Did a small ride this arfternoon.. 30miles in just over two hours.. had to battle against the wind which was incredibly hard work..

In my infinite wisdom i decided to cycle up the Bo-Peep road which used to be used as a hill climb for cars!! It’s pretty steep but a great challenge and test of my hill climbing abilities… . The sun was out which helped a lot.. no sign of that snow yet!!!

View from the top of Bo-Peep… well worth it

Hope you have had a good weekend

Tom

Hi All,

Well, it’s almost upon us….

Tom and I are suitably nervous and I’ve invested in a jolly smart new helmet, perfect for such an occasion!  Here is a list of all the villages, towns and cities through which we’ll be passing.  Should you live nearby our route, please feel free to tag along for as much or as little as you would like….Millsy and I will be aching for an injection of fresh conversation and some new bottoms to cycle behind!

STAGE 1

(Litlington)
 

A27
A23                 North
A272               Billingshurst, Petersfield, Winchester
A34
A303               Andover
A338               Marlborough
A346               Swindon
A419               Cirencester
A417               Gloucester
A40
A49                 Hereford, Ludlow
A489               Newtown
A470               Beddgelert (SNOWDON)
 

STAGE 2

(Beddgelert)
A498               Pen-y-Gwryd
A4086            Capel Curig
Lanes             Llanwrst
A548               Llanfair Talhaiarn
Lanes             Llannefydd
B5428            Trefnant
A541               Bodfari, Afon-Wen, Nannerch, Buckley
A5104            Broughton, Bretton, Chester
A541               Stamford Bridge
A54
A556               Sandiway, Hartford
A559               Leftwich, Broken Cross, Lostock Gralam, Knutsford
A537               Ollerton
Lanes             Alderely Edge, Dean Row
A5102            Poynton
A523               Hazel Grove
A6                   Disley, New Mills (KINDER SCOUT)
 

STAGE 3

(New Mills)
 

B6101            Romiley
A627               Ashton-under-Lyme, Oldham
A671               Bacup, Burnley
(cross the M6)
A682               Howgill
(cross A59 on to lanes)
Lanes             Bolton-by-Bowland, Keasden, Wray, Wennington, Tunstall,
Kirkby Lonsdale
A65                 Nook, Crooklands
A590               Sedgwick
A591               Windermere, Ambleside
B5343            Great Langdale (SCAFELL PIKE)
 

STAGE 4

(Great Langdale or Ambleside)
 

A591               Keswick
A66                 Scales
Lanes             Mungrisdale, Hesket Market, Caldbeck
B5299            Carlisle
A74                 Gretna Green
A75                 Dumfries
A76                 Thornhill, Sanquar, New Cumnock, Cumnock, Crosshands
B744               Galston
(A719 until meets the A77 to Newton Mearns)
Lanes             Neilston, Paisley, Inchinnan
(A8 until the A726)
A726               Old Kilpatrick
A814               Kirtonhill
B857               Balloch
A82                 Aldochlay, Inverbeg (follow Western edge of whole
of Loch Lomond)
                        Ardlui, Inverarnan, Crianlarich, Glencoe, Fort William
                        (BEN NEVIS)
 

STAGE 5

(Fort William or Crianlarich)
 

A82                 Down Western edge of Loch Lomond to Erskine Bridge
A726 timeets the A737 (Johnstone)
A737               Dalry
A78 or B roads to TROON
 

Call either of us: Tom  01323 871853, Helen 07968 620411 to find out specifics nearer the time……

Cheerio for now!

Helen x

At 8am this morning, under a somewhat damp sky Tom and Helen set off, I can’t imagine doing it in the dry.. but in the wet! Todays mission 120 miles, just to break in their bums! By 1:30 they’d covered 1/2 of it and had stopped for a well earned breather!
I’ll try to keep you updated over the next 12 days with their progress, so keep checking back… and remember they need all the support they can get so keep the donations coming, and get as many people as possible to look in on the site!

