June 20th – To Greenham next, must be flatter today
81.7 miles – total so far = 164.3
7,339 feet of climbing – total so far = 14,411
Max elevation 974 feet
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OK, well, we haven’t quite got that far yet. Not sure what time of night it is but become aware that Stewart is up and in the bathroom, not well.
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Overwhelming feeling of guilt as to what I’ve done to him making him do that ride yesterday. Very relieved to see him emerge, not looking too bright, but still intact, talking and saying it will all be alright in the morning.
Hadn’t expected that.
Morning does arrive, and as we are determined to get away a bit earlier we wash, brush, dress quickly and head down for breakfast, knocking up Helen and Steve on the way down.
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Big breakfast again for me, I am getting the hang of this eating lark, Stewart more controlled and still a bit green around the gills but professing himself fine and up for another day in the saddle.
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I do quietly check that he really means this, but steely determination shows through and that is settled.
Today is the day Stewart will head back home to Sussex, but depending upon how fast we go, I will have company to either 65 or 50 miles. I had also managed to secure a partner for the end of the ride from another charity group, riding for MacMillan a few weeks after me.
As they live down Exeter way, I had asked if anyone wanted a ride on the Sunday or Monday. Darren had said the Monday could work and he would meet me at 55 miles and ride to the end then ride back to Exeter as a training ride for him.
Sadly, the weather has taken its toll on that and he has apologetically left me to it. Quite understandable as the weather is still not great, in fact at the moment it is really quite wet.
Stewart and I finish breakfast, go and change ready for another days riding, wrapped up in loads of clothes again, waterproofs, long fingered gloves, well on one hand at least as I need fingers to be able to operate the touch screen Garmin, and we seem to be ready.
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After the pounding they took yesterday, the bikes look a mess. Quick wipe down, check chains, brakes, lube here and there and off we go. That first day had done quite a bit of damage that would only become apparent over the next week or so, but for now all that was really evident, apart from the layers of mud, was the water sloshing about inside the frame!
Take a couple of pictures as we are leaving and I believe that we have started to think about the social media campaign as Helen or Steve captures my wandering across the cobbles in a video that gets aired later on. This could be the start of something big, or bigger.
We agree the first stop will be on a road near somewhere. The somewhere is called Milton Abbot. What could go wrong?
Talking of things that could go wrong, haven’t really talked about the challenges that faces the solo fund raiser.
At the top, I said we needed to get to £12,000 to fund the two screening days and up to now, there had been several bike rides, a sponsored walk and Helen and Steve’s page raising money, totalling about £5,000, with the LEJOG at the start of the ride being about £4,000 it left us needing only another £3,000 to get to the target. Only is the big word there.
I will focus more on the LEJOG fund raising, as that was where I have had to plan and put effort in to raise funds to make the physical, mental and emotional challenges that face all of us involved in the ride, worthwhile.
It started with just the Just Giving page to get donations in. That is simple and easy to set up.
In fact, it did get set up almost by accident. I was playing around with the old pages as all the rides, walks and runs had finished and I had found a feature on the pages about how you could get people to donate by text. I had set up the LEJOG page, but told no-one about it as I really wasn’t at all sure that I would do it, and was half considering taking it down and finding something else to do next.
But I was fascinated with this text feature, so I set it up. That seemed to have sent some kind of alert to all those connected with my pages and the next thing I knew Helen and Steve had donated. I think my immediate reaction was to text Jenni saying ‘Shit, shit, shit, shit, I’ve got to do it now!!’ Helen and Steve to be fair said it was fine to not do, but that wouldn’t have been honourable. Just should be grateful it hadn’t been set up as walking across Africa or something I suppose.
I needed a challenge, and it soon became something to plan for rather than something to be scared of, well, just a bit scared.
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So, we have the Just Giving page.
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What else do we need to do? Social media is not something that I’m overly au fait with, but despite my initial belief that it can’t be that difficult, I get to appreciate that there are some unwritten rules and different sites work in different ways.
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Start off with the old favourite, Facebook.
It doesn’t take too long to get a page set up for the LEJOG with a link to the Just Giving page and some information about what I am doing and why.
With this in place, then it’s Twitter. Same again, fairly simple to get set up and linked to Facebook so that one will populate the other, or at least Twitter to Facebook.
The third piece comes about as a result of the limitations of both Facebook and Twitter, which I found very quickly and were definitely limiting and annoying. What I needed was a website to store all sorts of things on that would cost money or just weren’t possible on the others. Bit of Googling (is that a verb now?) and I stumble on Wix, where there are numerous templates. Half an hour, or maybe a bit longer and Ruth has the basics all set up. Well, you have to take advantage of youth and its technical capabilities.
