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Day 11 - Forest of Dean (Rest Day)

183:876966646 — Thu, 04 Aug 2022 07:28:28 GMT

This is a subtitle for your new post

Day 11 - Forest of Dean (rest day)

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Harry Peksa you are a machine with endless energy. I don’t think you understand the word rest day. Daddy is walking around like a Zombie with a headache.

Rather than having a lie in we decided that we really must visit the local park run. So up at 8am, my parents drove us all the Mallards Pike. Probably not the easiest course to run on sore legs. It’s starts beside a lake and then climbs steadily for 2.7km, climbing 63 metres. The hard work pays off with a 2.5% downhill for the rest of the race. Harry was introduced at the start of the race and he was a little shy, but he got a large round of applause and we told them we would be handing out our charity flyers at the end of the race. I also got to write my first Parkrun report! It contained many of our adventures in getting to be there this morning.

31.48 seconds later I sprinted home, feeling great. There were a lot of park run tourists at this event and a travelling cohort of Vegan Runners. I had some nice conversation on the way around, the vegan runners asked me to take a group photo afterward. so I said “after three all shout sausages!” - fortunately it went down well. I’m pretty sure someone shouted falafel instead. One girl was telling me about Henry the hedgehog, so I took a photo of her pretty tattoo.

Also thank you for the trio of locals for the photo and the local promotion of Harry’s mission.

As promised we stopped at the lake and tried skimming stones. Harry requires a bit more practice, but he was very proud to skip a stone three times. Later on he achieved 4 skips! He can’t wait until the lochs of Scotland for some serious skimming.

Two hours later I found myself in bed exhausted lol. Harry on the other hand, went to the local play park with my parents and had a wonderful time. He was hanging off a spinning frame shouting “helicopter, Helicopter.”

The next stop for me the TV set, watching the commonwealth games, Harry on the other has was having none of that and went off to Wenchford Forest to play in the shallow streams. He loves that place. Thankful I have been carrying his swimming stuff for the last two weeks. He got all the other children collecting quartz and iron stone - which thankfully stayed there….

Whilst Harry was out playing, I took the liberty to review the rushed route plan. I’m pleased to say I have changed tomorrows route slightly to take in more canals and less hills. I have managed to cut 5 miles off the route and wipe off 1000 feet of elevation. Harry will be so happy when we take shortcuts. All our stuff is washed, Harry’s bike has been serviced. And

Tiggy has a new washer. We are all set for tomorrow.

Harry View: I want to run a parkrun in the future, because it looks fun. I had a tasty blue lolly, span around until I was dizzy and played in the river.

See you tomorrow!

Day 10 -Severn Bridge to Yorkley

183:876966646 — Thu, 04 Aug 2022 07:20:03 GMT

Hills, Museums and more hills

First order of the day was to carry two bikes, luggage and Tiggy down from the last room at the end of the corridor on the top floor of the hotel. This has happened every single time we have had to store the bikes in our room. By the time we are ready to go I am already out of breath.

We left the services and waved goodbye to Burger King, an “F” for their burger last night as they got the order wrong and Harry chose not to eat much of it. Btw - I know it sounds bad with all the junk food, however, he is burning quite a few calories and eating less in the day time. He is already looking fitter and healthier even on this diet.

Harry has been embracing other food as well. So far this trip we have had have found wild apples, plums, strawberries, Blackberries and Raspberries. All making a nice quite snack in the countryside. By the time we get to Scotland we can have blueberries ��

Cycling across the Severn bridge is always a fun thing to do, it’s around 3 miles from start to finish. We started the downhill section, feeling proud that we had broken the speed limit by 5 mph, when in the distance we spotted a woman dancing about waving flags! When Harry got closer he realised to was his great grandmother. She give him a cuddly sheep, a Welsh flag and union flag. Standard entry requirements for crossing the boarder!

He was very happy to see her. She told Us she had been waving the flags enthusiastically at all the cyclists- however, most gave her odds looks. We waved goodbye and puffed off up the hill to Chepstow.

In town we took photos with the massive stone cheeses - just for Samantha.

First stop of the day Chepstow castle. We asked if we could put our bikes just inside the gate and the answer was a firm no, I explained I had valuables in the bag. She pointed rudely and said go use the bike rack down the hill. Welsh castle you have prevented two more English men from breaching your gates!

Instead we visited the museum across the road, the staff were lovely, we could leave the bag in Reception and lock our bikes up around back. Harry went on a scavenger hunt and I read about some of the town’s history. I did not learn much as Harry kept on asking me questions every 20 seconds - “daddy have you seen a bell, a Victoria cross, a painting of Chepstow castle”. It was nice in the museum and upon exiting Harry purchased a pack of cards and a ruler covering the last 1000 years worth of kings and queens.

So far he has performed two magic tricks to total strangers lol.

From the museum it was a short cycle downhill towards the river. At which point we entered England again. The rest of the day is mega hills, which make Cornwall look puny! Half way up the first hill we stopped at Wintour’s leap. If you have read my Offa’s dyke blog you will know that this is where Mr Wintour jumps of the cliff to escape the kings soliders. Pretty awesome views, long way to jump!

The next part of the day involves 3 massive hills in the Forest of Dean. The sun was a blazing and we had to push our bikes up at certain times.

Many sheep, a couple of refreshment stops later and we arrived my parents cottage. A very rough day, it might have only been 22 miles, but the elevation matched a couple of our 35 mile days.

Harry’s immediately wanted an ice lolly and an explanation of Ramsey mathematical Theorem. But the best news is our clothes are in the washing machine.

Harry view: I did not like today hills, because they big, brutal and hot. We tried to fix my gears in the local shop and failed. I have just played two rounds of hide and seek with grandma and it’s ham and cheese thin crust pizza for dinner.

Day 9 - Burnham-on-Sea to Severn Bridge

183:876966646 — Fri, 29 Jul 2022 08:45:14 GMT

Fake Hedgehogs, Scooby snacks and tiredness

Day 9 - Burnham-on-sea to Aust

I was sleeping and in my dream there was a noise that I could not identify, it was like I had broken my nose and I could not breathe. At 5am I opened my eyes and I figured out the noise. Sea chickens you are invading my dreams. The dawn chorus was more like a screeching rage. Oh well that’s the seaside for you.

The Victoria inn was a lovely pub, with a nice set of locals, Harry and I popped down in the evening and got loads of support - so thank you. In the morning we collected our bikes and got set for a nice simple ride to the Severn bridge.

All started swimmingly and we thought we might as well stop at an Animal Park about 4 miles away from our start point. It was a lovely experience and the keepers were so happy to meet Harry. They thought his journey and mission were amazing. Molly was one of the team working on animal experiences and Harry had loads of fun petting snakes, rabbits, alpacas and goats. He even got to hold a super cute tanrec (spiky like a hedgy, but more like a shrew).

We left after about 45 minutes as we still had a massive 36 miles to go. We promptly got lost and cycled toward Brean sands. We eventually found the Brean down cycle path. It zigged and zagged, but mainly remained flat. The path eventually leads to a stunning church on a hill. Only if we had more time to explore…

The kissing gates on this stretch were annoying, we had to remove Tiggy at each gate and carry it through separately- sow gates are far more trailer friendly…

The next stretch was far from enjoyable for me, I kept getting lost in Weston Super-Mare. Harry got plenty of stops and got to say maybe times “daddy have you got us lost again?” He also commented that I had used the word “ridiculous three times in the last hour”

We were trying to follow the route markers and kept missing them. When we did find the markers they took through twisting parks and nature areas. All good but my route planning was based on straight lines - so this added 4 miles on the day. Even harry commented on that they should make the paths a little straighter.

Upon missing my 10th marker, that Harry spotted, we started to push our bikes up and over to Worle station. Tiggy felt wobbly, luckily we chose to stop for lunch there on the bench. A couple more miles and my entire rear axle might have separated!

At this point I was exhausted and we will had 30 miles to go, we powered through the next 10 miles and stopped to refuel at van parked in a lay-by. The ladies at Mealalicious - made up a cheese and bacon burger for Harry. A rating of “B” - I thought it was better than that as it was locally sourced meat in the burger and not a catering patty. “If they would have chopped the bacon, they would have scored higher”. Said Harry. They donated £8 and this pushed our total to exactly £8,000. Harry thanks you all from the bottom of his heart.

The next 10 miles involved really long straight roads, the type that suck your soul out! So the only solution, stop at the Cleavdon craft centre. Whilst I was enjoying a snack and a drink, Harry wondered off to the pottery barn. He came back with his eyes alight- “daddy can we buy some pottery?”

I joined him in the shop and the lady did say he asked for the smallest and lightest item in the shop. He wanted a cat drinks coaster, and a Scooby snacks jar.

We were both feeling flat and dejected that it was 3pm and we still had 20 miles to go, so I said ok to the snacks jar, if he perked up for Devon Radio. The deal was struck and he shone!

Another 1kg to the payload! The lady in the shop also gave him a cute cat trinket for free. Incidentally I did not buy the coaster, I opted for a spoon holder, the type you put next to cooker. I know my wife wants one. So that’s a nice gift from Harry.

At this point I was actually searching for a hotel closer to us to shorten the day. I asked Harry his opinion and he was firm that he wanted to do the mileage. Thank you Harry for supporting me when I was struggling.

The next part I kind of enjoyed, we got to cycle next to the M5, cross over it, Cross under it. If you have driven that road there is a massive flyover overlooking a valley, we got to cycle below that. How cool! We got to visit the car yards at the bottom too. Also very cool!

We would cheer each time we bumped into the M5. I could talk about underground railways and fir cones that looked like eggs, however, I’m tired. Instead I will say after 49 miles we reached the services and 30 minutes later the Louise and Charlie arrived with some food. A very nice surprise for Harry.

Ps. My trailer is now sooo much lighter! Treasures offloaded.

One footnote. We bumped into two young ladies crossing the m5 road bridge on foot. They had walked from John O’Groats. Much respect to you. On foot that is a huge journey.

Harry’s View: I am a bit tired to have a full view. The fake hedgehog was nice to hold. It was nice to see mummy and Charlie. They brought me a bath bomb - I’m off to have one now!

Day 8 - Taunton to Burnham-on-Sea

183:876966646 — Wed, 27 Jul 2022 20:32:10 GMT

Snakes, arcades and a Duel

Day 8 - Taunton to Burnham-on-Sea

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Today was a gloriously flat day, but we had a mission to start the day. We needed to get Harry‘s brakes fixed. Fortunately there was a Halfords within 0.3 miles of the hotel. So after a lie in we had a late breakfast and we headed off.

We met with the Halfords team, however, there was very little we could do with his gear shifter - they were kind enough to donate two set of brake pads to the cause and off we left feeling a little safer.

We wound our way out of the town and crossed the A38, the slip road was closed to all but pedestrians and cyclists so we heaved a sigh of relief. After getting slightly lost we eventually found our way onto the canal path. The canal path is called The Somerset Space Walk and it’s a sculpture trail model of the Solar System, The model uses the towpath of the 22-kilometre (14-mile) Between Taunton and Bridgewater to display a model of the Sun and its planets in their proportionally correct sizes and distances apart. So educational, beautiful and best of all very flat.

The first excitement of the day was meeting a grass snake on the path, it danced for us and then slithered off before we could get a photo. A few miles later we bumped into our first LeJoger, he was called Remus. Which I think is a wonderful thing as Remus is a moon in space! Poor chap had fallen off his bike when his folding bike has buckled. He said you are the hedgehog guys! They were talking about you back in Cornwall. He was blown away meeting us. As were we, meeting out first long distance cyclist.

We let him know where the Halfords was so that he could buy a new bike. We planned to skim some rocks down the canal, but we ran out of tow path. Harry really wanted to do this as he was telling me that he understood the physics behind it.

We carried on down the path and Harry was happily singing, he particularly like to sing - “I love to ride my bicycle” by Queen, he also chimes in with a few others of their greatest hits. We crossed under the M5, circled back and crossed under it again heading towards Glastonbury.

We stopped for refreshments at a farmshop and met the a couple who run the Burnham-On-Sea fish monger. We took photos, ate ice cream and then carried on. The only hill of the day came at bawdrip - when the path took us on another disused railway. At this point we met LeJoger number 2. A couple of Dutch gentlemen who were also experiencing mechanical difficulties - a puncture. Both these two and Remus, started 4 days ago. So 4 is the unlucky number of this trip. I asked why they were doing it and one of gentlemen told me about a camper van trip they did 40 years ago in Scotland. They said they moved each day in the van and the next day they saw the old Grey haired man cycling, they talked to him and learnt what he was doing and they vowed when they retired they would do the same.

As we cycled with them through the Somerset flats, I laughed and said does this feel like Holland and the answer was a firm yes. On our travels we pass some very eccentric houses - there was one with ridiculously large amounts of mismatched statues, another permanently in Halloween mode and the one we took a photo of is a great example of this. This house owner obviously likes visiting garden centres.

Just before the flats ran out - Harry and I fought a duel. We picked a choice bullrush each and battle commenced- Harry dodged left and I dodged right and the brown heads of the bullrushs slapped together! Harry won the battle as mine broke first.

About 4 miles from the hotel we popped in and visited Secret World - animal rescue centre. We watched the hedgehog cam and some bat feeding, but we could not really visit the animals due to the avian flu ripping through the county. We donated £20 and rode off feeling happy.

Now Burnham-On-Sea has britains smallest pier, it also had something else tiny. The worlds thinest footpath, it was just wide enough to pull the trailer through. I suspect people stole some of the land with thier fence as it was so narrow it was insane.

The final run to the hotel was along the sea front - where we saw a couple of arcades - guess what we will be doing later lol. We entered the Victoria Hotel and one of the drinkers said - are you that kid from the telly? And the locals were lovely and supportive and gave Harry £30.

Before the arcades I needed to stop at a charity shop and buy some new clothes - my other ones had started to disintegrate. I got a very cool biker t-shirt that made me giggle. Put it on in the shop and threw the other one away.

Harry won 1kg of treasures at the arcade include a smart watch, a glass skull mug, a travel chess and drafts set and a squashy banana. I look forward to adding them all to Tiggys payload lol. All in all a wonderful day. 30 miles and loads of fun.

Harry’s view: I loved battling daddy, I won! I got some ticket jackpots in the arcade today was a good day it was not that hard. I loved the animal sanctuary, I just wish I could have met the hedgys!

Day 7 - Withypool to Taunton

183:876966646 — Wed, 27 Jul 2022 08:10:17 GMT

Somerset you are not flat!

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My reading of the route map was very questionable in hindsight, I should have concentrated on the elevation and not what the elevation profile looked like. How many 20% gradient hills can you fit in one day? The answer is two!

First thing in the morning Harry spoke with Andrew Peach from Radio Berkshire and then caught up with Radio 1’s Greg James. The first interview he was half asleep and a little grumpy, but after a little dancing the second one went well.

We stopped for a quick photo outside the Royal Oak pub where we stayed. Lovely place. The burgers and chips Both scored a B+. Sadly the reason why Withypool is a hidden gem, it’s in the bottom of a steep walled valley. So within 0.1 miles we had the first 20% gradient hill….. not funny.

After climbing out of the Valley we were back in Exmoor, Harry asked what the cattle grids were for, so I said sheep and horses. Looking at the road and the massive cow pats, almost certainly cows too. I kept quiet. Sadly after about 2 miles we hit Cowageddon, brown beasts standing stupidly in the road staring at cars. We cycled like maniacs past them until our legs burned. Safe!

A few hundred metres later we saw a heard of ponies, so we stopped to have a look. All was going well until the cows started heading our way on mass. We left rapidly and and sailed off down to Dulverton. A few new speed records by Harry (which has to now be restricted until his brake pads have been changed).

Who ever said Somerset is flat, then they need to come to the parts we were cycling! It was up and down and painful. We had a snack in beautiful Bampton, to discover we were back in Devon! After Another ridiculous hill our spirits started to flag. We were interviewed by CBBC newround and the journalist totally understood that a journey like this had many ups and downs, both physically and emotionally. We stopped for a very late lunch in a village shop. They stopped serving at 2pm, however the lovely ladies opened up for us for a couple of cheese sandwiches. Then off to the play park for Harry. Jumping and running around without a care in the world.

Skipping forward 10 miles - I bumped into a guy called Ed, Married to Becki. The very same man I bumped into almost 12 months before, when I last did this trip. The only addition was a baby, which must have been born 2-3 days after i last met them. Wonder what the baby was called :) btw one of their dogs licked Harry and licked him clean. Must be tasty salt.

Our next highlight was near Nynehead, a very cool place, a previous owner cut through the hill to create an amazing road to cycle up.

The final point of note was the Taunton 400kv sub station. We sat and listened to the electricity flowing through the pylons. Very cool experience - a first for Harry. We arrived at the hotel close to 7pm, 40.9 miles 2900 feet of hills and very tired.

Harrys view: Today we found a peacock feather it looks really good I love the shades of blue green I find it really beautiful, so I attached it to Tiggy the trailer, let’s hope it doesn’t come out when we’re going downhill cause we’re going to get it if it does. I broke my speed record and managed to go 35.6 mph. Today was 8/10 for hard, I’m really tired….

Day 6 - Bideford to Withypool

183:876966646 — Mon, 25 Jul 2022 20:59:11 GMT

Good Morning Britain, Demonic cows and major hills.

Day 6 - Bideford to Withypool

Today was a really early start, we needed to get up at 5:45 am in order to do a systems check with the team at good morning Britain. The night before we sent across some of our GoPro footage, so they could create a montage to play whilst were we interviewed by Ed Balls and the team. What a lovely video!

Harry was fearless, but tired, he did a fantastic job in the interview. We are all very proud of him. Also thank you to those people who recorded the interview and sent it across to us afterwards. After finishing the zoom call, instead of going back to sleep Harry continued to create his own handmade deck of playing cards. Hopefully we will get to use them one day in the near future.

With tired everything, we mounted our trusty stead’s and set off to finish the Tarka Trail. The best start to a morning, the rain had stopped, the trail was smooth tarmac and the wind was behind us. We motored down the trail and took some some videos of us cycling past bridges and boats and each other. Hopefully if we take enough footage we will have something editable at the end.

Curiosity number one of the day was an MOD installation, I’m not sure what the purpose was m, but the owners certainly had a passion for stuffed cuddly monkeys. A good dozen of them were all cable tied to the barbed wire fence.

We continued through Instow station and then stopped at Fremington cafe and museum. The Malteser cake defeated both of us so we decided to explore the exhibition. Yesterday we visited Pyworthy, today we discovered a poem about a pie!

My favourite verse:

“This pie it was a tidy size

It took a month to make it

A day to carry it to the shop

And another week to bake it

The fire to cook it was so large

The heat was hard to govern

They were obliged to knock the front wall down

To get it in the Oven.”

Anyway now onto the meat of the journey. This Hills! After passing through Barnstable, we established we had 4 connected hills to climb. Each getting progressive worse. I took a couple of phone calls up the first hill. If all goes well hopefully Harry will be on BBC radio Berkshire just before 8 and then catching up with Greg James on Radio 1 at 8:30. I was able to talk up these hills and Harry cycled most of it.

The second hill of the day was really hard. We had managed to arranged a photo shoot with an agency photographer to be held in the village of Fleming Barton, so we had 1 hour to get there and 5 miles of brutal terrain. Consider we started at 14 feet above sea level and we had to climb to around 1000 feet, with 6% inclines. Harry was really starting to struggle - he was whimpering like a puppy, “daddy - I have reached my limited, I’m broken, I can’t go on.”

So through bribery, We made it to the village shop in Fleming Barton, the plan was he would get the freedom to buy anything his heart desired in the shop. We arrived at the same time as the photographer and Harry ate enough sugar to seriously improve the profitability of Tate and Lyle!