Enjoy your weekends…

Thanks

Ru

We’re about to set off for our third day at the end of which we’ll be at Snowdon. The last two day have been hard work covering 180 miles between them. We’ve been through thunderstorms, serious rain (to the point where a change of clothes were due) and of course some lovely sunshine!!

We must say a big thank you to Jon Medlycott and Stephen Mills (my dad!) for being the drivers over the last 2 days having them there has been brilliant for morale and to enable us to cycle with as lighter load as possible. Also a huge thank you to the guys at Finisterre who’s clothing has been superb.

Wwe will upload some photos of the past few days this evening if we get time.

Hope all is well with everybody

Tom

Hi Everyone,

This is our first chance to update you directly on our progress… (all be it by dictation to Ru!)

Firstly a hug thanks to Nick and Karrie for providing us with the best food we could have asked for and a room each in Karrie’s beautiful house in Herefordshire.

We left Stauntom on Arrow and made our way from there vis Ludlow across Shropshire and into Wales. WE did 75 miles (up hill and down dale), through some stunning scenery, whilst being pursued by storm clouds, it really was beautiful. Last night we stayed in the Snow Ranger Lodge Youth Hostel in Rhyd-dur, near Beddgelert, none of us had ever stayed in a youth hostel before and it was such fun! Chris Taylor had been with us all day as our support driver, thank you so much Chris for you patients and tact!!

We woke this morning to the news that Wales was seeing its wettest day in 50 years, which is a pretty humorous start to things! During our climb and on our decent, there where winds of up to 80 mph and the rain felt like needles being thrown onto our faces! Whilst the stone foot paths flowed like rivers, it was ridiculous honestly! We got lost in the cloud and had to take a more extreme than intended route up! We managed to reach the summit of Snowdon none the less in 2 1/2 hours, and had a group hug, cup of tea and some Jingo biscuits to celebrate! It was a fantastic experience despite the weather, and a historic one for Tom, Jon and Me as it was our first summit ever reached on foot…

We’d like to thank Chris again for his help in guiding us up the mountain, and general good humour and advice. Your a legend.

Chester is this evenings rest place, where we stay in another hostel, this one much better as we get breakfast as well! Before cycling over to New Mills where we began our assent up Kinder Scout (2087ft).

Videos to follow when we can directly access teh internet…

Catch up soon,

Helen and Tom

Footage from the top of Snowdon on the wettest day in 50 years

 Snowdon at the top [0:38m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Here’s some exceptional cycling action footage Location - Shropshire - Saturday 23rd Day 2

 Cycling [0:12m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Firstly a big thanks to Ru for help with the previous update.. much appreciated

Tuesday was a good day for us…. in the morning we covered the 50 miles we set out to do from Chester to Kinder Scout and in the afternoon we ’successfully’ climbed Kinder Scout… or be it we we’re walking to what we assumed was the top of the mountain when we past a fellow walker who told us we’d already gone past the peak and we’re off into the middle distance…!!! He then told us a very sweet tale about his love-life.  Which was nice

Quick thank you to Penny and David Taylor for their delicious supper, hot baths and incredibly comfortabe rooms for the night on Tuesday.  Feel free to drop in on them should you ever be in Buxton!!

Wednesday morning started with a 25 mile up-hill ride out of Oldham, in the lashing rain which put us completely behind schedule for the day.  It was a disappointing time and our first real low point, but thankfully the sun appeared for the afternoon and we made up our total for that day to 70.  40 miles short of our target of 110.  Smiles were firmly put back on our faces when we arrived at our accomodation for the evening in Ambleside.  Ian and Helen Burt had donated the three of us a free room for the night in their beautiful B&B.  We can’t recommend this stunning venue highly enough and massive thanks to them and their family for looking us so, so well. www.oldvicarageambleside.co.uk

Today we scaled the dizzy heights of Scafell Pike.  The round trip took 6 hours and we only had heavy rain for the last hour and a half. 

Hi 5 to some guy who keeps following us around the country and handing us food and water - think his name is Jonny.