These three legs become the mainstays of the public awareness campaign, and the Twitter one was easiest to link to CRY.
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With these in place then I started to think what else could CRY do to help as after all, they will have lots of experience in helping fund raisers like me and can steer me around many pitfalls. I spoke to some very nice people at their offices who pointed me at the website with guides and things, sent me a fund-raising pack, helped me sort some merchandising, but on the real details of how to turn something from the £50 that was in the kitty at present into a really meaningful sum of money, there was not a lot that they were able to offer.
They need a small fund raiser co-ordinator / supporter.
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This was a bit disappointing and surprising as I am sure I could have raised more if there had been this kind of support, even self-help groups within CRY. The patrons looked like a group of people who could help, but they were not allowed to be approached as CRY wanted to keep them in reserve for major fund raising. Now, I know someone who knows someone who is a real big celebrity and has connections with various charities and he gets really upset when he doesn’t get asked to do things that he could easily do, either because they just fit with his schedule or they are local or meaningful. Feels like if someone has volunteered to use their celebrity to support a charity then they should be asked to do things, not just be a face on a poster or website.
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They need someone to work the patrons.
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However, it’s not all bad as one of the things that really stands out with CRY is the control you have over the money raised. So many of the bigger charities just take, take, take and lump funds into a pot for doing good work. That isn’t necessarily wrong, but something brilliant that CRY have done is that after an initial £5,000 that goes into their research pot, if you have a dedicated fund raising account in memory of someone, then you can put the monies into that and use them to fund screening days, without money going elsewhere.
The big, big plus with this is the accountability in terms of what you can tell people donating what will happen with their money. It is so much easier and more satisfying to be able to say to people that their £10 has funded a third of a person for a screening that will be held locally.
I will cover off more of the different approaches I used to get to the £4,000 we started the ride with later, but for now, let’s just say that we were close and getting closer all the time as money kept coming in. All was good.
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I mentioned the need to set up the memorial fund. Obviously here, it is for Annie. To get that set up was quite simple it seemed and not time dependant, as I checked into this in October the year before the ride and did check that it could be done later without problems, as I was very shy about raising this with Helen and Steve not really knowing how well they were and how they would react.
That meant that we set off without the paperwork being sorted, but I had checked again that this wasn’t a problem and just before leaving started confirming all the different pages that would need combining to build up the total.
The Friday before the Saturday of departure I got an email from one of the people at CRY I had been speaking with explaining that the memorial funds did not work like that and it was only money raised after they were set up that could be counted towards the screening days.
This was devastating.
What I was told was that they could backdate a bit because of the circumstances and that meant we had about £800 in the pot. £8,200 less than I had thought.
This isn’t about me, but I did feel truly awful thinking about how far off we were and if I felt bad, what would Helen and Steve feel? There was nothing to do but get on the phone straight away, and although it was about 5 on a Friday afternoon, I did manage to get to speak with one of the other people at CRY and had a long, distressing call where I was setting out what I had been told, and how I had been misinformed and that they could not possibly reset the clock to next to zero.
I must say that I stayed very calm and polite through all this as I could appreciate that people were following the guidelines they had and were more than likely volunteers doing what they could to help CRY, but I couldn’t hide the distress this was and would cause if we could not resolve it.
We didn’t.
I set off for Cornwall believing that we had lost £8,200, as that is what it felt like, knowing that I would have to try and sort this out whilst riding through the next few days.
My one hope was that at least I had been able to make a sufficiently strong impression or make the case well enough that the person I spoke with was going to speak with the CEO at CRY to see what could be done. We would have to see what came out of that.
All this was now starting to coming back into the forefront of my mind as I started out on day 2 of riding as this was now back in the working week, Monday June 20th and I would have to try and see what could be sorted out.
I had also forwarded the emails onto Jenni.
With all this in the back of my mind, Stewart and I headed off.
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It was still drizzling, even after all those pages of fund raising stuff. The start of today saw us going along the side of the A30, at least there were no roadworks by this point.
5 miles on the main road, rain easing off, and then turned off towards Plusha and up a hill. Most of this first bit was downhill as we were coming off of the moor, but there were still some little surprises.
Clouds lifting, drying up, but roads still quite moist. Through the strangely named Congdon’s Shop, then Illand, mostly going gently downhill, until we start on a pretty small lane heading to Higher Larrick. This is one of those narrow lanes, grass or earth up the middle of the road, and it starts going downhill, big time.
