Day Two

Route today was from Inverness to Perth.  We started the day with  blue sky and sun and a little bit of a head wind.  The two hills out of Inverness really test your reserves but having had a good nights sleep we were fresh and raring to go. We made our way to Slochd Summit being the first of our mountain pass clims but being onle 1345 feet we didnt have a great deal of a problem and then a descent into Carrbridge known for the Golden Spurtle Competion which is the world porridge eating championships. Moving on from Carrbridge we head for Dalwhinnie where we will stop for lunch before facing the Pass of Drumochter where I had problems last time i did the ride.  This time there was no problem and we went over with some speed arriving at Blair Atholl well. We then went on to Pitlochry and on to Perth but the cycle track No 7 and 77 are not exactly joined up so we took a long time to get to Perth arriving cold, wet and very dejected for having cycled 12hrs 45minutes.  At least we did it.  Receptionist was excellent even sponsoring us. See you tomorrow moving down to Hawick.

Day one

Day one was the long ride from John O Groats to Inverness.  Having done it before there was the struggles of the Berridale Braes and the wind and hailstones.  At least the weather for the start saw us very soon getting into blue sky and sun but the wind caused us a number of problems especially having to pedal downhill. Mik e and I found the whole day quite traumatic with aching muscles, bums and hands.  The Berridale Braes saw us hurtling down scarily from 1500 feet to sealevel in about 200 yards.  At least alan B continued to service our needs with hot cup o soup. We travelled on to Golspie where Mike and I had to take shelter in a telephone kiosk because the hailstorm was quite ferocious in its delivery.  We then pushed on and the ride became so monotonous with long straight roads especially leading up to Tain the home of the Glenmorangie Distillery.
We eventually arrived at 6.45 making the whole day 12 hours riding with the odd few 10-15minute breaks.
Following arrival at the hotel we had a long soak individually of course and a meal in the pub next door.

Today a strange thing happened in that i became so tired I could have gone to sleep riding obviously this was due to exhaustion however mikes dextrose tablets and a mars bar gave me a second wind and we completed the ride for the day.

Down to Perth tomorrow.

travelling yesterday

With a 4am start yesterday and a long drive up to John O Groats we eventually arrived at about 7.15pm only to find we struggled to find anyone to sign the end to end form.  howver you can go to the kiosk who did it for  us or the Seaview Hotel just up the road.  With that signed we embarked on putting up our three two person tents and the campbeds wow was that a struggle.  After that we decided it was probably better to go to bed so we did - i for one only got about 4hrs sleep because the cold and wind kept us awake although i could hear Alan B snoring so he must have slept.  We got up at 4.45 instead of 5 am because the wind, snow and cold left us all huddling in the van.

Todays the start

Well it's early in the morning and we ave finally got to the day of the long journey up to John O'Groats for the start of the ride.  Contact has been made from Hawick Rotary Club so we are looking forward to day three when we can be cycling from Perth down to there to meet fellow rotarians.  But before that we will have two long days down to Inverness and Perth although I will tell you more when we are actually doing that later.  Today is the start of a big adventure and one I have been looking forward to since I did it in 2001.  Mike has been preparing well for the ride and Alan is a good support especially agreeing to do all the washing, ironing, cooking, cycling repairs, counselling as well as driving all the way with us. I must thank both of them and their families for letting them join the team especially Nicola & Stella respectfully for their patience and support -without that we wouldnt be able to do it.  I of course can not finish this first blog of the beginning of the ride without thanking Celia for her support and putting up with my hairbrained ideas.  While we are thinking of people Ben and Josh have promised to be good while I'm away and I have your pictures you did with me. Mike Amy Richard & Sian -thanks for your support and well wishes along with everyone else to many to mention.

I could go on rabbiting for ever but I will be back on today when we arrive at the start so keep in touch everyone.

Minibus day today

Well we are nearly there! Today we pick up the minibus from Passenger Transport Service of the London Borough of Havering.  Thanks go to Ian Dunsdon, Norman Webb and Head of Service Mark Butler as well as Councillor Barry Tebbutt who have all made it possible for us to have the use of the support vehicle for the ride.  There are numerous other people we would like to thank so we will try and name them all over the coming days.  If we miss any thanks go to you anyway for your support and donations.  If you havent made a donation you can at www.charitygiving.co.uk and put in Alan Clark and that will take you to our page.  The donations are being adminstered by the Rotary Club of Rayleigh Mill and will be equally donated to Havens Hospices, St Francis Hospice, Havering and Rotary End Polio Campaign.

Charity giving

Hi everyone following the blog - the team now have a charity giving page which allows you to give a donation on line.  The link is http://www.charitygiving.co.uk/alanclarkend2end12 .  This link has been set up to pass on the donations to the rotary club of rayleigh mill who will administer those donations for the three supported charities which are Havens Hospices, St Francis Hospice and Rotary's End Polio Campaign.  If you can support these worthwhile charities please do.

Only 2 days to go so we are winding up or down depending which way you look at it.  The weather is looking nice to awful so we have to be prepared afterall it is only water.

Raining again

Well it is nearly there only a few more days to go and the meeting last night with Rotary and the team is bringing it home.  Could have set off yesterday as the sun was shining and the blue sky called us to get on our bikes and pedal into the sunset but what happened at sunset yes it rained again.  I suppose we could change the bikes for canoes and see if anyone has rowed from End to End.  That would be novel.  Anyway if you would like to leave a message of support or you are a business who wants to sponsor us we can be contacted at end2end12@gmail.com and you can be part of the trip.