For a boy that could not go on, he suddenly seemed to enjoy the swings, roundabouts and showing the photographer he could hold his bike above his head. Photoshoot done, time to push on.

The only down side was that the town shop was 300 feet down from the route we were on. Another additional hill - fantastic.

The final hill of the day was a soul destroyer, for two reasons. Firstly to get to the hill you drop down from over 1000 feet to just 640 feet, then for over 2 miles we had to climb (in fact push our bikes up) close to an 800 foot hill. The final 11% gradient was a nasty turn. Tiggy being so heavy, it was a beast to get up these hills. But we did it…. I was dying for calories at the top and I let Harry know, hoping he would part with some of his sugary snacks….. nope he said “daddy why don’t you eat those wild raspberries”. So we did. I Sat like a fat brown bear, gorging myself on natures goodies.

Our final stop before the hotel in Withypool was visit the ancient monument of Five Barrows. Harry explained that he thought he had a phobia of cows. So we tentatively looked in the field. There were some cows miles away. Not to worry we thought. So we headed towards the barrows and almost reaching then …. we heard a rumble in the distance, to our horror 5 jet black cows were storming towards us through the mist. They were bearing down upon us like the 4 horseman of the apocalypse.

“Run Harry Run - I shouted” and in a panic we both clambered over a large barbed wire fence (like the MOD monkeys lol). Harry threw himself over the fence without hesitation, he started to cry. I asked if it was to do with the cuts on his legs and he said what cuts?

The thought I had made my smile. 5 burial tombs, 5 jet black cows - defending them. Coincidence?

Poor Harry - he explained this was the most traumatic experience of his life. He even made me look the name for bovinophobia. We discussed it and he eventually calmed down. His revenge tonight will involve a cheese and bacon burger lol.

Withypool is a gem in the middle of nowhere, no phone signal so good luck callling us tomorrow radio stations - hopefully wifi calling works.

Tomorrow we leave Devon and after the first hill it’s mostly downhill for 30 miles - bonus.

Well done everyone, we broke £5000 pounds in sponsorship today. Harry, myself and the hedgehogs love you all!

Harry’s view: I am now very afraid of cows, I was really really really scared. I thought I would get hurt, never have I climbed over a fence so quickly. Don’t worry daddy cleaned my wounds.

Verse three of the song goes.

We took a tour up Exmoor and let’s just say my legs are sore. I can’t take any more.

Tiggy the trailer is close to failure as jumping and bumping is hurting daddy’s derailer.

Tommorow Somerset we will go, the 30 mile downhill won’t be slow.

Day 5 Holsworthy to Bideford

183:876966646 — Sun, 24 Jul 2022 19:43:53 GMT

Those pesky sea Chickens

Day 5 - Holsworthy to Bideford

The day started off with a quick game of table football and some pool (as in the game). Always nice to have a games room as a part of the guest house. This was followed by breakfast, where we learnt something new. We found out that a cooked breakfast is just like a full English, sans mushrooms, tomatoes and black pudding. Let’s see if this holds true in other parts of the country.

Tiggy the trailer is starting to get wobbly, I think we have broken a rubber washer and the Devon backroads are to blame. They are rutted, lumpy, bumpy and covered in grass. But on the plus side, there is next to no traffic to worry about.

Looking at the route today we have a couple of major hills and then probably the nicest bike trail in the country. The Tarka trail, the only topic of conversation was the volume of cakes we planned to slam down just before the 15km downhill begins.

A few miles in a friend sent me a text and said “did you know, there is a photo of Harry in the Mirror newspaper” - so for the rest of the day we were desperate to find a newsagent. I knew about a post office in the town of Sheepwash, so we set out targets on that!

On the way we stopped at Pyworthy, so Harry thought it would be worthy of mentioning Pi. 3.14159265358979323846264338627… that’s as far as he could remember. I trust he is right.

After cycling over the Holsworthy viaduct, we carried on down a disused railway line called the Emerald line. Harry met a few people and they all generously donated. The track was gravel and we were bumped and thrown about for a few miles. Finally leaving the trail we returned to the main road and bump into some fellow cycling tourists. A boy called Herbie and his mum who were cycling to Lands End from Devon, they were raising money for Asian moon bears - so for a change we donated to their cause. Good luck both, I hope the weather holds off when you set up camp.

Just before Sheepwash we passed through a tiny village, consisting of a community hall and a school. Harry said “why does this homelette have a school?” That made me laugh.

The Sheepwash post office was closed! (why did I think it would be open on a Sunday). No newspapers for us…. So we resigned ourselves to ordering food at the Half Moon Inn…. It was roast day (which I’m not a fan off). However the turkey was nice, but there were so many vegetables I could have just eaten those and been full. We were about to leave and I got a phone call! It was Good Morning Britain… looks like Harry will be on ITV tomorrow morning. So set your alarm clocks for 6:30ish

We pushed up two final hills and much to our joy we had reached the Tarka trail. The first 4 miles were an exhausting incline for 4 miles, but - they had lots of interesting benches to sit on. I just love this kind of addition to a trail. Finally we reached my favourite cafe in the whole world. The Yarde Orchard Cafe.

Harry ordered a brownie and vanilla ice cream and I went for a lemon sponge cake. I popped to the toilet and half my cake disappeared. After about a 30 second silence Harry said - “pesky sea chickens”. Given the volume of butter cream around his mouth they must have picked it up and threw it at his mouth.

After the food - the downhill came. We stopped at the bike shop and got some spare parks and cruise down the trail at high speed. Bliss! We both love the Tarka trail…. You really should come and cycle it.

We finally arrived at the hotel, sodden, muddy and happy. We had a surprise package from Louise. The hedgyharry tops have arrived! Tommorrow, is going to be brutal - Exmoor!

Harry’s view:

This is verse two of my song.

When we reached the county of Devon we thought we would be in Heaven, but, the hills were worse than the first. I can just tell the hills are hell. With all the sweating we are starting to smell.

We had some lovely cake and then I experienced the best down hill of my life. We cycled for 15km at 12 miles per hour, how cool is that. The hotel room is nice and I’m waiting for my Bacon, Cheese burger and chips.

Day 4 - Washaway to Holsworthy

183:876966646 — Sat, 23 Jul 2022 18:35:47 GMT

Day 4 - A day of Records and song writing

Day 4 - Washaway to Holsworthy

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/hedgyharry

Before we start on Day 4, let’s talk about dinner on the evening of Day 3. We stopped at a beautiful hotel in Washaway, called Trehellas hotel. Immaculate grounds and a fun little cottage room. The type of place you would take your other Half for a romantic weekend away. We booked dinner early, 6 pm, in order to get the first order of the night in. The restaurant was well presented and had a pleasant farmhouse atmosphere. Harry’s first comment of the evening - “why do I have 3 knives, 3 forks, 2 spoons and two glasses on the table”.

I explained what the various knives and forks are were for and how he needed to be on good behaviour. 5 minutes later he was showing off his napkin folding skills to the waiter, Conner (thanks you for the donation and being so nice to Harry). He followed this by balancing three forks linked with a tooth pick on the salt cellar.

Harry second observation is priceless. On the wall there were various pictures and painting of wine and he said. “That’s pure marketing, they only place the pictures there to make you drink lots and lots and lots!”

Anyway he ordered his CB burger and chips and he rated the triple fried chips an “A”. I opted for something greener and enjoyed a goats cheese salad.

Prior to departure Harry and I got to speak to a lovely lady called Lily from the media. She was in charge of stories from social media that had a feel good factor. She managed to hold Harry’s attention for a good 35 minutes before he wondered off to sit in the shower watching videos on extreme table tennis shots.

Off we went and it promptly started to rain, jackets on, we soon hit our first dilemma of the day. Do we cycle down the massive hill, ignoring the signs that said road closed at bridge? Or do we follow the detour signs and add a few miles? I let Harry pick, “well daddy it’s a 50% chance we can get through, so let’s risk it, after all that’s what an adventure is about.”

Down and down a steep gradient we went. As we approached the Helland bridge (an ancient monument) we saw the road blocked! Massive slabs of concrete blocked the way - for cars only haha we squeezed through. Good call Harry.

The next bonus of the Day was getting more of the Camel trail, we had a heated debate about if it was uphill or downhill. This is what Cornwall has done to us, we can’t tell the ups from the downs anymore. Ps. It’s uphill…..

The next question of the day was why is it called the camel trail. Our guess is that it’s next to a river called the camel? But if anyone is more knowledgable please post in the comments.

The camel trail lend us to the first and only cafe stop of the day. We stopped at the Snails pace cafe and bike hire shop. We met lots of lovely people and Harry handed out flyers left right and centre. Thank you ladies for looking after us and thank you to Nick from the bike hire section for a quick bit of bike maintenance. One of the ladies we spoke to is starting her own JogLe journey soon. Let’s hope we cross over in Scotland somewhere and say hello again.

Now came the meaty part of the day. The climb to Bodmin moor, 560 feet of climbing over 2.5 miles. It was long, hard but very satisfying. We looked for the Beast of Bodmin moor, but only saw some terrifying cows. We stopped at the top for a radio interview, huddled behind a stone wall.

The next section was really fun and fast. I’m not going to tell you what speeds we hit as mummy would not be happy. Well it was fun until we hit a savage crosswind with horizontal drizzle. Then we turned left and the crosswind turned into a glorious tailwind. We flew down the tracks for miles, we passed by the town of Davidstow, and Harry them spent considerable time telling me the names of cheese he did and did not eat. Cheddar, melted cheddar, mozzarella, mozzarella stick, melted mozzarella, Dutch cheese…….it went on for a while. The conclusion is - yes to all cheese in all forms, just not blue cheese or stinky cheese.

We then cycled through the town of Titson, however, this prompted nothing from Harry. Much to my disappointment- still to nice and innocent.

The home stretch was very hard, Harry’s previous best distance was 32.6 miles. Today we topped 38 miles (my bad I got lost). Harry got a lively surprise close to the hotel - the Devon signpost. It was then ruined 1 mile later with us returning to Cornwall. “That’s not fair Daddy, I was enjoying Devon.”

Thank you to the media for helping to publicise Harry’s mission! The donations today were wonderful.

Harry’s view: I spoke to lots of people in the radio and newspapers industry today it was very fun and they were lovely, They all really care about hedgehogs too. Guess what I have a new personal best on my bike, I managed to cycle 33.2 mph. I have started writing a song about our journey he’s the first verse.

“ up and down the hills we go, with Cornwall starting very slow. The Sun was blazing, the downhills were amazing and onto Devon next we go.”

I will give you verse two tomorrow.

Day 3 - Newquay to Washaway

183:876966646 — Fri, 22 Jul 2022 19:37:06 GMT

Sea Chickens, flat tyres and hydration tablet rolling.

Day 3 - Newquay to Washaway

The day started with a close encounter with the sea chicken. We were eating breakfast and said sea chicken decided to intently watch us eat breakfast. I lift a forkful of bacon to my mouth, it head-butts the window, I crunch on some buttery toast, it stares at me. I slurp on some coffee, it starts to screams at us. Harry then asked “why do sea chickens all have ketchup on their beaks?”. “It must be all the chips they steal lol.

After breakfast we lug all the gear down stairs and get ready to leave. Houston we have a problem, for some reason the GPS did not charge. Not to worry I have a back up, I turn on my watch, click the button and then curse. My watch decided to run a software upgrade on my heart rate monitor. So we got to enjoy the views of the car park for a further 10 minutes.

Today we had a choice of two different routes, either route 32 via Padstow or route 305 via the Goss moor trail. Either way we had around 8 miles to make up our minds.

Cornwall did not disappoint, straight from the hotel it was a very sharp uphill. We cruised the main road for a while, and promptly got lost. To get back on the route we had another lovely hill, after summiting it we sped down the other side and missed the turning. Always fun to turn around a cycle back up the hill!

I remember this track from last year, but I don’t remember it being this hilly, up and down and up and down in the hot sun. About 3 miles down the trail, I remember there being a lovely country church where they had a wedding going on at the time. I believe it was called Conlan church. I thought it would be nice to explore that church.

When we hit the first major hill, Harry started to streak ahead of me. I was there puffing away up the hill and I could just not catch up with him. With the trailer behind me, on sore legs I felt like I was wading through treacle. Then approaching the church I figured out why I was struggling, my trailer had a puncture!

Btw - thank you for the suggestions we have named the trailer Tiggy! (Thank you Pam Musgrove). He loves the name and wants to stick googly eyes and a smile on the back!

So we got to visit the church, Harry walked around taking photos on my phone, whilst I fixed the problem. His justification was that “photos weigh nothing, so I will take 100!”

He really does take some nice photos.

Anyway we made it to the junction of decision and met the post gnome of Cornwall. I asked Harry which way he wanted to go. As we did not know, we asked a jogger and he said. “If you go that way there is a giant hill, however, the other way is pretty much the same.”

So we followed the jogger, if he is running that way, it must be a better route. He was right about the giant hill, but we made it all the way up. The road lead to the A30, so we crossed it into St Columb Major, stopping briefly at the Coop to buy more fluids, as we had exhausted them on the previous hill.

Whilst shopping I left the head mic on and Harry said, you know that woman shouting at her kids, I can hear here across the road, through the glass windows. The audio is actually quite loud, so she gave me a death stare when she heard it. However, Harry was right, be less vile to your kids in public!

After leaving St Columb Major, we adapted our plans, we decided to forget about Padstow and head to a little village called Retire. I was going to make some blog jokes about this being a retirement village, however, Harry spotted the sign and said “I think the sign to telling us to quit.” I asked if we should visit the village and he told me it’s just another Cornish village why bother adding two miles.

On the second steepest hill of the day, a couple stopped the car and told us it flattened out in a few miles, they were keen cyclists and were quite bemused why we chose not to go the flatter route. But they loved hedgehogs and gave Harry £10 for the cause.

The next few hours involved crawling over a landscape that must have been clawed by a giant dragon many eons ago. It was undulating, hot and demoralising. We just wanted an epic downhill. Our wishes were granted - but before we flew down towards Bodmin, we sat and enjoyed the view (whilst munching on Pringles).

Bodmin, might be a pretty town, however, we never got to the heart of it, we skirted the centre and headed towards our hotel for the night. We plummeted down from Bodmin and hit a pub called the Borough Arm, that that was the start point of the Camel Trail. I always wanted to ride down that route since I read about it in a book of someone’s experiences of LeJog. However, our hotel was 400-500 straight up the A389!

So over a Bun, Pattie, cheese, bacon, bun, no flag burger for Harry and a coronation chicken baguette for me we discussed options. Ps. Dressing on salad makes it tasty, take note weatherspoons (assuming they actually serve anything green other than mushy peas).

We agreed to add a few miles to our journey and go down the camel trail - wooop. We then cut up a super steep hill. It was so steep we decided to races hydration tablets down it. Let’s just say the distance travelled before they shattered was rather underwhelming.

We reached our lovely country hotel and the first thing I wanted was a drink, but they had no large glasses in the room. “Don’t worry Daddy - I have a pint glass”. He then proceeded to produce a memento from Lands End and two large rocks from Truro from his backpack. No wonder why you shoulders hurt!

Final task of the day before dinner, wash our kit. We turned the water a disgusting brown 3 times! Today was a short day only 23 miles, but a similar elevation to yesterdays 32 miles. Let’s hope tomorrows 36 miles is more forgiving. We both hurt, we are burnt and covered in abrasions.

Harry’s View: I loved taking photos, the ones from the church are mine. My shoulders hurt where the backpack rubs, my legs are fine. I think I am getting fitter, I only got to hand out 3 flyers today. I said to today, do you think I will get a tan. Daddy said look in the mirror.

Please can you ask your friends to share my adventure, with their friends and then to share with their friends, friends. Think of the hedgehogs!

Day 2 - Camborne to Newquay

183:876966646 — Thu, 21 Jul 2022 21:03:14 GMT

Parrots, Swimming pools and burger building lessons

I’m writing this from a nice bath. I am very toasty lobster today after all the glorious sunny that we were blessed with today!

The overnight stay was peaceful - we stayed in the Vyvan Arms in Camborne. If you were to judge a town by its shops, the kebab house count was abnormally high. It used to be a thriving mining town, however, the main employer closed down its facilities many years ago. The pub was nice, filled with interesting people, an enormous fish tank and a African grey parrot. The staff and locals were lovely, they let Harry stay for free and also donated £35! We even met a very colourful retired fisherman - called Mad Marty.

After breakfast (where Harry, instead of apple juice drank milk with sugar in it). Full English for me - we left on our merry way. Looking at the route, it appears we might have a few hills. In fact 3000 feet or more of hills. If Harry thought Day 0 had terrible, terrible hills, I think i will have to lend him a thesaurus to find the right adjectives to describe todays hills.

We travelled down a path adjacent to the Great Lode walk. A landscape dotted with old mine workings and pretty flowers. It was a relaxing start to the day. We reached the outskirts of Redruth and hill number one loomed before us, I let Harry know it was a biggie, but he did not believe me! 1.61 miles uphill with over 400 feet of climbing! Ouchie….

Half way up we met a chap who maintains the National cycle route for the area - he took a photo of us and said he will promote us to his Sustrans friends (Sustrans is a cycle network and not a gender denomination).

Summiting the hill rewarded us with 5 miles of downhill, it was truly epic. We entered some rough tracks into the Bissoe valley, it was like entering Mordor! Mine workings and quarries on either side of us. There was one particular point which would have been perfect for an ambush! Cliffs on either side….

Right at the bottom of the hill was a bike hire shop. We stopped for gluten free cupcakes and holistic drinks. Ready and fuelled we got up to suffer up the next set of hills. In fact they were non stop for 20 miles. Up and up and up and down and then up some more. Very proud of Harry making it all the way up the second biggest climb of the day without getting off his bike.

By the way we have created our method of getting down the hills, Harry sends me down first and I go full throttle, then on the helmet communication system I let him know the traffic situation. If there are no cars - go Harry go!

The next point of interest was Truro Cathedral, but we were not allowed in! Exeter students were graduating, but we did get some stickers. We stuck them onto our trailer. (This needs a name any suggestion?). instead of a mighty cathedral we stopped for tea and cake at the local Methodist church - thank you for the £15 of donations.

Incidentally- two people stopped Harry to ask him if he was the little boy on the radio! How nice and kind people are..

The route overall was really pleasant, but testing on the old legs. Especially when I can’t get any lower than 3 gear…. Boooo.

We hit 69 miles and Harry said “69 miles - nice!.” I asked him why 69 was a nice number and he said that’s what everyone says on YouTube. Lol

We the stopped at a farm shop in the middle of nowhere (well it was in cycle route 32) they were closed on Thursdays but as they loved hedgehogs they invited us in for a couple of cold drinks.

Hill, hill, hill and the next stop was Trerice house, a national trust property. It had the most beautiful lavender garden with 1000’s of bees. We did not listen to the history too intently as the cafe was calling us. Though we did have 10 minute talk about an English man called Jeffery Hudson - aka Lord minimus, who suffered from dwarfism, and later on in life had to flee to Africa after killing someone in a dual in France for calling him shorty (illegal there), he was then capture by pirates and held in prison for 25 years. Upon return to England they imprisoned him for another decade. The closing comment from the guide was that - he lived a long time for someone in those times. I took from it that French people were rude in the 1600’s.

Two posh apple juices and ice lollies later, we got back to climbing hills. Btw why don’t national trust houses offer a discount on food for card holders?

The final four miles brought us to Porth Veor Manor, a hotel ontop of a hill overlooking a massive sandy beach in Newquay. It was a pain taking all our stuff up 2 flights of stairs, but they did not really cater for cyclists or hungry people either. Harry spent two hours in the pool - burning more energy, whilst I wilted and chatted to two lovely families. One family from Sheffield and the others from Sweden. Thank you for the donation btw - we the followed a recommendation and went on the hunt for food.