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What is depressing about this is that you can see a hill the other side and can’t help but start wondering if that is where we will end up. The road continues to shrink, and get steeper downhill, up to about 15% - 20% going down. As its quite moist still, fair bit of braking needed and there were a few slight bends. The Garmin map does give me an idea of what is coming so as I’m leading, I can take a cautious but safe line down. The hill opposite is looking larger and closer all the time. At least we seem to be getting to the valley bottom.
It is one of those dreadful bottoms, 90 degree left hand bend, humped back bridge over the River Inny, 90 degree left handed bend, then a wall.
Looking at the Garmin, I had seen the 90 degree bends coming up, and then there were going to be hairpins from the look of it. That didn’t bode well.
When I said wall just now, I didn’t mean farm or dry stone wall, I meant the road went up. A lot.
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Kick the gears straight down to the lowest possible gear and start going up it. The road to the first hairpin isn’t long, maybe a hundred yards, but it is steep. 20% to start, then 25%, then high twenties. Get to the first bend, and see that it starts getting a bit steeper and this next straight is a touch longer. 30%. Let’s try zig zagging to take some of the sting out of the hill. That would work if it wasn’t for the mud up the middle of the road which makes the rear wheel spin so losing what little extra momentum had been gained. Give up on that idea.
Heading towards the second hairpin now and at least I am on the outside of the bend. Turn around the bend and see more of the same. At this point the peak I had seen registered was 35%.
Time to get off.
I have 12 more days riding and don’t need to pull a muscle or something trying to conquer this hill, particularly as I am not sure how much more is like this. Can’t get the energy to flick across the screens on the Garmin to see the profile of what is to come. Unclip and step off and start walking.
It was as steep going up here to the next bend and then started to ease off a bit to the next hairpin and that was the worst over.
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Took the chance to lean on the handlebars, catch a breath, admire the ‘view’ and wait and see if Stewart rides up.
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Nope, he is walking too. A shared moment looking at the view. We could have been looking at a hedge and it would have been just as good as all we needed was a bit of stationery time. Get the breath back.
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Brutal.
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In some ways, probably a good thing to admit that I don’t need to ride everything this early as having done it once, I could do it again if it was the prudent thing to do, but it felt like a failure. I want to go back to Cornwall just to ride that one hill and not get off. It only went up about 150-180 feet, so I had already and would ride much bigger, but I hope not to have to deal with such a steep hill too often.
Trebullet, Lezant, Trekenner, some downs and ups, still quite steep gradients, but not as severe as earlier, so the confidence comes back and the weather is now not too bad. Then, down quite a long down to a set of traffic lights and suddenly going over the bridge after the lights there is a sign that says Devon.
Cornwall is done!!!
Devon will be more gentle on us wont it. Well, we start off with 15% up the wrong road, turn round back down and found the right road. 20%. Bother.
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Not just that, it keeps going up and up! Over half a mile at that before dropping back to a more sensible gradient, but still keeps going up. This climb is nearly 1,000 feet, but thankfully we will have cake part way up as we are now above Milton Abbot.
Lovely views now as the cloud that has hung around us has lifted and we can see. Quick phone call and Helen and Steve are on their way up from the village and we soon see the car come round the bend and it’s food time. It’s amazing how we react to the weather being brighter. The fact that it is dry, we have a view, even a bit of sun poking through just makes everything seem so much better. Standing outside the car as opposed to sitting inside it. Being able to take a picture or two of people not hunched under rain coats and umbrellas.
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That hill became a subject of laughter as opposed to a measure of survival, the Devon hills were just a welcoming to a new county, would have been different at 5 o’clock yesterday afternoon.
Refuelled and up the last bit of that long hill. Stewart probably has about 20 miles left to go as at the next stop in Okehampton, its most likely that he will put his bike on the car roof and head off to Exeter and a train home. Sadly, he has work the next day and I know I will miss the company.
In between Milton Abbot and Okehampton though, Devon has a few specials to throw at us. This was a really god bit of route, most of it on pretty country lanes and now that we could see the edge of Dartmoor, it was interesting looking around.
The next five miles were mostly downhill or pretty level, then we start the alligator’s teeth again. Lewtrenchard had a little beast after it, another Ditchling Beacon, and back down again, then Beechcombe and Axworthy, not that far from Lydford and Lyford gorge here. These are steep hills, Devon is definitely tough going.
There was something here that did make me laugh. After Axworthy, quite a long downhill, then as usual, round a bend and back up the other side again. I was a bit ahead of Stewart as he came around the bend, but I was close enough to hear the heart felt groan at the sight of what was coming.
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It did remind me that he had been through a rough night and was doing amazingly well with the hills today.
