, but manageable. We met a fellow cyclist who had just pedalled down the West Coast of the USA and Mexico with his wife. Made our little effort small by comparison! On through Perranporth and several more big climbs (and downhills too!) before rolling into Newquay where we had a pleasant lunch on the beach with Dave Angilly. Porth Hill followed with cold legs, then Watergate Bay - - another really hard climb. But the views were spectacular all along this part of the coast and we turned up in Padstow, having meandered through pretty little villages, for a welcome cup of tea. We finished up in Polzeath, tired but satisfied, and had a very pleasant evening with the obligatory bottles of red wine.

What a party!!

Just before we set off on the next leg to Polzeath - groan - more pain!!, I must thank everyone who made the effort to come to the Fund Raising evening.  It w as a huge success - we are still counting, but it looks like we are over the £400 mark for the evening - a fantastic amount.  Grateful thanks to Sophie, Karen, Dan and the band and Esther's wonderful children who sold tickets for the raffle.

So thanks to all for the memories as we pound the pedals today.  More Blog news tonight when we reach Polzeath!!

Day 6

After an excellent breakfast at the Backpackers Hostel in Zennor, we made (for us!) an early start at 9.15am in anticipation of a long day in the saddle and big hills.  We were joined by Cath Francis about 4 miles outside St Ives who kept us company until we got to the other side of the town, where Vanessa then joined her and they both cheered us off towards Hayle.

We then poured on the pedal power with the thoughts of a nice coffee at the Hells Mouth Cafe. We met up there with David (Angilley) before heading off to Portreath. Such was our speed that we decided on a relaxing lunch and a doze at the Blue Bar before arriving at St Agnes at about 3pm. We are being put up by the very kind Doble family - many thanks!!  We covered about 30 miles today and did not even feel tired by the end - either our legs are getting stronger, or the 3 bottles of red wine  consumed last night in the Tinners Arms at Zennor really did give us wings!!

Roz and Cath on the road to St Ives this morning

The three of us plus Vanessa in St Ives

A tired bunny!!

Tonight is the big fund raising do down at the St Agnes Hotel kicking off at about 6.30pm.  This has been organised by Sophie and Karen - again many, many thanks! We are all looking forward to it and providing our hangovers are not too great, will try and do a special Blog tomorrow morning before we depart for Polzeath.

Day 5

Jan and crew

Glorious sunshine awaited us as we left the very lovely Penzance YHA accompanied by Nikki Martin who was with us for today's ride. As we cruised into Newlyn we caused a minor traffic jam when Dave & Jan Williams appeared with a Cornish flag - yee haaa !! On to Mousehole & a seriously evil climb (which we all managed!) on the coast route to Lands End. On to a lovely lunch in St Just with Mel, Jane and Dave. A leisurely ride to Zennor followed by tea & cake at the Backpackers Hostel (recommended). Early night !!!..............Tinners Arms with Cath Francis and the obligatory bottles of red. Lovely evening. (Written by Mrs R Collins!)_

Roz completes the dreaded Mousehole climb

At Lands End

On the road to Zennor

Lunch in the sunshine at Mel's

Day 4

After yesterday's weather, today was a welcome break - for some!! We had left Roz in Falmouth with a bike with dicky brakes, but she sorted it out.Was on the road at 0545am this morning, cycled the same route we had done yesterday and by the end of the day had cycled 68 miles by the time we got to Penzance at 5pm - courage or what!!

During the day, Gill was pleased to see Kerry, Chris and Jenny all out on their visits while we were pounding the pedals who shouted and waved to urge us on!

Later on we were joined by my mountain biking friend Richard near the Lizard, as usual full of banter, gossip and good advice and we then had a lovely DRY ride, taking in a bit of off road across Loe Bar (not recommended on a tandem!) via Porthleven - delicious tea and sticky cakes before speeding down to Penzance via Marazion and ending up at the Youth Hostel. Brian and Mel then joined us and we had a very welcome glass or two (!) of red wine in warm sunshine, followed by lots of good food in the Turks Head.

For those of you up at 6.10am, I will be on Radio Cornwall then - hopefully as long as my mobile works and I wake up in time!!!

Hard work across Loe Bar

Delicious tea at Porthleven!

Off roading!!

It was a pleasant relaxed day - tomorrow sees us round the corner of the County at Lands End - not an easy ride before we get to Zennor. But an added bonus is that Nikki Martin is joining us for this leg, so more banter and gossip will ensue, of that I am sure.