Final stop of the day was the Mermaid pub, Harry and I litter picked the beach and then proceeded to take the short walk across the beach to the pub. It was super busy, but great food…

Harry was passing out at the table so we ate quickly and headed home for the night.

See you tomorrow for other hilly day.

Harry’s view: The hills were very bad, bad, bad and I saw 5 cats. I have a different view on the burgers, The burger was good however I can improve it, they make their burger in the following way: bun, Pattie, bacon, cheese and then bun. I think they should make them: bun, bacon, Pattie, cheese and bun- stabbed with a union flag, just like a sandcastle. Also did I ask for onions, lettuce and tomatoes. No I built my own burger and I did not ask for any of that.

Day 1 Harry's LeJog (Hello BBC Radio 1)

183:876966646 — Wed, 20 Jul 2022 18:53:23 GMT

This is a subtitle for your new post

Day 1 - Land’s end to Camborne

This morning started with four alarm clock calls for Harry. He just wanted to shut his eyes for a few moments longer. Eventually, once fully awake we went down to breakfast. At the buffet they have the worlds slowest apple juice pourer, Harry managed to multitask with two glasses. When the second one was filling, the first one was already drunk. He kept switching glasses for a good few minutes.

After breakfast we changed into our cycling gear, collected our bicycles from the events room and got our starting stamp to make it official. It was quite a misty morning and there was a drizzle in the air, we had to don our fluorescent jackets on day one.

Upon reaching the famous signpost, Harry noticed a large foam puzzle piece. On the back of it was a phone number for the producer of Greg James’s Radio show on BBC radio one. So we phoned the number and waited.

Apparently Greg James has been forcibly removed from Radio One and he is on a challenge to find 20 puzzle pieces around the UK. It just so happens we were one of the 1st to find a piece. After telling them the story of Harry‘s challenge they really wanted him to go live on radio. Harry happily agreed and waited patiently for the call back. In the meanwhile we got our personalised photo taken, we will be receiving two prints One for us and one for Tiggywinkles.

The call came in and they had a chat to Harry and asked him why he was there. He explained he was doing LeJog for hedgehogs, we had to clear it up and explain what LeJog was…. Greg was really excited and called Harry a Legend! They asked if we could move the puzzle piece on and Harry said no! However, we did find a pilot who was leaving at 11:20 from lands end airport flying to Exeter. Nice result there.

A couple did come running up shortly before we went on radio, expecting to find a piece there, one was found in John O’Groats. However, We were there first!

After getting on the radio one Instagram page, people were asking how they could donate. So the rest of the day we were checking just giving link and seeing how generous the people of the UK are. They love hedgehogs too. We raised close to £500 today, how Epic.

We started our journey. After meeting a few people in the car park, who leaned out of their car windows and asked if he was hedgehog boy. He was so proud.

The journey begin in the rain and we followed the same trail of potatoes along the road that I pointed out last year. They must be lifting Earlies. After about 7 miles we had our first rest stop, we visited a Neolithic Burial chamber and then onto the Merry maidens stone circle.

The weather cleared up and we made it back to Penzance after a couple of brutal hills near Mousehole. Our lunch stop was a Cornish pastie and chips in a small town opposite St Michael’s mount. A castle in the sea, we would have liked to have visited, however, we had more cycling to do. A sea chicken kept on annoying Harry, so he kept on throwing chips at it to make it go away. For some reason that did not work lol.

Out came the sun, and the proper hills arrived. Harry really struggled with hurty legs, so there was only one solution - stop for a round of mini Golf! (3 holes in one roar!)

The break gave Harry enough energy to mange the rest of the cycle. We ended up in a pub in Camborne, fish and chips later it’s time for rest and sleep. Another tough day tomorrow.

Thank you to all the generous hedgehog lovers out there.

Harrys View: I am feeling good and I’m looking forward to tomorrow. I would like to add one thing - it turns out I’m terrible at minigolf.

Day 0 - Harry (Land's End to John o'Groats) Getting to the start

183:876966646 — Wed, 20 Jul 2022 06:59:41 GMT

How to travel from Reading to Penzance for £0.80

As you may be well aware the UK was been experiencing an unfortunate heat wave. The mercury in London topped close to 38 degrees Celsius and the Government issued a Red extreme weather warning to the South East of England. There were fears of massive travel disruptions, roads melting, people dropping dead in the streets and train tracks buckling under the intense heat. After checking the GWR site a few times we establish that our super cheap day, one off bargain basement tickets were still valid and our train was running. £31 for the two of us, including bike carriage from Reading to Penzance, a 4.38 hour journey.

Last minute checks done and the bikes loaded into the back of the van. We were ready to drive to Reading station.

We have seriously overpacked, taking such luxuries as a desk fan, 3 reading book, a MacBook. I suspect when we hit the first

hills of Cornwall, I will cycle halfway up the hill and then gravity will suck be backwards!

We needed to find zone 2 on the platform, as this was where the two bike racks were.

Thank you Louise for helping us onto the train, I hope they let you out of the station without a ticket. Louise hugged and waved us goodbye.

Problem number 1 - the pre-booked bike racks were full of peoples luggage. So I shouted down carriage B. Excuse me is this anyones luggage in the bike ranks?

A flow of people came forward apologetically and removed their luggage. Bike stored, we sat down in our air-conditioned, wifi enabled, half empty carriage and patiently waited 2 minutes for the refreshments cart. Harry with crisps in one hand and Sudoku in the other, whilst I ordered a coffee. The coffee came in the form of a coffee bag and a cup of hot water. How cool…..

It was all going swimmingly well until Plymouth! A blooming train broke down on a single track line in Liskeard. The net result was that they all told us to get off the train. They have no idea when things would be repaired. So we unloaded the bikes and bags and helmets And walked to the taxi rank. No joy.

Eventually we boarded the next train to Penzance. The slow train. We sat on the train for an hour and waited - no aircon, no food and full of people. The next delay occurred close to St Germans, they only have one bridge and the other train had priority, so after waiting for what seemed like an eternity we slowly resumed our journey., straight into signal issues. This was resolved when the train driver just thought bugger it and jumped the red lights, how reassuring.

There was a plus side to all of this I claimed £30.20 compensation for the 3 hour delay. So Reading to Penzance for two people with bikes only cost us 80p!

Sadly with this three hour delay we needed to get to The Lands end hotel before dark. Harry had a slight mechanical issue with his bike and he said “Daddy I’m going to turn the intercom off now so I don’t have to listen to your swearing.”

Bike fixed and we encountered the first hill of two, my god I forgot how steep they were. Looking at the watch there was no chance we would reach LE before they stopped serving food. So luckily out of the blue we found a Thai takeaway van in the middle of absolutely nowhere. Only open on Tuesdays , what luck. - so I ordered Harry fish cakes and chips and he was a happy boy.

With 0.6 miles to go the beautiful orange sun dipped into the sea. We made it. Harry was shouting loudly “We did it! We did it” the passers by clapped and cheered. I did not have the heart to tell them that we only just made it to the start line.

Drinks, crisps and a rationalisation of gear later we are ready for bed. Tomorrow our adventure starts!

Harry’s view of the day: “ my view of the day was pretty much the same as Daddys, one thing I absolutely love is border butterscotch crunch sweet biscuits. That come complimentary in our lovely hotel room. It has a painting in it and a model of the Gannett & binoculars tied to the wall with a bit of cable and on the roof three suitcases for some reason I don’t know why. And a reasonably heavy chair. Daddy got a free pint of Diet Coke in the pub, I had a J20 and also we have a lovely window seat where we can look off into the Lands end signpost and the actual lands end.

The hills were absolutely brutal, the steepest was 13% gradient. We had to push our bikes most of the way it was terrible, it was terrible!

Tomorrow I will wear my actual cycling gear and I hope it’s less hilly, daddy is laughing for some reason.”

Day 9 - Llanarmon-yn-Ial to Rhuthin

Fri, 05 Nov 2021 18:56:04 GMT

A leap of faith and a sting in the tail

The air was still with suspended particles of moisture, wisps of clouds kissed my face, leaving glittering orbs of dew on my exposed skin. Crows crackling unseen the gloom, occasionally disturbed by guttural bovine screams.

Each footfall, slurping, gurgling and expelling a wave of earthy mud, lapping against my calf with a regular rhythm. Seeping and trickling tendrils of water, pooling in the heavy twin mark of the beasts walking in the bog.

Splash, splosh, slurp, slip, slide!

As you can tell 30 minutes into my day my feet were wet and I was wet. I spent most of the day in the clouds. I wanted to try and describe the sound the bogs make when they absorb water, it’s a very subtle throbbing sound. But it’s really hard to put into words.

Today I walked an entire mountain range. The Clywdian and Dee valley mountain range. The best way to describe what they would like would be: if the black mountains copulated with the Shropshire hills and had and had a really ugly child. This would be it - a mucky ridge with a shattered spine.

When I was approaching the range I mistook a path that lead me through some woodland, I saw on the map it should have been to the left of the wood, however, I was committed after having thrashed my way through wet nettles and brambles. Sadly the path ran out and ended in a barbed wire fence. I decided to take a leap of faith. I stood on a wall and looked down at the fence. I couldn’t go under it, it was took week to climb over and I clearly could not go through it. So I decided to take a risk and hurdle it!

What if there was a rock hidden in the grass on the other side? What is the boggy water was knee deep? What if I did not clear the fence? There was only one thing to do….. take my backpack off and video it. That way if it goes wrong you can all have a good laugh. Like a swift and nimble gazelle I pronked over the fence and landed to a gymnast! Video on the Facebook page lol

The first point of interest was at the top of Moel Famau, the Jubilee Tower, it lay in ruins for 100 years but in 1969 it was lovingly restored. I can’t say I say much of it due to the mist. The path leading up to it was like a snowdonia motorway, however, the rest of the range was largely untouched.

So up and down all day crossing Moel Llys-y-Coed and dropping down into a valley, to only have to go up Moel Arthur hill fort (a site of historical significance). I did have great fun running down this mountain - in my head I was part ninja, part mountain goat. In reality more like a sloppy rhino.

Now for most people they finish in the town of Bodfari. Mentally I finished here too and now came the sting in the tail - more hills!

I got the pleasure of another hill - initially Moel -y-Gaer with its roundhouse and then Cefn-du.

I walking through a place called Sodom, and I thought yea sod them hills. The great news is I can see the sea. This gave me a new lease of life.

Finally I got to drop down into Rhuthin where I was staying, I crossed a dual carriage way on a footbridge and watched the cars. Very disconcerting after having been mostly alone for the last 9 days.

Arrived at the hotel, which actually is a spa hotel. The spa receptionist looked at me with a bit of disgust lol. Hey I don’t have to pay for my mud bath. Tomorrow is the final leg of the journey - under 10 miles wooop. Then I have to catch my train home, hopefully I will get home to watch fireworks with Harry and mummy!

Day 8 - Chirk to Llanarmon-yn-lal

Thu, 04 Nov 2021 18:32:15 GMT

Blue skies and happy times.

What a wonderful day, without a doubt this has been my favourite day on the Offa’s dyke path. It had a little bit of all terrain types and therefore it was very enjoyable. It had canal paths, ancient forest, mountain pathways, castles and farmland. It even offered me the end of the world.

The night before I got the opportunity to dry my shoes and eat the most fatty foods I could find. Sorry for this as it will make you feel sick, but dinner was a doner kebab, chips, pork scratching (epic food as they have no nutritional value), a boost bar, some salt and vinegar discos, 2 mini custard donuts, washed down with 2 milkshakes, a vimto and a bottle of Coke Zero.

The day started off with the delicate scent of chocolate tickling my nostrils, which is hardly surprising because Chirk has one giant employer- Cadburys. I decided not to visit Chirk Castle, even though it did feature on a question on the game show pointless the night before. The question asked which of these castles are real Welsh castles - the answer Chirk was worth 2 points, sadly not pointless. Instead I decided to take the canal path. The reason why I wanted to take the canal path was because the guidebook had suggested that today was a tough mountain stage, with boggy marshes. Therefore I wanted to take every opportunity to wear my comfortable shoes before I have to change into the trail shoes - that hurt my ankle. Today I also discovered vitamin I. It actually works!

This canal was the Llangollen canal. I assumed it would be well-paved as The factory must’ve been located there for a reason. Rail and canal, next to each other. At one time Chirk must have been an important place. The canal was pretty deserted, I only spotted two barges being used as recreational vessels, the rest of them appeared to be located in the extensive marina. The marina had hundreds of barges, all moored up for fairer weather.

Today the bear hunt started of excellently. Instead of having to climb the first hill of the day, I got to go through it. Before me lay the 174 metre Whitehouse Tunnel. The tunnel had low headroom on the right-hand side and the barrier was extremely slimy. So I decided to make a Time-lapse video walking through it. It’s made me really dizzy I almost fell over a couple of times.

The canal path eventually spat me out in Llangollen and this is where the Dyke ends for the time being. The rest of the day would be dykeless as it heads off in a north-easterly direction towards the industrial estates of Wrexham. The path however continues in north-westerly direction. The route now offered me two choices, the first choice was to walk across the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct or to go around it. The guidebook told me that the path is permissive and only open until the 30th of September. I personally think it was open - I think the guidebook needs to be updating. Never mind I got a nice photo from below. The Alternative route took me to a ancient bridge. This bridge had no pavements and it was only suitable for one car at a time. So I got to play a real life game of frogger. I would run to an alcove and wait for a few cars to pass from the left, rush to the next alcove, and wait for a few cars from the right to pass. It was a short bridge so i only had to do this twice, however, it did make me smile.

After crossing the river it was time to change my shoes, I shouldn’t have bothered as the next 5 miles were pretty dry and decent.

The sky was bright blue and the sun was shining, and I spotted a sign that said 7 miles to Worlds End. Today is a good day to die - I thought.

I’m not sure when some point in entered Denbighshire But I’m here. The next part of the day was a peaceful climb up to the mountains through trevor Hall woods. Again another spectacular woodland. Upon exiting the woods, I found a really well tarmac road. I initially miss read the title of the road and thought it was the paranormal route, it turned out in fact to be the panoramic route. After around half a mile on this road I saw a lady running up the hill and the backdrop was so spectacular that I had to stop her and ask her if she was a subscriber to runners world. The reason for this is each month they produce a photo page called rave run. Where a person posts a photo of the favourite run. She said her boyfriend subscribes, so I suggested I take a photo of her running up the hill and that she sends it in. She then reciprocated took a video of me running up the hill. It’s hard to see but in the background is a wonderful castle on the hill and just glorious scenery.

At this point I really wanted to go up the mountain, but I decided it would be better to run down the hill. This was my fastest mile of the entire journey to date. Took a few more running videos and then we’ll skirting round the Mountain took another time lapse. After leaving the scree slopes the path took me down to a valley. The reason why this area was called Worlds end, is that it is really barren higher up. Dropping down through another woodland, filled with mushrooms I reached a ford Which I had to cross on foot. Luckily it was super shallow and my feet remain dry. The next part of the journey headed up towards the boggy marshes.

Fortunately in the last few weeks a team have been working on the marshes and they had paved the way with large rocks. So in fact my feet remain dry. It’s also explained why I saw so many helicopters, they were using the helicopters to pallet in the rocks. After climbing up through the marshes the path took me to another forest, which then let me down to town. As check in for the pub I was staying in his 5 pm, I was forced to stop in a community CAFE where are munched down a delicious ham and cheese toastie sandwich. Washed down with a cup of warm tea. The rest of the journey was largely uneventful except for some slight cow trouble. They were blocking the path totally. But by hopping a few fences, I managed to find a way through.

The next 2 miles were the slowest of my journey and this was me killing time in order to get to the pub for 5 pm. I failed to get there slowly, but the pub was just opening up and they let me in. The raven in is a community pub a and they had delicious food. I have a belly full of gourmet Burger with some superb crispy chips. Just continuing the theme of royalty apparently Camilla and Charles pulled a pint in this pub once. Maybe the solution to cop 26 is to have more community run things. Then people won’t have to travel so far, it creates employment and also creates a sense of community. I will definitely come here again.

So today was 19 miles and I could’ve done a whole lot more. The only problem lies is that when the Sun drops it gets very very cold. Apparently tomorrow is going to be very cold.

Day 7 - Llanymynech to Chirk

Wed, 03 Nov 2021 18:51:38 GMT

God my feet hurt!

Llanymynech: A place of peace and quiet for monks. Not a lot happened here, well there are two points of interest. The first thing the village is proud of is that Charles Darwin visited in 1831- he measured some rocks. By pure chance I found one of the Rocks looked at. It was a grey and hard and had a plaque.

The second thing the town was famous for what was that the mountain used to be mined for rocks for various building purposes. One day an industrialist thought “how can I maximise productivity?” I know let’s quadruple amount of dynamite used in mining. His plan was to mine in a months worth of rock in one day. He did successfully managed to blow up a lot of rock, but he also managed to fire chunks of rock half a mile into the village and smash up everybody’s roofs. Now that’s what I call an epic fail.

Tough was really tough so I spent a lot of time in my head. Miley Cyrus helped a bit, but then my headphone ran out of battery.

I’m gonna let you into my thought process of when I first approach field. The first thing I do if I scan left and right searching for animals. Then I try to assess what kind of animals they are. If i see sheep I will look at the breed of sheep. If it’s the cute little ones with fluffy long ears no problem. If it’s the larger sheep, then I know I have to be slightly cautious, and if the sheep is wearing a harness then I have to be extra cautious. Because it’s not a ewe!

Rams walk around with this arrogance, look at me, come near me, try it mate. They have much wider and more muscular heads designed for ramming other sheep and humans. No thank you. I did watch one follow a couple who walked passed me. Lol, I wonder if he got them.

If I approach a field with cows in it I look to see how many of the cows there are and how many are juveniles. I created a new collective noun for cows. A herd is 5-15 cows in a large field. Anything more than that is a ‘plague of cows’. They ravage the grass and make it so muddy it hard to not lose your shoes in it.

I also look to see if the cows have udders. And I look at how content they are eating grass. If they are gathered in a corner it means they are getting fed regularly and they just see any human as something to run towards. Avoid.

If there are only a handful of cows then it’s normally okay I just give them a wide birth they tend to ignore you. With these cows I would proceed. Speaking to a farmer, most people get attacked are because of dogs. The dogs chase the baby cow, the mummy chases the dog, the dog runs to the humans. The cow mashed the humans and can’t catch the dog lol.

Ponies in the wild, no problems. Horses in a field I am not convinced about yet. No bad experiences on this trip so far.

Now comes the problem when you enter a field and you don’t know what’s living in it. I normally start by scanning the ground, if there are cow pats I will look to see how old the droppings are. if they have fly holes in them or maybe berries or twigs have landed on top of them and it’s not a problem. I will just carefully scan to see where the cows are. Another tell-tale sign is by looking at the colour of the buckets in the field. The red ones are cow PowerMaxxxxx. I’m not sure you should be giving Cows energy products. White buckets tend to be sheep fields. Blue buckets or for pheasants.

The only other animals I’ve encountered are so far are pheasants and chickens. And I can’t really figure out which one is more stupid. I would probably go for the pheasants being more stupid. Any opinions out there?

Anyway back to the blog. within the first 3 miles my feet were hurting the ankle is swollen and I’m just wishing today ends. I suspect this is a large part to not having access to enough calories and protein. My yesterday‘s dinner was all my emergency food. And it wasn’t the best. All I had left today was one apple, I hopped that I would find a village soon. Whilst walking along the Dyke Path, it merged with a first world war remembrance Path. They walk to peoples houses were the dead used to live.

Pinned to a tree was a photograph of gentleman that died in 2014 so I assumed this is nothing to the path but there was a photo of him sitting on this weird horse saddle thing. I’ll come to this later.