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Talking of the hills, it was through this morning that I gradually realised some of the damage I had done to the bike the day before as stopping or slowing down hills was less sure of itself than before. On closer inspection, I had lost quite a bit of the brake blocks. Thinking about this and what lay ahead, it did seem unlikely that these brakes would last the remaining 900 odd miles, or if they did I wouldn’t stop when I got to John O’Groats but speed merrily into the sea. Some people seem to have difficulty believing that this could happen, but they weren't there in Cornwall.
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One long drag on more of a main road now, and then it was just steady downhill into Okehampton. Wiggled through the town centre, then just past it pulled over where we thought we were meant to be. Shortly after, Helen and Steve roared up in the Ferrari (doing it in style you see), or have I already said it was a nice big Audi. Anyway, they had been poised, ready to video us and had been tracking us coming towards them when suddenly we turned left to cries of, ‘No no, this way, up here, oh god…’ as they leapt into the car to see where the hell we had got to. Hmm, god and hell in one sentence.
Sandwiches, sausage rolls, chocolate, cakes, banananas, drinks and protein shake all went down really well here.
All this is masking the fact that it is time for the first good bye of the ride. Stewart, who has been alongside from leaving Lewes has to return to Lewes as he isn’t as lucky as me in having the time to be able to ride up the country and has to return to work.
I am really worried that with the rain of yesterday, the fun he had overnight and the hills on both days that he has hated every minute of it, but he assures me that he has loved it, but will look on the Cornish scenery that he has visited many times with different eyes now.
Big hugs, slapping on the back, safe journey wishes both ways and then he is climbing into the back of the car for the 17 powered miles down to Exeter. Am I just a little envious as the car drives off down the road? No, as we had decided to try and find a bike shop using internet searches so at this time we were in tandem, me following them to where the bike shop was meant to be.
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It wasn’t. We discussed this a bit, had another go, still no bike shop and then agreed that we would deal with the brake problem later on.
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At that point it really was good bye and off he went, while I climbed out of Okehampton.
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Stewart did have these words shared later, ‘Despite the weather and hills, (wherever there was a down there is always an UP!), I thoroughly enjoyed the 2 & half days (one & half of riding), the social and being able to try and lend a bit of support to you, Mike, for a mammoth ride up the country.’
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Farewell for now Stewart, I will miss your company, but have to get used to solo. I will have a lot to tell you when we meet next.
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Nothing too much in this next bit by the way of hills, ‘Stewart would have liked it’ I smiled to myself. Past North Tawton where I had been going to meet Darryl, and onwards.
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Steady climb through Bow, ups and downs as I went through Down St Mary and Oldborough and then steadily up to the last meet up of the day, at Black Dog. On the way there, coming up to a junction, there were a couple of people on the right looking at this house. Being on a bike you do get to see a lot of what is going on, so I swung over to see what was of interest. Odd kind of old house with some very old beams supporting a thatched roof. Take a picture. Before this I had stopped and taken a picture of a nice church. Not a clue where either of them are, other than they are between Okehampton and Black Dog.
Black Dog was basically a pub and a couple of houses on a cross road and this was an uneventful meeting up, aside from my second cleat topple since getting them, bit embarrassing to do that in front of the support team!
Secondly, the bike. Whilst Stewart is not a bike mechanic, he is eminently sensible and in the event of anything happening would have been very helpful to have around. Now it was just me and my bike knowledge as I have said before is not extensive. Thus, bumps and potholes avoided studiously, every noise from the bike starts to get listened to more, glances down at the tyres, wheels, gears are regular, and there is nothing wrong, but all these thoughts just come around in the mind every so often, and tweak that meter another notch up sometimes.
Third, the meet ups and tracking. This time that worked just fine, but I am thinking that I should do something to make them more certain.
Fourth, what was happening with the fund raising position and those emails and phone calls from CRY? Park that to one side for now, have to keep thinking about what is ahead.
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Also, I am aware that I am checking the Garmins more in absentia for anyone to talk to. The new Garmin has several screens to flick through, details of the ride showing how far done, speed etc., another one showing the route (stay on that one a lot), one with the elevation of the next mile and a half (that one is scary at times) and laps for every 5 miles done.
With all that going on in my mind, there is also time to register that the countryside is pretty and it is a really pleasant ride this afternoon. The waterproof is well and truly tucked away and I am warm.
From Black Dog, steady climb, then a decent down to the River Dart, up again at Withleigh, before another good descent into Tiverton. Skirt round the edge of Tiverton, one slight confusion on the route or reading of the Garmin and then off and out the other side. Uplowman and Whitnage represent the last proper climb of the day, and then its heading on to Greenham.