Whilst walking today the only thing that was going through my head apart from food, was when I was homeschooling Harry and we were going through a book called “we’re going on a Bear Hunt“. A Family goes on adventure and they come up with a number of obstacles. Basically the story has this rhythm which is they can’t go under it, they can’t go over it so they decide to go through it. King offa thought about his wall and his aim was to find the steepest and most ridiculous hills and then hundreds of years later someone like me is going to go an adventure. Sadly I can’t go under them, I can’t go through them, I’ve got to go over them and then over at some more.

The path is brilliantly way marked, however without a map you just need to look to the horizon find the biggest hill and you know that I’m going over that hill later on in the day.

Anyway I climbed up through a lovely yew forest called Jones rough. This led to a viewpoint on top of a quarry with a 360 view of the surrounding landscape. I took a pano style photo, so I hope it turns out okay in the end. This was only about 5 miles in and knowing that I have 10 more to do is not a nice feeling.

I text Louise and told her that I was walking like a zombie and that I needed calories right now. I was preying the first civilisation of the day had a shop. Fortunately it did have a shop, only a minor detour away from the dyke. I text my joy to Louise and told her I was now walking like a zombie with a packet of Doritos. I also bought a meringue cake, and then noticed it was bloody well low-calorie. Just my luck. Mind you I shouldn’t have a swore at the meringue cake because two hours later I found some in my beard. Incidentally on the top of Moor I found a collapsible dog bowl . Unlike the two rakes I saw earlier on in the day I decided to take this one. My thinking was if I get really bored I can pretend I have a dog and look around for it panicked and see if people help me look for the non-existent dog. But you know I don’t think I should do that, if you rob a bank you get two years you kill a dog or you mess with pets get life in prison - not worth it.

After climbing uphill a bit more I entered candy Woods, I actually really enjoyed this section, it was a peaceful ancient woodland and you could smell the mushrooms all around. What I’ve noticed is the best Woodland tend to be next to private estates, so maybe they own the Woodlands and look after them. At the end of this Woodland emerged at another ancient racecourse. And lo and behold in front of me was that exact horse saddle monument that guy had been sitting on in the photo earlier. One of the heads of the horse was in England the other head was in Wales. I straddled it with my bottom facing England, because it appears most of my readers are Welsh.

When I saw my first race course in Kington I thought wow this is novel, now I’ve realised actually it’s probably quite standard it’s just I’ve never seen it before. the horse racing was mainly done in the 1800s and they even had grandstand and the horses ran in a figure of eight.

After leaving the racecourse I headed towards Chirk and this is where I had a decision to make. Option one. Suck it up and continue on the Dyke Path. Or option two take a shortcut on the road. I sucked it up.

As you read I’m about a mile away from Chirk and I’m simply dictating today’s blog into my phone as I have been the last few days. So if you wonder why there is such inconsistency and punctuation, writing and capitalisation it’s because I’m not typing. I would type but I’m wearing gloves.

The most welcome site of the day when the Chirk aqueduct came into view. The signpost pointed to Chirk and said 4 miles. I’m just hoping the three-quarter part had been rubbed off.

In the future I plan to write up these various memoirs into a book. So as we all know the most important part of the book is the title and the cover. After all that’s how you judge a book. I was thinking how “fat middle-aged man accidentally became an insurance athlete in lockdown”. What do you think?

I finally arrived at the hotel I’m now going foraging for junk food and snacks just hope I don’t eat all the snacks and leave myself with nothing tomorrow. (141.3 miles in a week - ouch).

Thank you to Miley for cheering me up with her Metallica cover and Samantha and anonymous for the kind donations.

Another 20 miles tomorrow!

Day 6 - Montgomery to Llanymynech

Tue, 02 Nov 2021 19:07:51 GMT

Complacency leads to pain

Complacency leads to pain is a fitting title for today’s blog. Sorry todays blog is not very interesting :)

Btw thank you for the reminder to plug my link https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Nicolas-Peksa6

Mentally this is turning out to be quite challenging. The constant wet feet just sucks.

I looked at the profile of the route and it only had one gigantic hill and the rest was flat. So I left the hotel slightly later than normal, as I did not have breakfast they prepared me a packed lunch. They asked me the night before what sandwich I like would like. So I said surprise me - cheese and tomato and it was very tasty I might add. They also provided me with a bottle of water, in a glass bottle. I drank it straight away and left the bottle behind. No way I’m carrying that.

It was certainly a frosty morning, the grass was crispy and a wonderful mist hung over the valley. Leaving the town I headed back into England, looking behind me there was a glorious ruined castle sitting on top of the hill. I rejoined th Offa’s dyke path and walked down I number of mud free farm tracks. I was desperate to avoid getting wet feet today. So I even lifted my feet when I was walking in the long grass.

I have gotten over my fear of sheep. There was a small flock blocking the path, and I waved them away with no problems. Some of the breeds are certainly more aggressive than others. One interesting thing is when you approach of sheep it starts peeing, it must be getting ready to run away. Anyway carried on walked along the dyke took a nice photo of my shadow in the sunshine. I even listened to some talking books. I learnt about how to make 5 different types of fire and where and when you would use each one.

Time for the first hill of the day, walked up a wooded path and noticed it was the wrong path, so cross country was the only solution. After returning to the path it lead through the really pretty Leighton Estate. Every land owner should look after their land as well as these owners. Turns out it’s owned by the potter group - a waste management company. That’s why I assume it’s so nice looking, they have only owned it for 11 years so they have not become complacent and neglected it.

This lead me up to the Beacon Ring, an Iron Age hill fort. They planted trees in the safe of E II R, to celebrate when the queen was coronated. I would love to see it from there air. With Pretty views and warm sunshine, it was lovely to just amble along enjoying it. I then looked at the time and thought opps, I have still got 12 miles to go.

I then worked my way down from the fort and suffered loads of jump scares, as pheasants popped out left right and centre. I got the last laugh as posh people in helicopters were slaying them with guns at the bottom of the hill. So many helicopters in this part of the world, how come?

Finally arrived in Buttington and then accidentally stepped into ankle deep water - thank you Offa’s dyke business park for that. Waterproof shoes are good, unless they fill with water and then they are useless. So I sat on Buttington bridge and changed my shoes and socks (which got soaked 1 mile later.)

The next part of the Offa’s dyke path was to walk along the river and from the top of the hill it looked rather flooded thanks to all this rain, I binned that idea and picked the Montgomery canal instead for the rest of the day. As you read from my LeJog blog I like canal paths. They are just a lovely place to close your mind off and reflect. The canal was really well paved.

I asked a women how far this one was paved and she told me there one muddy section so a mile. There was no mud! There was a dead swan though. Something had eaten it!

The Offa’s dyke path rejoined after a few miles and it crossed over a canal aqueduct which I thought was pretty cool. It was raining a bit, but compared to other days it was just a mere drizzle.

I arrived at my hotel for the night. Except it was not a hotel. It was someone’s house…. Yikes, however, they made me feel welcome and both my shoes are drying on the radiator.

Very tiring 20 miles today, maybe I will eat more than a cheese and tomato sandwich tomorrow. Tomorrow the hills start again - how exciting.

Day 5 - Crossing Shropshire

Mon, 01 Nov 2021 18:09:06 GMT

Had a wonderful sleep last night, I closed my eyes And I woke up feeling refreshed (of course they were the few night time toilet stops, but they don’t count). Breakfast was cold chicken balls, dipped in cold sweet-and-sour sauce. The breakfast of champions.

I was really undecided about what I was going to do today, given the terrain profile and the weather and the length of daylight and the length of the leg. I really didn’t know what to do. So I adopted the rule that a trader once taught me. It was at a conference and when the stock markets crashed a lot of people lost their shirts. I asked them how come your trading firm came out completely unscathed. His response was simple, he said “when you don’t know what to do, just do nothing.” Very much like an anti Nike tag line.

So I head out with no plan at all and just hopped for the best. I got to Knighton nice and early, I was really looking forward to visiting the Offa’s Dyke visitor Centre. It was closed. Only opens at weekends in winter. Fantastic!

After leaving the visitor centre calorieless, I crossed the border into Shropshire. I knew this was the case as there was a little place where you could put 1 foot in Wales and 1 foot in England. Right next to it was a welcome to Shropshire sign.

The guidebook explains that the next section is the toughest section of the entire walk but the views are rewarding. They use the term switchbacks. I think crenellations, horrific, treacherous, terrifying and painful would have also been good words. I guess in summer you get warm sunshine and you amble down the paths slowly. However, in November you get pummelled by rain, blown away by strong winds and worst of all the mud. A lot of the slopes here I would say are 45 to 65° and when you add mud, it’s just scary.

Today was tough at mile 10 I just had enough, I started searching Google Maps looking for a way out. There was no way out, there were no shortcuts and there was also no reception. So basically all I can do a soldier on.

Fortunately, I bumped into some walkers walking in the same direction and they cheered me up a bit. I think the reason why this is mentally tough as you climb a really big hill and you can see the next hill in front of you. But you have to go right to the bottom, and then go right to the top again and this does not just happen once it happened about 12 times. There are some positives it was really pretty and you get to follow the Dyke for most of the route. You also get to encounter some tiny little villages of one or two houses that you would never know existed if you hadn’t walked through them Churchtown is a beautiful example of this.

The people who lay down this Trail have tried to make it better. On one particularly nasty Hill they did install 122 steps straight up. Not sure if it’s a good or a bad thing but I got to count them.

The pace of so slow today that without a doubt darkness would fall. I tried to increase my pace, but the downhill is made impossible. In fact there are few other obstacles I didn’t expect.

1) path ran next to the vegetable field, the vegetables were overgrown and soaking wet. I am now soaking wet!

2) Found a tree that managed to lose all its apples and drop them in a little hollow. Would like more walking on marbles

3) cute kitten kept poking his head out of a hole in barn. very distracting.

4) Bumped into several hundred pheasants so I tried to corral them all. It was funny and noisy, one tried about 7 times to get through a fine mesh fence lol! Comedy gold.

I have a confession to make. All my four layers were wet, my gloves were wet, my hat was wet. I was cold and it was getting dark. I decided to make that final effort to finish the last of the hills and then walk on the roads along the flat final few miles. I had my head torch ready and was bracing myself for the cold. I reached the Kerry ridge which was my goal and 30 second later a farmer passed in his jeep, he was delivering a quad bike within 100 metres of my hotel. How is that for fortune!

Looks like “just do nothing” is my new mantra I will have to adopt it. I look forward to putting it in action.

After a warm shower, a hot cup of tea, and 45 minutes under the duvet I can now feel my body again. Do I feel as if I cheated? Yes I cheated hypothermia! See you tomorrow.

Day 4 - Hay-on-Wye to Presteigne

Sun, 31 Oct 2021 21:08:18 GMT

Gales, Rain and Monkey Puzzle trees

As you may have read this morning started off with a minor explosion. In an attempt to lighten my load I decided to eat tuna fish with garlic mayo poured on top for breakfast. I was squeezing the oil out from the can in the hotel bathroom and I squeeze too hard. Oil and tuna flakes flew all over the walls. Not a great start. Again It have been raining all night, and in fact it was still raining when I left at 7 am. So much for the clocks going back. I had no extra sleep.

I was concerned about today, as the weather was terrible and the distance was large, and there were four massive hills on the way. I started off tracking the river Wye. After 2 miles I snuck through my first field of cows. Fortunately the cows were placid due to the driving rain. I squelched past then and they did not bat an eyelid. The hill climbing now started, might I just add I had not run a step so far today as the weather is bogging and the ground is so wet.

Rivers of water were pouring down the footpaths and the roads. Just at the height of the rain I got a text message from the Porthcawl Surf school saying that Harry‘s lesson today was cancelled. This was at 9 am so I had to quickly text Louise to let her know before she left with Harry. The reason they cancelled the surfing was Gail force winds, 60mph. Great I thought, i know what’s heading my way. Even though the weather was terrible I passed through some beautiful countryside. The disgwalfa moors were a pleasure to walk up and they provided some misty views of the black mountains.

The next hill section was Hergest Ridge, my father told me that he had walked up it many times from Kington, he also mentioned they he was almost trampled by a herd of excited cows in a field close by. He managed to escape by vaulting a barbed wire fence, ripping his trousers in the process. On the way up the ridge the wind really started to kick up and the rain started to lash down. Fortunately the wind was behind me so my face wasn’t stung by the cold rain. Even with three layers, waterproof trousers, a hat and gloves I was still cold. I finally reached the top of the hill and saw the legendary Whetstone. It’s a lump of rock. However what was very interesting at the top of the hill was the growth of monkey puzzle trees with some benches for meditation and peaceful sitting. How cool is that a grove of monkey puzzle trees. A bird watcher excitedly pointed out a flock of golden plovers. Are they rare?

Did you know that around the summit of this ridge there used to be a racetrack! I ran down the ridge in an attempt to warm up. The first running of the day.

By now the bandage on my right foot started to cut into the back of my heel. It’s almost guaranteed that I have a blister on the back of my foot. I limped my way down to Kington and found a spar and defaulted to my standard adventure snacks. A strawberry milkshake and a chicken tikka sandwich. I ate these on the bench and enjoyed the brief respite from the wind and the rain.

What was quite distressing was that I’ve just walked off the ridge and Kington, the walking capital of Wales happens to be in the valley. Therefore I now had to climb up up the other sodding side. At the top of the hill I removed the bandage and limped on.

Close to the top of the hill I experienced my first sheep attack of the day. A sheep went for me but I clicked my walking poles together and scared it off. Two of a sheep tried to attack me later on in the day, what is wrong with them.

I do spot one sheep however made me laugh, If you ever wondered what the blue stain on the sheeps back is, it’s the dye placed on a ram, so that the farmer can see if they have been sexed. This sheet was almost entirely blue, it must have been his favourite lol.

At the very top of the hill encountered dyke for the second time. This was a lot more impressive than the first sighting, this section lasted for about half a mile. It was riddled with rabbit holes, I looked into the hole and I could see nice snuggly warm hay inside their homes. I scared a crow and the wind blew it away like a plastic bag in the wind. It almost crashed!

On the dyke i created another time-lapse video of me running along the top of it. From the top of this hill you could see the wet stone and the monkey puzzle Grove in the distance on the other side of the valley. The wind here was terrible it was almost blowing me over. So I sat on a bench and shivered and had a rest. It was a wonderful bench might I add. It had a motivational statement on it, however, I miss read it and for some reason I was convinced the last word was batter. “Look into nature and you will understand everything batter “. I sat there but I still can’t figure out how they make KFC coating. Which is a coincidence as when I was texting Louise, My predictive text in the wind said Kentucky fried egg - when in fact I said talk to you later.

Finally got to the bottom of the hill and I had a choice, follow the path for 5 miles and climb another muddy thousand feet stop. Or walk along the road for 4 miles. I sat down on a bridge, took my shoes off, aired the trench foot stuck on a blister plaster, chose some clean dry socks and changed my shoes. I decided to run the rest of the way.

Incidentally by the road was a field for the cows and a footpath. I looked at the cows and they looked at me and then the entire field of cows started running towards me mooing loudly. Glad I found your field of cows. I’m also glad I did not take that footpath. I have video proof.

Finally arrived at the town where I was staying. I discovered that the hotel was built in 1616 and it used to be a favourite of Elizabeth the first. I wonder if I’m sleeping in her bedroom. The hotel is lovely and even had a Jacuzzi. I washed the mud off and I had to wash the Jacuzzi because it was filthy. For dinner I opted for a Chinese, they sadly got my order wrong and gave me far too much food. How is one man supposed to eat 15 chicken balls and two main meals. I will give it my best try.

I am going to have to change my schedule tomorrow as there’s no way I can do 27 miles in these conditions with 5000 feet of hills. I will let you know where I end up.

Day 3 - Forest Coal Pit to Hay-on-Wye

Sat, 30 Oct 2021 17:58:06 GMT

Up and over the Black Mountains

Breakfast was served at 7 am, it was a locally sourced bacon sausage and egg sandwich on brown bread, blueberries, grapes, freshly baked pain o chocolate and some freshly squeeze OJ. After wolfing it down it was time to hit the road.

As it was raining all night I was fearful of flooding, luckily the rain stopped within seconds of leaving the farm. The air was really fresh and wonderful fresh smells were in the air. I sniffed in the woods and thought I smell fresh meat, which I though was kind of ridiculous, however, 20 metres down the road I found a freshly killed deer. I was pleased with my sense of smell!

For all the Czechs reading along there are mushrooms everywhere, I could create an entire album of mushrooms of Wales!

I weaved through the back roads of Monmouthshire (I guess) and eventually found a never used road which took me to the Offa’s dyke path. It was so badly surfaced it reminded me of Devon. It was mashed tarmac with a river of foamy water pouring down it. At the top of the hill, the path merged with a farm and the slurry was ankle deep. Nice to get poo in my shoes this early in the day.

Most of the day was a very slow uphill along the Hatterall Ridge, slowly rising to 703m. The best way to describe it would be to say it was a huge lump of boggy moorland with sheer drops either side. The views were spectacular for the first 10 minutes, but after many hours of walking up it I was very much numb to the view. It was not very taxing as in the boggy sections the powers at be have laid large stones. Of course these were flooded, so I used a skill I picked up from an ex SAS soldier who taught me which parts of a bog I should step on.

I passed sheep and ponies and even a lonely tiny Christmas tree in the middle on nowhere. The only consistent part of the day was a continuous wind chilling me to the bone and soggy ground. At one point I had three long sleeved layers, a hat and gloves on. Thank god it was not raining I would have cried.

The sun came out and hid again, at one point I was watching the shadows of the clouds on the next mountain. I was hoping the shadows would create a cool shape that I could take a photo off, the closest I got was a giant turtle chasing a dragon - but you really had to squint.

Now the interesting thing about these ponies is that they’re tiny their hooves are half the size of my hand. So what is amazing is the 2 foot high piles of dung they produce. They also only seem to poo on the path. I would have to assume they regularly go in the same stop, because some piles were half the size of a pony. One pony refused to move out of the way, so I was about 2 feet behind it and it spooked as did I. We both ran off in opposite directions terrified.

At the top of one of the hill I decided to try time lapse of the goPro, I’ve posted a video so you might have seen it. Sadly when I was buggering about with the camera I paused my gps - so I lost a mile or two on strava.

After my successful test I decided to Timelapse me running down the other side. 37 seconds to run down a mountain, how epic.

The rest of the journey was quite unpleasant, walking down rivers of boggy water, topped off with a 45 degree slope of pure mud - my slowest mile of the journey.

Checked into the hotel, went to the chippy and time to self massage and rest the slowly breaking body. My right foot is really hurting, an old skiing injury. Tomorrow will be testing as its 24 miles with double the elevation! I might not make it!

Day 2 - Monmouth to Forrest Coal Pit

Fri, 29 Oct 2021 17:51:29 GMT

Dodging the rain, dodging bulls

Last night I watch the rainfall for hours, knowing that I had to cross hills and fields, the footwear Choice was a simple one. On went the Gore-Tex Nike trial threes. The 1st mile so was I in the town of Monmouth, I got to run past lots of historic buildings and cross the Monnow bridge. Built in 1270 as a town defensive, it is now the only surviving mediaeval bridge in Britain. The route took me very quickly out of Monmouth and past some lovely houses with a really cool feature, in the front gardens they had a little stream that ran under their driveways and in some cases through their building. Maybe somewhere to live in the future Louise.

After leaving civilisation behind the ground started to get very squelchy. My footfalls Sounded like tenderising meat with a mallet. At this point knowing the distance I had to go I decided to walk. I hate having wet feet. Thankfully the new trail shoes are waterproof and I can report after a full day of dodging rain, plodding through sodden fields and jumping over streams my feet remained dry! Whoop.

It started to rain a little so I got out my raincoat and the waterproof wrapping for my backpack. The wind was really kicking up so I fastened my waterproof jacket to the top and somehow managed to track my beard in the zip. After an awkward few minutes I managed to free myself.

I looked at the check in time for my next hotel and it was 5 pm. I had no idea how I would kill 2 to 3 hours. Fortunately the Offa’s Dyke Path helped me out. The first detour was be choice, on the fence was a sign Suggested that I took an alternative route as the main path was susceptible to extreme mud and flooding. This is hardly surprising as the path follows a River between two rather large hills. Looking at it from the other side I made the right choice there were some whopping great cows with horns and knee deep mud.

The next part of the journey was largely uneventful and I had a picnic lunch in White Castle. When I walked into the main castle there was a young child with his family there and he said loudly. “Why are you dressed as a mountaineer, they did not exist in medieval times”. Don’t you love young children. The next detour started here because of unsafe footbridge.

Detour number three happened a few miles later, today I have managed several Cowfields many sheep fields and even two horse fields. However when a rather large bull is standing by the kissing gate you can forget it. So this is what I’d like to call and out of the frying pan into the fire situation. I took the alternative path which ended in a shallow, but fast flowing stream. Normally this will be fine however there was no footbridge. So I had to shift some boulders and some logs and create my own bridge. Managed to crossover safely without getting wet.

The rain started again and cast a very light rainbow which landed in front of me. I search for the gold and the only thing I could see was a sheep. It only lasted several seconds, but how many times can you say you saw a rainbow land.

For some reason I had the wrong address for the B&B are staying in I was only 3 miles out. On a bike this doesn’t matter but on foot this just hurts. But the nice thing about being on foot is you can find interesting things. Today I found a rugby ball in the middle of nowhere, I was very tempted to take it but I was already carrying for too much food. The next thing I found was a really interesting Bluestone. I sent a photograph to Harry and asked if you’d like me to carry it home and he said yes. I suspect it’s blue basalt or sodalite, however, sodalite has no reason to be here.

It must’ve rained really heavily here rivers of water pouring over the styles, water was leaking from the side of the road and flood water was everywhere. I remained mostly dry apart from when a white van man drove past too fast shouting sorry as he showered me. The last part of the journey was actually really pretty on my left hand side was the sugarloaf Mountain and on my right were the black mountains. Thumbs up to the B&B it’s lovely.

Tomorrow should be a very tough day, I have to backtrack a couple of miles and then walk across the black mountains with the highest point being black mountain. Let’s hope it does not rain as much as it did today tomorrow.

Louise has gone to the beach and I’ve asked her to contribute to the blog so there may be an update later.

Let’s hope tomorrow is a genuine 19 miles, and not the 23 miles I did today.

Day 1 - Chepstow to Monmouth

Thu, 28 Oct 2021 16:37:39 GMT

Hills, hills, and more Hills!

Last night I was tired and I fell asleep watching Swamp people on my phone, Only to be awoken by the fire alarm going off sporadically.

I went down to reception as I wanted to understand if it was a hotel problem or just a problem in my room. The receptionist was twiddling buttons and she was on her phone so I assumed it was a hotel wide problem. I finally got to sleep and I experienced a number of anxiety dreams relating to missing the start of a race. For some reason I was in a race in China and I was desperately trying to get to the start line for a Himalayan Marathon, however, Everything was written in Chinese and I had no idea which train I needed to catch. I finally found the right train, So I started to run to catch it, but, I could not reach the platform as a set of twins were blocking the path, as they were being filmed for social media. I woke up at 5 am and thought what’s the point of trying to go back to sleep. So the preparation started and I organised my running kit and made sure everything was sealed in plastic bags. I decided to leave the hotel early.

I picked up the trail at the exact spot I left it yesterday, Straight up Tutshill. Then up another hill, I recognised a lot of the crossing points on the major road as with cycled past these when Harry and I cycled from Winnersh to the Forest of Dean. it was nice to see where they actually went.

In my previous blogs I mentioned how many styles there were, the book said 400. Reality says most of them have been replaced by kissing gates. So I was very excited when I saw my first stile. It was a rock one, I flipped my leg over it and then my backpack shifted and I fell off it thud! If that is a sign for Stiles to come I’m doomed.

The first point of interest in the day was a cliff face called Wintour’s Leap, The story goes that in the 1600s a chap called John Wintour lept off this cliff to escape royalist soldiers. Given the height of it I bet you he drank red bull it gave him wings and they call me mad.

So after re-turning to the path I bumped into a jogger and Commented how hilly the section you just run was. Oh dear I thought, but luckily I turned right just before the hills and this is where I encountered Offa’s Dyke for the first time. Very underwhelming LOL. What do you expect, this wall was built by the Anglo-Saxons in 785 under the orders of king Offa of Mercia (English not Welsh).

Path continue to wind upwards and finally hit point of interest number two, the Devils pulpit. It is believed that the devil used to sit on this rock And try to tempt the monks from Tintern Abbey to deviate from their path of holiness. Lovely view, and I would have sat on the rock, but given my experience with a low rock stile, I did not fancy the 200 foot drop.

At this point in time I suddenly remembered the GoPro that my brother purchased for me. Sadly I didn’t do a video at the first two points of interest. Instead I set it up on it tripod and run backwards and forwards trying to make it look like I was running past. Sadly my commentary is pretty pathetic so if I get edit it into a short film it will have a sound track.

The next part of the journey was reasonably quiet, I had the choice to take the higher route over the mountains or the Lower route to follow along the River Wye. Much to my surprise I picked the low road, after all it’s a marathon not a sprint.

Then the next hill started and it went up and up and up. Why do all the hills I ever encounter rise steadily making too Inefficient to run them. Then when you get to the summit they drop sharply again too risky to run down them. Anyway I finally got to top of the hill, and raised the courage to go through a Sheep field, when sheep don’t have lambs they are cool - you can remove sheep from the panic list. I tested the electric fences, the farmer lied.

On the way down I took a nice photo of a bridge which I think stars in the Netflix series sex education. I checked my route and realised that the bastarding hill in front of me was the final hill of the day, the biggest hill of the day. As I had left so early in the morning, I got to relax and slowly walk up this hill as check-in at my hotel was 3 pm. I was well ahead of schedule. The hill continued for ages and finally ended at a National Trust site called The Kymin. At the summit of the hill was a navel temple built on the 1st August 1800, it was to celebrate the lives of some of our Admirals. I sat there for a while resting and killing time and then a man coughing too much for my Covid liking approached - time to run away. Also at the top is a white building that used to be an eating club for the entitled. I imagine you would only fit in one table, however, the view from the top is wonderful.

I fell over again, slipping on mud and then finished off the day at the hotel. I arrived 20 minutes early - but the owner let me in. They don’t sell food here, so it’s either order a takeaway or walk 50 metres to Lidl. Lidl it was :).

Face masks are still mandatory in Wales, so when I walked around without one they looked at me if I was a leper. I will remember to put it in my pocket next time.

So today went ok, Today’s mileage was 18 miles, with 3000 feet of elevation. I would love to say I did a lot of running but I didn’t. Too many hills. Tomorrow looks like a very similar distance and Hill profile.

See you tomorrow.

Day 0 - Chepstow

Wed, 27 Oct 2021 17:59:21 GMT

A sneaky head start

I spent the morning panicking….. mainly thinking about the enormity of the challenge ahead. To calm my nerves I visited our storage locker so that Louise could decorate the camper van with skulls, pumpkins and other spooky things to celebrate Halloween with Harry when they head off for their surfing adventure at the weekend. Louise can you post a photo?

On the way back I managed to track down 4 packets of scampi fries and some spare batteries for my head torch. Now that I am all set I just have to wait for my parents to swing by and pick me up.

90 miles later we arrived at Chepstow, most towns have war memorials - however, this lovely Welsh border town has a memorial to food. Big stone truckels of cheese and carved meat products. Nice!

My parents wondered off to see the castle and I checked into my first hotel, nice and cheap and above a pub. They have me a top room floor, so I puffed my way up many stairs and thought - I’m doomed as that was actually quite hard work!

Now I probably need to leave really early in the morning, so I thought I would figure out where I start from, so after 2 miles of walking I found the starting point at Sedbury cliffs. I decided to run an initial reconnaissance mission as last time I was there, so were many cows. I did not fancy bumping into an angry cow with only a head torch to blind them! Luckily no livestock to be seen. At this point I thought bugger it let’s start the adventure, so dressed in my only clean set of non-runner clothes I decide to run back to the hotel.

1.5 miles down and my only set of clean clothes are now sweaty. For dinner I was eyeing up a Gregg’s, thanks mainly to my wife that has found an awesome app that allows you to buy food from shops with limited shelf life. She proudly text me a photo of her epic haul for £2.50. Sadly my Gregg’s was closed so ham, egg and chips at weatherspoons for me. They did have a nice looking pizzeria here, voted the best in Wales, however, I just wanted to eat and go and weatherspoons is perfect for that.

The great news is I have 3 miles less to run tomorrow!

T-minus 2 days and counting

Wed, 27 Oct 2021 06:40:40 GMT

Packing, unpacking, weighing and repacking.

So today has arrived, the packing day. At first I thought take all the items I thought would be useful. And then I picked up my backpack and it was HeAvY. Out came the kitchen scales and I started weighting all the items.

Food, salt tablets, clothes, dry bag, compass, spare shoes, first aid kit, waterproofs, chargers, a route book, toothbrush, pills and potions, lube, deep heat, a tennis ball, water bottle, headphones, walking poles, gaiters, cash, cards and some deodorant.

Of everything the food was the issue. 2kg of snacks, energy gels and dehydrated meals. So I needed to cut the weight down, I started exploring the food labels and then assessing which food had the highest calories per gramme. In order of potency- stroop wafers, flapjacks, chicken curry, beef Jerky and much to my surprise energy gels were last.

Assume I will be able to buy food after day 2 - I decided to cut 7 gels and 1 flapjack.

I also lost the compass, the gaiters, one long sleeved top, one ankle support and I switched my life straw water bottle for a running bottle half the weight. Without the lifestraw sadly there will be no blog titled - the day I was forced to drink my own pee.

Ps. Should I cut my toothbrush in half and half empty the toothpaste?

When I just finished there was a knock on the door, a package arrived. My brother had sent me a belated birthday present. The latest gopro, so that I can record my journey. Thank you Ivor. On the plus side I can make a 12 hour movie for everyone to watch. On the downside up goes the weight lol.

Louise is very excited that I’m leaving tomorrow, she can have her kitchen back and also use my living room as a dumping ground - yikes

T-minus 3 days and counting

Mon, 25 Oct 2021 14:33:41 GMT

Three days until I “Run to the Hills”

Time is flying fast… I start my attempt at Jeffing the Offa’s Dyke path on Thursday. I have a string of hotels booked and I have used OS maps to plot my route. Maybe picking half-term to start my trip was not the smartest idea, lots of the hotels in prime locations have been booked. The means my route takes me on little detours across the countryside at the end of most days. When I say little in some cases in mean more like 3-4 miles, which on a bike is not a problem, however, on foot its significant. Fortunately, as you know if you read my Lands End to John O’Groats blog, I am not a route purist. So, if I am tired and there is a shortcut, it will probably be taken. Detours may also be taken if there are cows, bulls, dogs, sheep, horses, pigs, goats or llamas in the fields. Smaller animals I am ok with, if they are small enough to be drop kicked then I don’t have an issue. I am sure there won’t be too many of them in 177 miles of farmland.

My plan is as follows:

Day 1 Sedbury Cliffs to Monmouth - 18 Miles

Day 2 Monmouth to Forest Coal Pit - 20 Miles

Day 3 Forest Coal Pit to Hay on Wye - 19 Miles

Day 4 Hay on Wye to Presteigne - 25 Miles

Day 5 Presteigne to Montgomery - 27 Miles

Day 6 Montgomery to Llanmynech - 20 Miles

Day 7 Llanmynech to Chirk - 16 Miles

Day 8 Chirk to Llanarmon-yn-Ial - 20 Miles

Day 9 Llanarmon-yn-Ial to St Asaph - 23 Miles

Day 10 St Asaph - Prestatyn - 7.8 Miles then two trains home*.

*I would just like to note here that if you book a train ticket directly from Prestatyn to Reading it would have cost £178, however, if you book trains on the identical route separately it reduces to the cost to £40. I pity the person sitting next to me on that trip (I will smell of cows, bulls, dogs, sheep, horses, pigs, goats, llamas, deep heat and stale sweat.

So that I could start nice and early I asked if Louise could drop me off at 7am near Sedbury Cliffs on Thursday, she choked on her hot chocolate and responded, “Hell No”. Fortunately, my parents are happy to drive me to their cottage in the Forest of Dean and then I could potentially stay there the night before. I asked if they could drop me off at 7am near Sedbury Cliffs on Thursday and my father responded – “Are you Crazy”? What a supportive bunch!

An agreement was reached on the Wednesday they will drop me off at a Chepstow and I will need to find a hotel. This has some positives and negatives, firstly it great to be close by the start, which means that I am not a burden anyone  . Sadly, I believe Chepstow to Sedbury Cliffs will add an extra mile or to 2 to my day. This means my hilly 19 miles has morphed into a more testing 21 miles.

Now knowing that this run will be the equivalent of running from Paris to Brussels, over Mt Everest and 400 stiles. I will seriously have to consider what I will be taking with me.

Time to pack!

Challenge 3: Running Offa's Dyke

Sun, 24 Oct 2021 11:26:51 GMT

Preparing the for Offa’s Dyke path (It's on and starting in a few days time).

I was discussing the concept of a triathlon of Wales with Louise and my initial plan was to try and do it in the Easter break in 2022, however, Louise suggested I just do it now so that she can decorate the dining room, whilst I am away. Sounding like a win-win situation I agreed. We also agreed that running it and raising money for Regain would be a great idea.

On that basis I updated the website used for LeJog and updated the fundraising page. I will be posting a daily blog on Facebook (in this group) and if I can teach Louise or Charlie how to update the blog on the website, on there also.

Wesbite: www.peksa.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Lejog2021

Sponsorship: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Nicolas-Peksa6

My next problem was to work out what I am doing, I know very little about the Offa’s Dyke path, other than I quit after two days when I tried it as a student with my bother. My mantra that day was not a positive one like “take one step at a time, or just put one-foot Infront of the other”. It was “Pain, Pain, Pain…” to the rhythm of my footfalls. I know better now. I have a new matra that I had to resort to when I stupidly signed up to an Ultra Marathon in South Devon – who would have thought that the Southwest coast path was so hilly.

That day after 5000 feet of climbing up and down cliffs and 25 miles, I got to the flat section by the beach. The headwinds were brutal (50 kmph) and the surface was sand, however, as compared to the hills this was runnable. However, given the distance covered my brain said “I do not want to run”, so my new motivational mantra was born. To the music of Run to the Hills, by Iron Maiden – I would spot a bush or a rock in the distance, and I would sing “Run to that bush, Run to that bush, Run to that bush, run for your liiiiife.” I would reach the bush and then I would pick the next object in the distance and I would repeat the process. I suspect these tactics will be adopted for my jeffing (Jeffing is a purposeful run/walk technique that can be used for any distance) effort.

Let’s hope I can complete it this time. My concerns are as follows:

- What do I pack? I need to consider the temperature, the conditions underfoot , the lack of places to get water and food, how many daylight hours do I have and where will I sleep.

- Can I actually do it? 20-27 miles a day, with over 27000 feet of climbing sounds rough

- What if I fall over and twist a knee? Will anyone hear my screams?

- How heavy will my pack be?

- How will I navigate?

With some of these questions in the forefront of my mind, I bought a new backpack, a new water reservoir that suits the backpack, some waterproof gaiters and a waterproof covering for the backpack. I opted for a 36l Osprey Talon (bright red, as it was the only colour they had left).

Upon receiving it stuffed it with random stuff and tried a parkrun in full waterproofs wearing the 10kg backpack. It went ok, not my slowest run ever as the queue on New Year’s Day provided me with that. My findings from the test run were that running is possible and that I will have to take some lubricant with me, to minimise the skin lost on my back where the backpack will rub.

Time to plan the route and the accommodation!

Wish me luck.

Day 29 - John O'Groats

Mon, 16 Aug 2021 21:03:54 GMT

Day 29 - Racing to the finish line.

Nicks view: Go up this morning and cheered as I had no need for three layers of clothes. The owner of the Strathy Inn said I had two hills left and the were steeper than Bettieshill, so I left slightly earlier than Louise and attacked the first hill. The hill was large but actually the legs felty great so I cycled up it in high gear, the next hill also seemed easy. So I thought hell its the last day let's test myself.

Sticking to my guns I followed route 1 inland and the sky was blow, the farm animals were standing up and the sun was warming my skin, so I put the hammer down on the flat road. I have been averaging around 10 miles per hour most of the second half of the journey, so I upped the pace to 11mph, then 15mph and then 16mph. After 42 miles, with 1800 feet of hills my overall average pace was close to 14mph - way faster than any other day this month. I guess it was the good weather, the finish line being insights and primarily my legs not being shot (after Ben Nevis).

I arrived and touched the signpost and got my photo taken. I looked at the clock and I was almost two hours ahead of schedule for the day, so I went to the bar and got a beer (so Louise could not make me drive lol). Lots of people asked me about my journey and the only question they asked was "How long did it take you?"

The question I asked the LeJogger was "Which parts did you enjoy the most" and if they did it in under 15 days - I would ask them "What did you see?"

I will probably write one more blog entry when I return, just to collate my thoughts and highlight some other interesting observations. For example teenage girls in mid-Scotland only wear black! They walk around in groups like they are at a funeral. Ps. I also have an epic tan (glove tan, leg leg tan and arms.) I look kinda silly.

Please also remember this was a charity ride. So you you enjoyed the blog and are proud of Harry climbing three mountains please do drop Regain a quick donation: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Nicolas-Peksa6

Louises View: Sunshine! What a glorious day to finish! Left the hotel at 10am and went to Thurso town. Noticed a quirky music shop and upgraded Harry’s Ukulele. Had the usual bubblegum ice cream and headed off to the beach. There were lots of Jellyfish on the shore so Harry decided to give surfing a miss today, instead we collected shells and inspected the jelly’s.

There was a large sand dune and Harry spent some time carving out a slide with his bottom! We sat up there a while, we were told to look out for Orcas in the water, but they were being shy today!

Walked back to the van and rescued my flip flops just moments before being swept out to sea.

Get back to the van to receive a call from Nick to say he was at John O Groats, so we drove and met him. If you’re thinking I’m a bad wife not getting there before him, I will have you know I was planning on it! Nick told me he’d be there at 3pm not 1pm - his fault!

Harry and I are super proud of you Nick, as is everyone else. I knew you would do it!Maybe next time pick something harder, something that actually challenges you, run across the Sahara? Everest? Any other crazy ideas welcome from friends - he’s already wondering what he’s gonna do next! Just the long drive home now.

Harrys View: I went to the beach today and saw lots of orange, purple and pink jellyfish and they were small and medium and humungous. I also parkcorred up a massive sand dune. I got a new ukulele, it is dark blue and much better than my old one, it also have a lovely case with a shoulder strap. I got two picks swell, one black and one orange. We then went to John O'Groats to pick up daddy, I got a cuddly highland cow. If it had no legs would it be a lowland cow?

Day 28 - Altaharra to Stryth

183:876966646 — Sun, 15 Aug 2021 19:04:28 GMT

Day 28 - The day before the end

Nicks view: Started the day by having breakfast with Harry. We have been encouraging him to use his knife more actively during the eating process. Therefore the buttering his own toast challenge was initiated, he had to butter and pour honey over his toast before I had successfully eaten my full Scottish breakfast. Harry won the bet convincingly and earned himself 5p.