Realise as I get onto Greenham that I don’t actually know where the hotel is. So I get to what is the end of my route on the Garmin no hotel so a quick call and Steve is heading back down to pick me up.
It was very close, but I wouldn’t have found it as we have a little gem here. Greenham Hall.
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The meet up was smooth though, about the best so far. Maybe it was all Stewart’s fault that we had missed support meet ups before. This is the kind of way the mind can wander when you are solo and this plainly was the first bit of solo on the ride.
What does that mean?
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Well, firstly I became very conscious that, although I had been anyway, I was the one who had to make any decisions on the route if it went wrong at all. Having done the route and been confident it was all good, the few little mishaps over yesterday now came to the front of my mind and the anxiety meter just ticked up a notch at every junction. Glad to say, no route issues in this bit.
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Tucked away up its own drive, there is a magnificent old house with a story to tell for sure.
First things first though. The bike is OK and can stay on the car for now. I need to get in and have my protein shake, a wash and check on emails, texts etc. Not such a long day today, it’s only 6:30 in the evening, nine and a half hours after setting out, seven hours of riding time and another 80 miles done. That represents for me the longest two days riding back to back ever, and by far the most climbing. 7,500 feet each day. How do I feel after that? Pretty good actually. No real aches, bit tired, but when I get into the shower, it’s a different story.
The initial pleasure of warm water, is quickly replaced by a shock of pain as I discover that I have saddle sores. This could be very bad. When this was written up in the blog, Ross and Joe from Proper Cycling who had done so much to get me ready for the ride apparently raised eyebrows and had concerns it could be a show stopper.
For now, after a careful wash, I examined the damage done, considered what to do and thought of the cause.
Today I had worn the second set of my three bibs, and whilst not new, they were newer than the old favourites. Along with the wet from the road and rain, the mud and muck that got thrown up from the road causing the problem as it was acting like sandpaper on my tender areas.
Without too many gory details, I had one sore on each cheek, the left one being the larger. Where I had the chammy butta for protection and prevention, that now became more medicinal. I applied a liberal layer, and let it sink in.
I decided that I would return to the old favourites by way of bibs, never having had a problem with them and would wash the out each day. As I said before, adapt and move on.
For now, it was a case of seeing how the sores were in the morning as to what may need to be done.
Back into the room, and try and write up the blog, but where I have yet to tell the story of Greenham Hall, one thing for sure, the internet signal was a bit weak. When that was done, it was time to go and get some food. All a bit of a rush in the evenings at the moment.
As well as doing the blog, there is a check on emails and the news from CRY. The latest email from them is better, but still only shows us at about £2,800 against the £12,000 target. I reply back disagreeing again and also forward these onto Jenni. Nothing more I can do at this time, but it is really depressing now as it is not looking good. It will nag away at me all evening while with Helen and Steve as I haven’t shared this with them. Jenni also asks about whether we should let Ruth know, as she is back from holiday (sunburnt) and getting ready to do her support driving, and currently also in the dark on the issues. We decide not at this stage.
Now, Greenham Hall. As I have said before, I only booked independent hotels or B&Bs on the route and this was one that turned out to be a real gem. Not just value for money, but great individuality.
Residing up its own drive, it could be described as the ancestral pile. The current house dates back to 1848, when it was built on the site of a much older property. The house had a chequered history and was in a state of disrepair when the current hotel owners (my assumption) parents bought the house in 1970, or at least part of it and had the other part thrown in for £1! Peter and Caro who now run the Hall joined Peter’s parents in the renovation work after five years and the project came to a successful conclusion in 1985 when they opened their doors as a bed and breakfast with a significant difference.
How many bed and breakfasts do you walk in to and see the stairs going up to the first floor running around three walls of the entrance hall? The full details of the house history are on the Greenham Hall website and well worth a read. There is even a picture of the breakfast room that we would be in the next morning.
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As it is a bed and breakfast, we asked for recommendations as to where we could get a meal. A couple of local pubs are mentioned and we track one of them down. A bit unprepossessing, but a good looking menu and it was a very good meal. Football on again in the bar, but we were able to sit and eat in relative peace as we talked back over the second day and how it had been for all of us.
On the way out of the pub, Helen spots that their sign out the front describes the pub as a restaurant as well, but it describes it as a Restuarant! I will spare them embarrassment by not naming them, what the heck, here's a photo.
Back to Greenham Hall and a few quick photos before rubbing in some more chammy butta and bed to sleep. Breakfast set for straight after the call with Gary and Uckfield FM.
Night.