The morning started off with hope, I’m not literal hope just a signpost to Hope, 21 miles away – so Hope faded away as I cycled off in the opposite direction.

When I was planning this journey every route and guidebook tries to take me through Tongue. Google Maps tries also tries to take me through Tounge. I fought against the establishment and took a quiet B road that initially followed a loch and then the river Naver. This was also the route of the Strathnaver trail, the trail was quite interesting it has over 11 points of interest ranging from rich families evicting 1000 families to cater for their 2000 sheep in the Sutherland valley to being able to visit the Red Priest Stone and burial mounds. This route is definitely dog country, however I have managed the whole trip with not so much as a bite.

I left the minor road to get beeped by Louise speeding up behind me. We agreed to meet at Farr Beach - much prettier beach than those in Devon and far less crowded. Harry had a good surf and I left to complete the final 8.9 miles. Thank you North Scotland coast for throwing several 500 foot climbs on crumbling roads at me. We got to the Strath Inn, a tiny inn with 3 bedrooms and 4 tables in the bar. They do however offered the biggest breakfast I have seen to date - double meat and double egg - whoop. I am tired I went to bed for an hour or two before dinner.

Tomorrow should hopefully be my last day cycling. 42 miles and I will reach John O’Groats! As I have cycled so far we will have 3 days to get home.

Louises View: I had the best sleep last night, woke up at 9am and had a leisurely bath for an hour. Drizzly weather. We’re in the middle of nowhere so it’s not really stopping us from doing much. We drove from the hotel and stopped off at a lovely beach, unfortunately we had to share it with four other people!

The rain subsided and the sun made a brief appearance. After drying off we ate cheese sandwiches in the van and continued on our drive. The road again was very quiet with some beautiful scenery. We spotted sheep, cows and lots of Geese.

Last day of cycling for Nick tomorrow, then the long drive home. It feels like we’ve been away for ever, even Harry said today that he wants to go home now. If any of my lovely neighbours are reading this, I’m expecting welcome home banners, balloons and a marching band on our arrival please!

Harrys View: Today I went to the beach and the water was very cold and the waves were big. I surfed for minutes and minutes and minutes. I saw two dead birds out of the van window. I am happy we finish tomorrow so I can get home and see Puss Puss and going bowling with Charlie.

Day 27 - Getting intimate with wild goats

Sat, 14 Aug 2021 19:11:23 GMT

Day 27 - Dornoch Firth to Altahara

Nicks view: The wind last night was super strong, it was howling all night long and several of the tents around us were torn down and ruined. Rubbish was strewn all over the place. So first thing in the morning I cycled off up the hill into a headwind, I chose to cycle lands end to John O’Groats rather than the other way round so that I could be aided by a south westerly wind just my luck the wind was blowing in from the north. After many days of spotting no animals I finally saw some sealed colonies so I sat and watched them in the pleasant sunshine. I dropped Louise a note so she could visit them later.

After leaving the seals in the firth I joined the A9 I looked at the major road sign and saw my first signpost to John O’Groats. However I turned Inland. I got very excited when I saw A signpost saying wild goats for the next 1 1/2 miles. I kept my eyes peeled and I saw a goat however the goat didn’t seem to be moving very far. There was another couple John and Annie and they were looking at the goat through binoculars. It had its head caught in a metal fence, so team goat rescue decided to act. Annie held the goats legs and John and I guided its horns downwards and allowed it had to be free. The goat ran off up the mountain and all her other goat friends came to see if she was okay very cute.

The Inland road was a gradual incline, I passed by A memorial to Sir John A. McDonald the first prime minister of Canada. An odd place to have a memorial cairn, However there was some historical link to the town. I kept cycling up the hill and I was hoping the hill would eventually end, The rain started and I got out my raincoat and sadly I cancelled my Garmin ride again. The hill then went down into the town of Lairg, A town with a power station and an excellent dam. The next 10 miles were all uphill and these led me to the Peat bogs of northern Scotland. These peat bogs Are essential to the health of the UK as they hold three times more carbon dioxide than all the forests combined. I eventually got to the top and stopped in a quiet car park, this is probably one of the most remote parts of the UK and I was soaking in the peace and quiet. Until the Porsche club of northern Scotland arrived And filled up the car park. I photo bombed their group shot ha ha.

Louise let me know she had just left the castle so I looked at my GPS and saw that I had 8 miles left and she had one hour drive. So the plan was to arrive at the hotel at the same time. As ever I arrive 30 minutes early.

The last amusing thing that happened of the day was at dinner time. Harry saw there was burger on the menu and he did not know what venison was, so we ordered that.

Louise was concerned that he was over eating, so Louise gave me permission to let Harry know what venison was, I told him and pointed to the field behind the table which had a large herds of deer in it and said Ferguson which is local, in fact very local, comes from the deer outside. He simply shrugged his shoulders and said “meh” and carried on eating - daddy fail.

Just two days left, tomorrow we head to the north coast, there are supposed to be some aquamarine beaches there. Then the day after is the final push to John O’Groats and mission complete.

Louises View: Last night was the last of the campsites for this trip - it’s hotels only from here on in, get in!

A busy one today, beach first for an hour, Harry spent most of the time throwing a ball for a dog after concluding the body boarding would not be happening today due to the rubbish sea conditions.

Nick let us know of a colony of seals just down the road so we left the beach and headed there. We were lucky enough to see them, it was very special.

We carried on our journey and stopped in a village for lunch and a wander round, to Harry’s surprise we found another rock shop. We continued on to Dunrobin castle, which was majestic. We wandered round the gardens, watched a falconry demonstration and then explored the castle. Well worth a visit if you’re in the area.

I was lucky enough to actually track down a Highland cow, I’ve not seen a single one until today so swiftly jumped out the van with my camera. The hour drive to the hotel was very scenic mostly on the same single track road, I probably saw 10 cars in the time I was on it!

Lying in a lovely comfy bed now - in my own private room, ( boys next door wooo!) watching the deer from my window.

I think today has been the best of all for me.

Harrys View: I had a good time at the beach today and and we went to see some seals. Went to a rock shop and got some ice cream and I a ham and cheese toastie with a massive banana milkshake. And I bought a miniature geode in Geode scale because you can get some massive geodes, mine was the size of a watermelon. When we went to a castle and there was lots of military stuff and kings and queens stuff. There also had lots of falcons and red kites outside.

Day 26 -Tulloch Castle to Embo

Fri, 13 Aug 2021 15:17:32 GMT

Day 26 - Friday the 13th

Nicks View: Well its Friday the thirteenth what could go wrong? Luckily not much apart from puncture.

As the last four days of the trip are under 45 miles the blogs should not be that action filled. Today was a great example - I cycled down the backroads parallel to the A9, they were lovely and traffic free and I waved around the road like a drunk. Today I got to study the habits of sheep eating and I would have to categorize them into two classes, lazy ones and upright ones. The upright ones stand there and munch on grass, however, the lazy ones have a different feeding mechanism, they knee with their front legs on the floor and munch the grass. I would assume you can expend less energy and eat more in a faster time. Yet the award for true sheep laziness goes to a particular fat white one. Its eating habit was to lay down next to the hay trough and eat horizontal. Two of his buddies were joining him. Btw a lot of sheep tend to sleep at around noon. They always look dead.

Anyway after 10 miles I met some Lazy End to enders. These are the ones that have booked an organised tour. They have feed stations set up for them. They have lunch catered for them. They have all they stuff carried from one hotel to another. I have to find my own food and I have to sneak into campsites and graveyards to find water. But I got the same comments from them, they wish they had more time to stop and enjoy things. I parted with them and they headed off down the ugly B roads and I meandered of down a pretty national cycle route. I mean seeing oil rigs is just cool.

As the animal spotting inland is limited I decided to count crows. I was up to a good 12 when I saw the most massive murder of crows (the collective noun). I screamed at them to make them take off and I gave up at that point.

Louise was enjoying the A9 and we bumped into each other just before the Dornoch Firth Bridge. We were 8 miles from the campsite so I refused the lift. Anyway as I was watching the van cross the bridge, I was not paying attention to the road and boom - I blew my front tire. Some cyclists stopped and offered to help, but I had it covered. Thank you guys. 10 mins later I was on the bridge - did you know that the bridge is one of the longest bridges in Europe made by the Cast - Push method. You learn a new thing everyday. I enjoyed its 986m span and then turned off to the campsite. Good News they have a restaurant and arcades. We will all be happy tonight.

Louises View: Weather a little ropey today. Decided to drive to the next campsite less than an hour away.

On the way we stopped at a distillery- which was closed, not to worry as Whiskey is frankly poison, I still haven’t got over the time I drank a bottle of it when I was 15.

Next we went to a pottery shop, and Harry managed to convince me to give him £15 so he could buy a side plate (that I could of got for 20p in a charity shop)

Arrived at the campsite, nice location right on the beach, but currently sat in the van ( raining ) hoping to take a walk down when it stops. Arcades open at 5 so that’s where the boys will be for most of the evening probably!

Harrys View: Did you know that 10p coins are magnetic, I used them in the sand at the play park and found 65p. I also bought a plate from a pottery shop.

Day 25 - Loch Ness to Fortrose

Thu, 12 Aug 2021 19:56:08 GMT

Day 25 - Wildlife hates me

Nicks View: Waking up at night to go to the bathroom I realised that my legs do not bend. Thank you Ben Nevis you have hobbled me. Todays route was made up and the route change multiple times. When I was in the pub last night this poem by Robert Burns was on the wall opposite me.

Among the heathy hills and ragged woods

The roaring Fyers pours his mossy floods;

Till full he dashes on the rocky mounds,

Where, thro' a shapeless breach, his stream resounds.

As high in air the bursting torrents flow,

As deep recoiling surges foam below,

Prone down the rock the whitening sheet descends,

And viewles Echo's ear, astonished, rends.

Dim-seen, through rising mists and ceaseless show'rs,

The hoary cavern, wide surrounding lours:

Still thro' the gap the struggling river toils,

And still, below, the horrid cauldron boils-

What an impressive sounding waterfall. I though I have to see it! So destination 1 was the Falls of Foyer. I carried my bike down 100’s of steps to get to the view point (I even carried my bike down to get a great photo). I was expecting Niagara Falls, something epic. Look for yourself on the photo I took. I have seen more water on a flume at Pontins! Either Mr Burns visited on a rainy day or he had a very creative whiskey addled mind.

I got back to the top of the falls and I started chatting to another end to ender, when I turned around I notice Louise had parked 20 metres away and both her and Harry had missed me. So I waited to say hello. I sat at the top looking for Red Squirrel and Pine Martens. I spotted none.

After laughing at Louise struggling to get up the stairs (she got her revenge later - by videoing me walking down the stairs) I said hello and we said we were both heading to Inverness to have a look at the castle.

Off I went for a 10-20 mile cycle next to Loch Ness, I actually found myself staring at the water looking for the Monster. No Monster spotted. The ride was an enjoyable one, up and down, but in such a way you could get the speed up on the downhills to make it up the next hill.

After passing Dores Beach (a beach at the tip of Loch Ness) I bumped into three more enders. They were doing it the hard way - 15 days for the whole lot. They wished they had a little more time see things, however, a break is always good. I bid them farewell and they powered off down the main road, whilst I switched to the Great Glen Way. I love the traffic free road, you just cycle down the middle and ponder life and try and stare out the cows and sheep. I passed the start point of the South Loch Ness Trail, a trail marked by a red squirrel- I passed hundreds of sign posts but no squirrel sightings.

Inverness came next, on the approach to Inverness I cycled past a girl in her teens, her friends saw me but she did not. She squeaked up an expletive in such a Scottish accent, I laughed inside and said sorry on the outside.

I thought were would Louise and Harry be in Inverness? I headed to the McDonalds and they were across the road buying bath bombs in lush. Harry showed off his new glow in the dark pop it. Thank you PoundLand. We agreed to end todays cycle at Chanonry Point instead of Dingwall. It would be 1 mile longer, but certainly more interesting.

I got lost trying to find the Kessock bridge to cross the firth. But eventually I found the route through a very large wood based industrial estate. The Scots must be excellent furniture makers. After leaving the A9 I headed into the sweet little coastal towns and picked the route to Fortrose. This was my fastest section of the day 13.7 mph. I arrived in the town and asked Louise where she was and she directed my down towards the spit. The wind was so powerful I actually had to lean sideways to avoid getting blown over.

We decided to meet at Chanonry Point as was on of the world premium points for spotting bottle nosed dolphins and seals. They love the strong currents and rich marine life. With the wind battering the three of us we looked out to sea. Dolphins and Seals spotted - None.

Today was only 40 miles, and tomorrow will be 30, so hopefully my legs will recover for the brutal days to come. I could actually finish this in 2 days and 100 miles. However, the route we have picked will be an additional 60 miles plus. Sheesh.

One final point - I saw a nice statue in Inverness and took a photo of it. What is the third statue I can’t read it? (Hint below)

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/nicolas-peksa6

Louises View: Yes! Woke up to bright blue skies and had a great nights sleep. Decided to do as much as we could today to make the most of the weather.

Made our way to see some waterfalls first, single lane track for three miles to get there. Underwhelmed a little bit to see the falls, you’d think with all the rain recently it would be more dramatic. Not to worry, it was a pretty walk and was worth the visit.

Further down the road from hell, we found a gorgeous hunting lodge style cafe, in the middle of nowhere! Harry enjoyed seeing the deer and of course his mega hot chocolate. We left the cafe and headed to Inverness. I was hoping the road was going to go back to having two lanes, but alas No! It was single lane track for the next 20 miles or so!

We were going to visit Inverness castle, but soon realised you couldn’t as its now a court house, so we headed to the shops. On the way back to the van we spotted a seal in the river, Harry was so excited!

Next stop we headed to chanonry point, a popular place for spotting dolphins. We weren’t lucky today, so we will try again tomorrow. Hotel again tonight, things are looking up! I’m looking to extend the trip!

Harrys View: Today was a good day, I went to a waterfall, I saw some seals in the River Ness and I think I saw a dolphin tail. I got some new pop its and some fidget rings. :D

Day 24 - Fort William - Loch Ness

Wed, 11 Aug 2021 20:12:13 GMT

Day 24 - A short one

Nicks View: Today was a short one. I knew the legs would be slightly stiff so I limited it to an easy 30 miler. Again I chose to avoid the major A road and picked cycle route 78.I am so glad I did, I really enjoyed today before it rained.

Left Fort William and headed towards Neptunes staircase, I was really intrigued in finding out what this was. Its just a few locks in a line. How disappointing, I wanted a brutal waterfall or a 60% slope. I pootled along the flat canal and waved at boats and rowers. I sat under a tree eating an M&S flapjack and was having a nice leisurely day. Louise was in Fort Augustus, so I suggested we meet up for a Chinese meal. So she ordered it without asking how far away I was. 19 miles was the answer.

I was making good time until the canal turned into loch and I was sent into a deep dark forest (part of the Great Glen Way). Was enjoying the undulations and started a new animal watch. Pine Maartens.... none spotted. Then I was halted by a woman with a clipboard - they were high lining the forest. Pretty cool stuff if you have watched Big Timber on Netflix. Luckily they halted operations and let me proceed to the next check point down the road.

Enjoyed another disused railway from Invergary to Bridge of Oich, then I picked up the Caledonian Canal - must be one of the nicest canals for cycling in the UK. Flat and fast and deserted. Caught up with Louise and enjoyed a cold Chinese and we called it a day in hotel to take advantage of the Wifi.

Tulloch castle is our next destination.

Lousies View: Picked the boys up last night after 9pm and eventually all went to bed around midnight.

Waking up to rain again this morning and being tired did not inspire me to do much, so a lazy day it was.

We set off shortly after Nick and drove an hour to Fort Augustus. Nicks booked a hotel for tonight so we’ve ditched the campsite next to Loch Ness! Such a shame about the weather, but there’s only so much rain a person can take!

I’m used to Vanlife now. I have evolved. My personal hygiene has gone down the toilet.

I’m used to weeing in the tiniest plastic toilet known to man, which is confined within the 70cm square area that is called the bathroom. I’m used to sleeping on an uneven foam brick, I’m also used to sleeping within my width allowance which is a generous 50 cm max. I’m used to the van smelling of farts. I haven’t shaved my legs for at least a week, and I’m still rocking my denim shorts, hiking boots, and Harry’s blue monster socks, as I left mine in the laundrette.

That is all for today.

Day 23 - Big Ben

Wed, 11 Aug 2021 19:49:12 GMT

Day 23 - Peak number 3 - Ben Nevis

Nicks View: We woke up bright and early today and I looked outside and saw that Ben Nevis was entirely shrouded by thick dark clouds. I tried to put Harry off by telling him that it would be cold and miserable and we would get soaked. I told him this would be the hardest challenge of his life so far, but he wanted his medal and he could not be put off. So we packed my rucksack for all eventualities (rain, sun, wind and accidents) - instead of walking an additional 3.1 miles we pursued Louise to drop us off as the Glen Nevis visitor centre to start our walk.

Louise waved us off and off we went... we crossed the bridge and found the correct path and started our accent. I thought 1.6 miles per hour would be be done in 7-8 hours. My estimation was way out - after about 1 mile of gentle gradient Harry wanted a rest, for some reason he wanted to rest every time he saw someone resting. After a brief stop we started up again.

The first thing you notice is how miserable everyone looks coming off the mountain, some looked destroyed, others were limping, but mostly everyone just looked like their hamster had just died. At this point we vowed to be all happy and smiling when we passed people on the way down. We zigged and zagged and we established our position in the slow death march up the valley. We were about the same speed as grumpy dude and son, long haired spitting bloke, welsh bloke with Liverpool friends and a family of 4 that rapidly became 2 as father and son quickly dropped - Rachael (mother) and Sarah (15 year old) Daughter.

Harry persisted telling everyone he this was his third peak in 10 days and that he was only 7. He actually got quite a fan club going at the end. Everyone walked faster then us, but rested frequently, so we would eventually catch them all up. This is very similar to running a marathon, you form your own little bubble of people your own speed and you stay with them for some 20 miles.

Harry would catch up with a group and they would shout Go Harry, you are doing so well. Rachael and Sarah were especially nice and Harry had some excellent Minecraft conversation. The nicest thing someone said about Harry: "Harry is a machine, I can't go on, he keeps coming, he like the Terminator." I do hope welsh dude made it up he was really struggling. We talked about KFC and McDonalds and that we would have both when we got down..... as it happens we got neither. Booooo

Instead of making up stories of KFC being at the top we targeted the dog walkers with our witty banter. We did this in two way. Firstly when we saw a husky type dog we would both shout "WOLF run". This confused the owners and made other people stare lol. The second thing we would do was: Harry: "How come your dog is so full of energy and he is running down?" I would then ask the owner "Do you feed your dog burgers and crisps." They would almost certainly say "No". Then I would turn to Harry and say "Dogs don't eat junk food and they are killing in, I'm going to start feeding you dog food." It passed the time.

We were very lucky with our ascent, every time we got to the clouds they dissipated. This is also the time I wanted to try an experiment. I asked most people coming down how long they estimated it would take to reach the top. Some said 45 minutes, others said 2 hours or more. I was going to use the principle of wisdom of the crowds. I was hoping a collective opinion would prove to be accurate. People were so far out it was horrible.... the only bloke that approached this puzzle in a decent way was the man who reflected on the number of zigs and zags left plus the long bit and provided an estimation of that basis. We did not ask the mountain biker how long, as if you push your bike up the mountain your nuts. I did ask him if he forgot his bike lock :) We also trusted the husband of Rachael, who said with all sincerity that we had 2 hours left. He was totally right.

It took us 5:40 to climb the mountain, very very slowly. At the summit the clouds parted and it was stunning, we must have been only a handful of people to see the beauty of the valleys below. Harry even commented. "Now that its clear, that has to be the most beautiful view I have ever seen."

The summit was great - no queue, although the back side of the observatory smelt like a urinal. People has left mementos at the top.Someone even had left a box of Ferrero Rocher - I considered it briefly and asked a girl, would it be rude to eat one. She was thinking the same thing. We did not.

Now we had summited we had to worry about daylight, if we took 5 hours to get down it would be dark. So with this in mind we set off at a faster pace. Most people had left the mountain by now so there were only a handful of us left. Most of these were just people enjoy the mountain. We briefly talked to Wolf Lady and her wolf, we would overtake her everyone once in a while when she went off exploring or mediating or swimming in the lake.

With light fading fast, out came of the gnats - Harry and I discussed the potential for the film. Swarm: The day the swarm of gnats ate the boy! We watch people all around us do the gnat dance - very funny, but also very buzzingly annoying. At 9pm we got down and met with Louise. No fast food as the worlds worst KFC - Fort William (you should all be fired you useless morons) had decided to close because, wait for it they were tired and they had had a busy day. Not surprised your parking lot looks like a tip. You Lazy buggers. And McDonalds did not accept foot passengers in the drive through (height restrictions on the van).

All in all a good day - but a long day. We are all proud of you Harry!

Louises View: it’s mountain climbing day for the boys - and that means a day off for me!

Well when I say day off - I’ve cleaned the van inside and out, washed the bedding, went food shopping and had a shower - where’s the day gone?

It’s 8pm and still waiting to hear from Nick when they are at the bottom so I can pick them up. Pretty sure everyone will sleep well tonight!

Harrys View: Today I climbed Ben Nevis its the highest mountain in the UK and its 1345m, it taller than Snowdon. I have the t-shirt to prove. I found it tough, but it was the easier of the 3 peak because its basically just a long walk. I burnt 3500 calories so I will have two patties in my burger tomorrow.

Day 22 - A beautiful but terrible road

Mon, 09 Aug 2021 18:44:19 GMT

Day 22 - Tyndrum to Fort William

Nick View: Time to run the gauntlet today. My choice of roads are 48 miles on the A82 or nothing. Left our log cabin at around 9:30 with the view that I would have hopefully missed the rush hour traffic. I checked google maps appraisal of the route and it said mostly flat (so in reality this could mean anything at all.) Puffed my way up the first hill and encountered an Audi in a ditch, thats what happens when you speed pass cyclists - Karma. Later on I saw a BMW in a ditch, I was hoping for a Volvo XC90 aswell so I could shout BINGO, but the only other one was a VW parked in the middle of a roundabout.

If you are reading this on Facebook prepare for some gratuitous mountain shots. It is really hard to capture the true splendour of this mountain pass in photographs. The views are stunning and the mountains are just so high. The cycle went ......ahhhh what a lovely sight...zoom, zoom, zoom. Silence.... zoom, zoom, zoom..... you get the gist.

Louise told me she had just left so I sat on a bridge in the highlands and waited for her. Got a photo of her arriving. I stole some of Harrys sweets and then was on my way again. We agreed to meet at Treasures of the Earth.

The sun was out and I was kitted out in full bright orange jacket. I was sweaty but at least the cars could see me. Pushed my way of the second and final hill of the day and caught some stunning views of the surrounding mountains. Then came the down hill to Glencoe..... now it was my turn to zoom.

Eventually got to petrol station at the head of the Loch and refuelled. I was adventurous this time and went for a chicken tikka sarnie (with a milk shake). I thought I had 11 miles left, sadly it turn out to be 19.... I had run out of energy as I had been pedalling at a serious rate to avoid death by SUVs pulling caravans.

I saw a ferry loading for Fort William and I was super tempted. However, I beat it anyway (it must have been going to Mull). Started to follow the Great Glen Way and finally got within 1 mile of Treasure of the Earth and boom - down came the rain. Soaked to the bone in seconds - my lovely dry shoes (thanks to the drying room) sopping wet. I arrived dripping wet expecting to meet Harry and Louise inside, however, as with lunch in Porthmadog, they did not wait. Our communication needs to improve as I added 2 miles to get to this bloody museum in a reasonable time. With burnt out legs, I tempted Harry back in with the promise of some more gems. I bought some lovely agate bookends. Pleased with my purchase we strapped up the bikes and went to the campsite.

At the campsite Louise told me she was really sick of chips and she needed a roast. So I cycled all the way to Farmfresh and bought a microwave chicken dinner. Cheeky cow turned her nose up at my good intentions and ate my frozen kebab....pah.

Ben Nevis for Harry and I tomorrow. Does he realise how hard it is going to be? 10.5 miles and strenuous walking. I am dreading it. Firstly it will ruin my legs and secondly I will get sick of saying come on Harry, hurry up Harry. Wish us luck.

Louises View: Well wow, the sun made an appearance today for a few hours, lucky us! We had a lovely slow drive through the Scottish mountains, scenery is just stunning. We stopped off at Glencoe and had a look around the art gallery and craft shop. Later on we went to Fort William for a visit to treasures of the earth - we visited here last time we were in Scotland, Harry totally loves this place, especially the gift shop! Met up with Nick and made our way to the campsite. Nick cooked for me tonight - a frozen microwave kebab �� At least Harry is eating reasonably, you may mistake me for Mr Blobby upon our return.

Harrys View: I bought some lovely gems with mummy and got 3 lucky dips, Daddy went in the shop and I got three more and some magnetic rocks. I wonder if I can make a whirlpool in water with them.

Day 21 - Sometimes the hard way is the best way

Sun, 08 Aug 2021 20:25:22 GMT

Day 21 - Drymen to Tyndrum

Nick View: Hitched a lift with Louise to the town of Drymen, as I did not want to cycle that same road to the campsite again. My choice was the A82 and under 50 miles or the hardway and close to 60 miles. I chose the hard way, to avoid the major roads.

I took route 7 which was shared with the Rob Roy Way. I was welcomed with a 2 mile uphill start. At least it was not raining yet. Squirrel watch has finally been successful - sadly it was a bloody grey one. When cycling up the hill I noticed wild strawberries, raspberries and bilberries. I would have been tempted to eat a few, however, I remember back to when I was a child in Sweden and I ate some red currents from the side of the road. Lets just say I did not like the way the Swedish doctors took my temperature.

My legs felt really drained today, so after the massive hill I had a straight down steep descent with was refreshing. I approached the town of Aberfolye, it looking like a place I would like to go on Holiday. I followed route 7 faithful and came to a section that said - off road..... so I took it and I enjoyed the waterfall, watching people on an epic Go Ape and some of the entertainments in the forest. Sadly route 7 took me up a blooming mountain deep into the heart of the Trussochs and Loch Lomond national park. I pushed my bike half of the way and got to the top. Expecting a nice descent I was wrong, it was a bone jarring one way road. I was slightly surprised to be overtaken by a 7 year driving a car (sitting on his dads lap). This is one of those places that you can go wild camping.

After losing feeling in my hands, I made it to the bottom of the road, no rest for me it sent my down a mountain bike route. I laughed inside at the campers walking 0.5 miles will heavy gear. Surely you would be prepared and have a camping trolly? The route took my up and down the banks of Loch Venachar. After some more draining bumps and lump, I came out onto the road to Callender. Went to Tescos and bought my lunch: A milkshake, hula hoops and a BBQ chicken sandwich. I ate them and noticed the clouds amassing on the horizon. And then it rained and rained, I hide under a tree hoping for it to clear and eventually gave up. It rained for the next 4 hours.

Hit some old railways and eventually hit another beast of a hill. The first section was 10-15% for a few hundred feet, following by a 2% incline for the next 4 miles. This railway track was beautiful and not to bad to cycle up. It eventually spat me out onto the A85..... talk about stressful 16 miles of rain soaked cycling with nobs in Audis and BMWs not leaving me much space and driving at 70mph. These were my hardest and fasted 3 segments of 5 miles. I dug deep and went into the red, I finally with 1 mile to go found a side track, I crawled my way along it. Thank goodness they have a drying room here. I will have dry clothes and dry shoes - how exciting.

Overall, it was a stunning day, but a tough day. 4000 plus feet of climbing over 58.8 mile

Louises View: We stayed at a beautiful spot last night, right next to Loch Lomand. What a shame it poured with rain all day long! Harry didn’t seem too bothered and rode his bike around the camp regardless. Another night in the tent for me, Harry left the zip open without me knowing so when bedtime came and I climbed into the stupid thing I realised the bottom half of my bedding was completely soaked. I should of made Harry sleep in there, but I didn’t, instead I laid in the fetal position and sobbed until I fell asleep ��

Anyway, today we stopped off at a castle and had a walk around the grounds, followed by lunch in the oldest creepiest pub I’ve ever set foot in. Really really bad Taxidermy everywhere! Tried to visit the waterfalls but failed, no room in the car park, a 437 point turn to get back out onto the main road again, taking a few low hanging branches with me.

Arrived at our accommodation, trying to dry all the wet clothes/shoes/ tent is a nightmare, but luckily washer and dryers here, hurrah! Oh, and a bath and WiFi-bliss!

Harrys View: I had a good day today, it was a short drive in the camper van. I felt a bit ill. We went to a pub that was really old, made in before 1900. I ate a big burger and chips. I am looking forward to climbing my next mountain.

Day 20 - Rain please stop!

Sat, 07 Aug 2021 19:59:31 GMT

Day 19 - Ayr to Cashel

Nicks View: I really was not looking forward to today. A trip through either Glasgow or some of its surrounds. I prepared to run either Ayr's or Troon's Parkrun. I was seriously considering it, I took my barcode and everything. However, had I have run it I would be completely wiped out today. 82 miles with some hill was more than enough. I did not get the choice to run it in the end. As I entered the Ayr town centre I notice I had a front puncture :( The first one of the trip. So stopped outside a cafe to fix it. I took the tyre off and felt inside the rim and caught a thorn. Damn cutting of hedgerows.....

Replaced the inner tube, pumped up the tyre and listened to it pop. I threw the pump to the floor and shouted a few swear words. Passerby said "och, one of these days".

Phoned Louise as I was about to quit for the day when I spotted a bike shop close by. Puncture mostly fixed. He found a few more thorns. I called off Louise and headed on my way.

Passed Glasgow Prestwch airport - 29 miles from Glasgow and 4 miles from Ayr. Cruised my way past multiple golf courses included Royal Troon. Cycled along the sea front and was enjoying the day and then it started to rain and rain and rain. 25 miles later the rain mostly stopped. I passed through Paisley and ignored another Cathedral and made my way to the river Clyde. Dear god the cycle path ended and there was no bridge. I was nooooooooo - I have to cycle miles to get around.

Lucky there was a clue by the river - there was a pub called the Ferrymans Inn. Then I spotted the Ferry and checked my watch... yes it was open and a request service. The next part was slightly strange a woman with 2 young girls approached me and wanted me to safeguard them across the river. The ferryman was not keen, and nor was I - they were two kids about 10 and they seemed to have either gone on an adventure or run away. It was better that they stayed with the woman and maybe she called the police from her office. Had I have taken them across the river I would have left them there. Not very safe.

The ferryman was thankful I supported his view for what was best for the kids and gave me a free ride across the river. I followed the signed on the other side and it said 15 miles to Loch Lomand. Great...I thought, then a biblical rain storm hit, I was cycling on the canal path, however, it was also a river. I got soaked, everything I owned got soaked. So I carried on....

I was also concerned I would not make it to the campsite, as my phone was on low and I brought the wrong chargers. Bluetooth off, WiFi off and set into low power mode.

Cycled along the river Leven for a while and watched the fishermen catch no Salmon. They must bite in the rain there were 100's of them out. Got to Balloch and I thought almost there. Turned on the phone and nooooo 16 miles to go. It was hilly and wet and unpleasant. I even had a little swear at Ben Lomond (the peak next to the campsite). I don't need 15% gradients with 80 miles in my legs, with only a bag of tomato crisps and a ham and cheese sandwich to fuel me.

Arrived safely with 1% charge left on my phone. Louise thoughtful had prepared me a roast dinner. I dislike roasts, but I ate it thankfully. Looks like tomorrow with also be a pig of a day. I am on the wrong side of the Loch......

Day 19 - Wet, steaming lump of Ayr

Sat, 07 Aug 2021 19:31:16 GMT

Day 19 - Dumfries to Ayr

Nicks View: Sent multiple messages and called Louise asking about breakfast. No Answer, so I ate alone. I asked reception what is the best way to get to Ayr. The feedback is there is no good way to Ayr..... The day started off with sat-nav sending me into a field and then another field and at the third field of cows I turned back. Did you know that on average 4 people get killed by cows in the UK per year. I did not want to be a statistic!

The squirrel watch continues! I'm still looking to see one of these furry red critters. I did see a deer and a hare though.

Ayr is a bit like Devon with rolling hills, the old military road sent me up to around 500 feet and I stuck around there for a while. It then started to rain and then steam and then rain. I have figured out at a 5% gradient water turns into a mini river. Carried on with my hills for the next 40 miles and eventually got to around 1000 feet. I would love to say I enjoyed the downhill, however, a heavy rainstorm spoilt that for me. The rain was super heavy and blinding - eventually found the campsite and dripped everywhere. So how do I describe the road to Ayr? Its a wet, steaming lump.....

Mind you I did enjoy my dinner, half of Louises dinner and some of Harrys dinner :) The arcades were also fun. When Harry hit the ticket jackpot his face was a delight. He was so pleased. He swapped his tickets for another pop it. How many does one boy need. Will I run parkrun tomorrow?

Louises View: Last nights sleep was amazing and we had a lovely breakfast this morning at the hotel. I am Feeling fresh today! Unfortunately the weather was pretty fresh too with torrential rain and wind. We drove the scenic route to the campsite, visited a few castles and a factory outlet. We’re at a Park Dean resort tonight, spent far too much cash at the arcades as the weather is naff, and drank Slushies until our tongues went blue. Bed time now - Hurray!!

Harrys View: Today was a good day. We got to the campsite and there was a park. We went to the arcades and I won the jackpot on the pirate spinner and got 1000 tickets and I got a cool rainbow pop it. Mummy nearly got the van stuck in mud, I wasn’t really worried.

Day 18 - Welcome to Scotland

183:876966646 — Thu, 05 Aug 2021 19:23:14 GMT

Day 18 - No red Squirrels

Nicks View: None of us liked last night campsite it was too crowded and it didn’t really feel like a safe place to leave your bikes unlocked. Harry is still naive and he does not understand there are some people that they will take advantage of him, so we kept him with us for most of the night. We spent a happy half an hour on a grabbing machine to win a soft football in Italian colours worth about 50p it only costs £10.

After climbing Helvellyn my legs were shot. I was walking like a cat with toilet rolls on its legs. Fortunately this morning the DOMs (delayed onset muscle trauma) was better. Still sore, but I know my legs would warm up. I have now entered a part of the Lake District where red squirrels were prevalent, I cycled past slowly passed woods and trees looking for them. I heard a noise in the bushes as I was peddling my way up a 12% gradient. But no luck sighting these little chittering beasts.

I crossed the A66 and saw a sign for the Appleby horse fair it was warning motorists that there may be horse and carriages on the road. I think this is insane because it’s a dual carriageway and I wouldn’t even cycle down it. I feel sorry for the poor horses and motorists stuck behind one of them. My next town was Greystoke I wonder if this was the inspiration for Tarzan, so I stopped and asked a local. They suggested I go to the local pub, they had some information on it. However, she was sceptical. I passed a town called Flusco (I must be getting close to Scotland). FluSco like a Sottish governmental vaccination program.

About 10 miles into the ride I decided that as today was mostly downhill I would try to extend the mileage and reduced tomorrow by around 20 miles. Much to Louise‘s pleasure I’ve booked us into the Holiday Inn in Dumfries. Harry and I had previous stayed in on our last John O’Groats adventure. I’m sure we’ll show mummy the secret maze later. With a 3 course dinner and breakfast booked combined with a peaceful night sleep this will be bliss. One thing you notice in rural Cumbria is that Audis, BMWs and Lexus SUV are replaced by Sainsbury’s, Tesco’s, Asda delivery vans. I guess the Northern part of the county is a place where the middle-class masses dare not venture. The further north you go the more insects are biting, my legs are starting to look like one of Harry‘s popper toys.

The squirrel watch continues and yet no luck. If you ever get s chase to pass close to `Dalston, take a look at Rose Castle, it looks like a pretty cool place to have a picnic. Neat the castle was Limehouse school, I think I’ve heard of this school but I’m not sure why. It looks like a fabulous place to get an education maybe something to consider for Harry in the future.

Dalston had a huge Nescafe plant, it was a bit of a surprise to see in the middle of the countryside, next to the plant I rejoined cycle route 7. I followed this cycle route from into Carlisle and saw the castle - my last chance to use my English Heritage membership - I passed on by. Carlisle is a very strange city it's half industry, half countryside - I blinked and somehow I was through it.

After leaving Carlisle headed towards Gretna - I saw a sign got Cargo and assumed this was for cargo freight, lots of rubbish lorries were using this road. Only to discover that Cargo is an actual town. The rubbish lorries were heading to the recycling plant boarding Scotland lol. Just before Gretna I got caught by my first level cross of the trip. Two cyclists, one on either side of it and a five minute wait for a two carriage train with no people in it.

There was a heavy police presence along the English - Scottish borders - I wonder what that’s about I have seen at least five different police cars. Maybe its just because Grenta is a bit run down.

Finally made it to Gretna and saw a halfway signpost (did not know this existed), took a photograph the Welcome to Scotland sign. Both Louise and I passed the Devils porridge museum, both of us were curious, but neither of us stopped. This will be something to research on the interest later.

Question: How do you annoy Harry?

Answer: Call him a Newbie (referring to Minecraft.)

Close to the town of Newbie there was a signpost to Minefield. Kinda close, however, to head into the minefield would clearly be a newbie mistake. The next village was Powfoot - was a cool name for a town also a character name in minecraft. The roads here were brilliant and I was happily cycling down empty lanes with a nice breeze at my back. I found myself singing and whistling for around 10 miles, I also discovered that I don't know any lyrics to any songs (just some choruses). So I started to create my own songs, I was singing them joyfully and loudly much to the bemusement of the horses and sheep. Arrived at the hotel and just beat the rain. Time to chill and watch the olympics :)

Louises View: Made our way towards Scotland, and called in to a fab farm adventure park. Harry is living his best life, I don’t know where he gets his energy from. We’re busy most days and then he’s out playing until 10pm most nights. I dread going home, I think Harry will be super bored having experienced all this new found freedom!

After the adventure park we stopped at the Miniature Museum, where we looked at some very tiny exhibits with our magnifying glasses. I’m like the cat who got the cream! I write this from a Hotel bed, the room is the perfect temperature so I won’t have to sleep with my face mask on tonight, and may I just add that I have my own toilet that I don’t have to share with anyone else! For one night only, I am also living my best life!

Harrys View: I had a good day today I went to a farm park. There was a massive horse and a reindeer who was an escape artist. There was a big park and a castle play area. The slides were like waves and were cool. The museum was good.

. We are very lucky to have a hotel tonight. I’m really pleased I don’t have to sleep in that tiny tiny tiny bed.

I had sticky toffee pudding.

Day 17 - Trains, baths and reactors

Wed, 04 Aug 2021 19:47:41 GMT

Day 17 - A rest day

Family View: Woke up under the shadow of Helvellyn - deep in the valley the sun only reaches us at 8-9am. So we all frozen overnight. Louise slept with her facemask over her nose and eyes and both Harry and I slept with sleeping bags over our heads.

Just a quick question? How can you tell if a person is either from Yorkshire or a Vegan?

Todays plan was to go on the steam train. On the way we passed places that I remember from my childhood... Sellafield nuclear decommissioning station and Barrow in Furness. I asked Louise if we could go to the bus depot, but she said no (chewitts advert).

We were all expected creams teas on the orient express. There was a steam train and there were cream teas, just not what we imagined. The train was tinyweeney as you can see from the photos. Our journey was from Ravenglass to Dalgarth Boot station.

Louise asked "How on earth with they serve us cream tea here?". I now understand why they laughed at me when I asked if there were toilets on the train. Basically we squeezed into a train carriage that could just about fit four people in, in fact the train was travelled so slowly it was recommended that we keep the door open the whole journey.

We arrived at the Delgarth station and we did have a lovely cream tea - served in the reception area of the train station. Harry tasted the clotted cream and said Yuck. I then mixed it with strawberry jam and he face slammed the scone happily. Instead of visiting a 15th century mill or the stunning Delgath waterfalls, Harry went to play in the park and Louise when for a lie down on the lawn. I sat on the bench nodding off holding my painful legs.

We returned by the same train to Ravenglass Station - we mooed at cows, we stuck our heads out on the moving train and waved our hair around like Russell Brand (pretended to be an poodle) and baaed at sheep. The most fun was when the other train passed in the opposite direction - we all frozen in silly positions whilst they waved. Upon returning to the station we walked to the Roman baths in Mudcaster. I mentioned there was 1 in a million chance of finding a roman coin and Harry was already planning how much he could sell his for.

We returned from our walk and drove to the next campsite.... great news we have Gas! So we ate more microwave meals.

Tomorrow we are Scotland bound. Btw the answer to the question is they tell you in the first 30 seconds of meeting you.

Day 16 - Peak number 2 (Helvellyn)

Tue, 03 Aug 2021 19:42:58 GMT

Day 16 - Helvellyn (short and steep)

Nicks View: Woke up bright and early and realised the chances of those two getting up anytime soon was close to zero, so I got back into bed and read runners world which sent me back off to sleep until 9:30.

The Original plan for the day was to climb scarfell pike, however, with Helvellyn in the back garden of our campsite our three peak challenge has altered. Helvellyn is the 3rd highest peak in England at 950 metres. The height difference being a whooping 28 metres So I believe this is acceptable. Infact we gained more that 28 metres just getting to the start line.

One interesting fact about the hill is that someone managed to land and take off in a plane from the top plateau. Very cool or very stupid lol.

The climb was actually quite tough - even though it was only a 2 miles walk, it was an endless staircase of rocky steps. The whole journey took as 3 hours to get up. I am proud of Harry for his efforts as many people gave up on the way. People were dropping like flies…..Harry laboured on and he made it his mission to tell everyone he climbed Snowdon 4 days ago.

Poor Harry did fall over near the top, as I am always prepared out came the first aid kit and I fixed up his elbow.

The views from the top of the mountain are pretty amazing, you can see the lakes and hills stretching out in the distance, we were higher than planes and helicopters. Of course not higher than the sheep and seagulls. After all a mountain to not a mountain unless it has sheep.

Harry took a look at the view and said - “I believe this is called the Lake District as there are loads of lakes.”

We got cold at the top so we hurried down. The journey down was not very eventful- we did create a little dialogue when we sae children coming up.

Harry would say “I can’t believe they had a KFC at the top.”

I would respond “yeah the zinger burger was good, shame they close in 45 minutes.”

We would then listen to the children pester their parents for some finger licking good chicken.

2 peaks down - 1 to go. Thank you for making us dinner Louise. The microwave chips and microwave burgers were delectable.

Tomorrow will be a quite one - we are going on a steam train! Followed by a cream tea for two. I guess I will miss out. Probably no cycling tomorrow. A proper rest day.

Louises View: Got up, made pack lunch for Harry, waved them off. Tidied up, went to the pub, ate several packets of crisps, watched a film, read a book, welcomed them home and cooked dinner. That’s all for today folks!

Harrys View: I climbed another mountain today it was called Helvellyn, we did this instead of Scarfell Pike. I fell over lots of times - it hurt a lot. Daddy looked at my shin and said that will leave a mark. I felt really tired - 9/10 tired. I liked the views from up there…. I have earned my silver medal. I miss Wi-fi!

Day 15 - Halfway through Leg

Mon, 02 Aug 2021 20:46:07 GMT

Day 15 - Freckleton to the Lake District

Nicks View: The campsite last night was quiet and modern, a bit more difficult to erect a pup tent, so it was 3 in a bed again.

I’m ok with this as I sleep through most things. As ever I had prepared the night before so I had a lie in and left the site at 7:30. It’s surprisingly busy on the back roads 10 miles away from Blackpool.

Saw a curlew in a field it was singing away happily in a field. After 11 miles of cycling I got to a super busy junction connecting Fleetwood, Blackpool and a few other places. I decided to cycle on the pavement to prevent long traffic queues. However a blue van man took exception to me cycling on an empty pavement. He honked me and stopped in front of me. I cycled passes we he went further down and made sure he had time to get off of his van and block the pavement. I decided to stop and see what he wanted to say, in these circumstances you always say sorry and I accept that they are right and don’t argue. He was saying you could get fined £500 for cycling on the pavement and if you are not happy cycling on the road you should not be cycling. I said I’m happy to cycle on the road, I’m just being considerate of the rush hour motorists. He reiterated the point about cycling on the pavement and I still said I was happy to cycle on the major road. I also suggested to him to watch the tail back I would cause. Phew made his point, I held up traffic. Everyone’s happy apart from the 100 people trying to get to work lol. Has anyone heard of a person actually getting fines for cycling on a pavement (assuming they have hurt no one)?

The first 30 miles flew past as I glided down the back farm roads of Lancashire. I eventually found another disused railway called the Millennium lake track, this took me straight into the heart off Lancaster. If they had a cathedral I missed it as I rapidly found the Lancaster canal - I saw a signpost for Kendal (22 miles) and I though brilliant a nice flat route through to the next stop on route. How wrong could I have been.... First I passed lovely little villages and locals had put some creepy dummies in their gardens by the canal. The path was tarmac but bumpy - the myriad of houses backing onto the canal was lovely, with their white walls and manicured gardens. The houses faded anyway and were replaced by fields of wheat and cattle. A caught a few cheeky moos having a munch on the water lilies,. With the fading settlements so the path deteriorated. - from gravel to mud to overgrown paths. I was literally cycling through ferns. After 10 miles of soul destroying bumps - the canal just stopped!!!! The M6 bridge blocked it.

Skirting under the bridge I hit a new section of the canal, a non-maintained one. 7 locks all left to nature, they were like pretty waterfalls. This part of the canal system was more historical and it stopped and started a few more times as the M6 chopped it up. I finally got so lost - on a farm footpath in the middle of a field with no canal I gave up and just restored to the minor roads of the Lake District. I was wondering why the guide books don't warn you about this hills. Then I released you don't go into the Lake District on LeJog.

The Lake District is really beautiful with hundreds of VW camper vans trying to mow you down on the A roads. People who own the following SUVs - Volvo XC90, Audi SUV, Lexi SUVs.... you may well have money, but don't drive so fast and dangerously. To the Audi driver that opened his door without looking - shame on you.

But my first near death experience was thanks to a white van man. I just chugged up a 250 foot hill and was bombing it down into Windermere and he just pulled out infront of me. 20-30 mph resulted in me fishtail skidding for 20-30 metres. Phew.....and that is why pavements are better than roads.

Grasmere is a pretty cool town, Wordsworth and Peter Rabbit all a stone through from each other. But the hill to the campsite was another thing...... endlessly it went up in the full heat of the sun at an 8% gradient. I made it to the top and all was forgiven. Helvlyn is on our door step, Scarfell is 1.5 hours away. We are going to change the peak :)

Todays ride was over 3300 feet, with most of it coming in the last 20 miles of the 81.... ouch.

Louises View: First stop food shop, a little trip to Tesco, how exciting! Lovely sunny day so we went and spent the afternoon at Blackpool pleasure beach, a blast from the past, haven’t been here for around 30 years.

We were scheduled for our Helicopter ride today at 5pm, but upon arrival we were told that our flight wouldn’t be going ahead due to technical difficulties with the Helicopter. Harry was a bit upset, so in a bid to try and cheer him up we were given a private tour of the hanger with some very cool private planes, and sent away with a large bag of chocolate - that cheered him up! We will reschedule our flight for another time.

Almost a three hour trip to tonight’s campsite, would of only been an hour and a half but sat nav took us in the opposite direction of where we were supposed to be - grrrrrr! Having no phone signal as we’re in the middle of nowhere I had to resort to an actual map and amazingly got here eventually.

Currently sat in the pub next to campsite for the sole use of using their WiFi as the cruddy campsite has none, how will we all survive!!! If you need to get hold of me you won’t be able to, I’ll be in my tent sulking!

Harrys View: I went to the blackpool beach and went on a rollercoaster called crazy coaster. It span around and went backward, then went to an arcane and got three silver doggies and visited a museum. It told me lots of amazing facts - like spider webs are stronger than steel and the worlds tallest man was my height when he was four. Did you know the worlds fattest man ate 6 Big Macs for lunch! A loaf of bread for breakfast and I can’t remember what he had for dinner. The helicopter was cancelled and I was really sad. But they did take us into the private hagger to see the jets and red carpet. Mummy got loss and it took 22.3 minutes longer to get to the camp site. Tomorrow we are climbing a mountain.

Day 14 - How can I avoid Liverpool City Centre?

Sun, 01 Aug 2021 19:13:43 GMT

Day 14 - Picton to Preston

Nicks View: Today was a monster of a day for two reasons; long milage and large cities. Fortunately it was a Sunday and roads were very quiet and I managed to sneak through some less favourable areas.

Left the campsite before 7am feeling really rough, even getting up the drive was a laboured effort. It was cold this morning so I decided to wear two additional layers; a hoodie and a coat. Made my way down the to coastal "A road" as quickly as possible and then powered it down the road as quickly as possible. In no time at all I viewed flint castle. My plan for today was to cycle 10 miles and then eat something, cycle 10 more and eat something else. It mostly worked so I was not a total wreck when I arrived at our site west of Preston.

The decision point for where I was going was at Conans Quay, either head North and hope there will be a ferry across the mersey or carry on east and head up to Warrington. Given that I was looking at the violent crime stats for Liverpool the night before (around 200% higher than the national average) for most of Liverpool, the choice was made for me. So I carried on east and joined the Queensferry canal, what an epically surfaced, flat path. I was averaging close to 20mph down it for miles, it was one of the highlights of the trip to date.

On this river I crossed the boarder into England again. The difference between England and Wales was: Wales had benches, England did not. The Welsh are joggers and the English are doggers. There was a pill box at the boarder on the English side, I wonder if it is still manned?

As with every major city I got lost in Chester, took a photo of my third cathedral of the trip and then tried to figure out where to go. I saw a pack of Chester City Cyclists waiting to start their ride to I asked them for advice. I said I was aiming for Warrington... the feedback was head to Fordsham and then go through Runcorn and Widnes. They went on to explain that both Runcorn and Warrington were equally horrible places, but Runcorn had more cycle paths.

So off I went, eventually came to the split point and heading across a bridge towards Runcorn. Runcorn is a maze of motorway and A road junctions. I entered one super bad area of Runcorn. Its so bad the pub beer gardens have 8 foot metal fences around them to prevent the locals from stealing the picnic tables. Fortunately I felt safe in this rough part of two as the Police were conducting a raid on a house when I arrived.

Another way of telling how good an area is by looking at the rubbish on the floor. In Devon the roadside litter was pet food pouches, whereas Bristol was more energy drink cans and Chester was Costa Coffee cups. Runcorn's litter was super glue tubes, Nitrous oxide canisters and energy drinks. I wonder what the young people were trying to repair?

After crossing over the Runcorn bridge, the road quickly melted into Widnes and then St Helens. The Chester cyclists were right the cycle lanes were very nice. In fact St Helens looked quite nice. After heading past the town of Clock Face and passing a burnt out combine harvester, I headed North. I enjoyed the cycle paths next to the major roads for miles. I stopped at a country pub to get some drinks and listened to people order lunch....

Steak with peppercorn sauce, Chicken Caesar salad, Vegan Lasagne. I drooled as I ate my Londis cheese and red onion (reduced) sandwich and an apple flavoured energy gel. Btw I have noticed that the women in this part of the world wear strong perfume. I can smell them from 20 feet away. How odd is that?

Later on I did consider a McDonalds drive through on my bike, but the queues were so long. My route looked me onto the Liverpool/Leeds Canal. It was a lovely stretch of water, however, the tow path was a ball buster (bumps, more bumps, grass and mud) and I decided that A59 would be more fun.

Arrived at the campsite after 85 miles of cycling in the heat. Maybe I should have taken off my hoodie. Louise commented that she could smell me from 20 feet away. I guess thats Karma. The campsite had a bath so I did have a relax for 5 minutes, before Harry come knocking as mummy wanted my cash for a takeaway.

Tomorrow will be just as long.... 83 miles to the Lake District. Wish me luck.

Louises View: Nothing much to report today. We left the campsite around 10, got twenty miles down the road only to realise that Harry had left his hoody and stupid poppy toy thing behind in his friends tent! Joy! So off we trundled back to get them.

Harry is still achy from his hike, and looks a little tired with all these late nights, so a lazy day was in order.

Arrived at campsite around 1pm and have just had a quiet day. Hoping his batteries will be recharged for tomorrow. We’re not far from Blackpool so we will probably take a visit there tomorrow.

Harrys View: Meh

Day 13 - Castles and Waddling Ninjas

183:876966646 — Sat, 31 Jul 2021 20:36:20 GMT

Day 13 - Somewhere near Snowdon to Picton

Nicks View: Im exhausted and my legs don't work. I cycled down some nameless lanes in the drizzle and ignored road closed signs. Saw some castles and Britains smallest house in Conway. Cycled passed the signs for waterfalls, diverted 10 miles to get to ninja world. Almost died getting up the ninja climbing frames and then repeated hurled myself off 5.5 metre objects onto airbags. Cycled online the coast line and enjoyed shouting on your left or right to the billions of people on the dedicated cycle lanes. Windfarms, interesting sea defences, wore women's clothes - cycling like a zombie.... Tomorrow will be a brutal 80 plus miles trying to avoid Manchester and Liverpool. the strong drugs are coming out tonight!

Louises View: Woke up to rain, Booooo! Climbed out of my cold damp tent and microwaved my self some water for coffee, as still no gas! Packed everything up and set off to Surf Snowdonia, where they run only the coolest activities - surfing ( obviously) climbing, mountain bike jump track, and a ninja assault course. The surfing was fully booked, but Nick managed to get us in on the Ninja course. It was provisionally booked for Harry and I, But sensing Nick was suffering with an extreme case of FOMO I reluctantly ( lie ) let Nick take my place.

There was only one problem- Nick needed trousers for the course and had only packed shorts, I told him there was nothing else for it. He would have to wear my lounging trousers, assuring him they were very stretchy, and blatantly lying I told him that I thought he could pull it off. He went with it of course, not caring what others think of him!

I grabbed my spot in the spectator lounge, breathed a sigh of relief, and had the best hour of amusement from those two trying to complete the course - taking into consideration they can barely walk from the climb yesterday!

After that we had lunch and watched the surfing. Thoroughly recommend visiting here if you’re in the area, conveniently there is a Hilton opposite.

We proceeded onto Rhyl. Had a quick play in the arcades and a wander down the coast. Back in the camper, carvery in the pub and on to the next bloody campsite!

Harrys View: I have an xl popper from the arcades and I have ninja Parc skills. I want to go surfing so bad - its epic there.

Day 12 - Snowdon Summit

Fri, 30 Jul 2021 19:05:44 GMT

Day 12 - Seasons in the Abyss

Nicks View: Today involved no cycling as we have reached the first summit attempt of the trip: Snowdon.....

Getting up in the morning, this was possibly the worst weather of the epic adventure to date. Low cloud, cold and continuous drizzle. Louise having tracked the weather over the last few days luckily bought Harry a hoodie and tracksuit bottoms.

Paul the Director of Regain, met us at our campsite just before 8:30 in the morning so we could get an early start on the hill. We chose the Rhyd Ddu path for a couple of reasons; it was close to our campsite, parking is always quite straight forward and less people walk up this path. Reading the notice board at the start of the climb, we duly noted that we were not properly equipped, no one remembered the ice axe and crampons.

Harry was full of enthusiasm at the start of the walk, I think close to 10,000 words left his mouth before we even got to the first proper steep section. He was planning to eat the clouds when we reached them. Instead of asking are we almost there yet - it was "How high are we?" or "How far have we travelled?". We had to crack out the snacks in the first mile to keep energy up.

The sun broke a bit and the layers came off, then the rain came and the layers went back on, followed by gale force winds and the layers were wrapped tighter.

We graded the walk into levels and stages - level 1 being flat and level 5 being pro climber. We had some tough negotiations about what grade we were walking on. Just before the ridge Harry started to stall. Paul was very encouraging and suggested a medal for finishing the climb, a silver medal for two of the three peaks and a gold one for all three. This spurred him up for a bit, however, it was short lived. As we had tried the carrot we next tried the stick, I lent him my walking poles, and this worked for a while. However, he stalled again and he suggested we pretend we made it.

We laboured on and found that I could lure him up the mountain with beef space raider crisps..... We eventually made it to the top ridge and the cloud cleared for a second... "Jesus" Harry exclaimed as he saw the two 300 foot drops either side. He was also hollering at the sheep close to the top asking what they were doing there.

Finally we summited in really strong winds, it almost ripped the flag from our hands. Happy to have made it, and given the cold, cloudy and wet weather we decided to take the easy way down, via the motorway - Llanberis path. It did not seem that busy today, mainly as we could not see the people infront or behind us.

As we descended into the clouds - Harry came out with the lovely phrase.... "are we descending into the abyss?" At which point I taught him the lyrics of a thrash song that I thought was from the album Seasons in the Abyss.

"Before I drown in sorrow

Well I just want to say

How will I laugh tomorrow

If I can't even smile today?"

Cheered on by the invigorating song we stopped at the halfway cafe for the worlds most expensive snacks. Tea, hot chocolate, skittles and a flapjack close to £8. - nice.

Harry was dead tired when we got close to the bottom, he lay on the verge and told us he could not go on....but the brave little soldier did and we finally got to the bottom - after a spate of backwards walking lol. We bought the t-shirt, and some walking poles for Harry (which I look forward to carrying for him on the next peak). Paul managed to flag down a taxi which returned us around the mountain to the car. Thank you for the support and the enjoyable day.

As we still have no gas - we got a takeaway delivered to the campsite - at which point all Harry's energy returned and he is now bombing around the campsite on his bike. Speak to you all tomorrow.

Louises View: So far, we’ve been really lucky having met some lovely people on the campsites, but not so lucky last night!

A family of 5 next to us in a tent. The arguments started around 9pm and continued on well past midnight.

At first it was exciting, I’m missing my TV shows and love a bit of drama, but by 11 I’d had enough! The one bloke clearly had enough and told his wife ( I’m guessing ) he was going, he jumped in his car and wheel span at speed out the campsite meters from my tent! I’m extremely grateful he didn’t loose control and run over me!

By the time that all quietened down the rain began to fall and I eventually drifted off.

Early wake up call to see the boys off, they are climbing Snowdon- they weather is pretty bad so I hope they make it up safely.

Nothing much to report otherwise, I did some washing, downloaded some stuff to watch on the iPad and spent most of the

day snoozing on and off in the van.

Managed to order a pizza and almost wet myself laughing as Nick fell out of the van backwards - best laugh I’ve had this holiday!

Harrys View: I climbed Snowdon today it was very hard, over 3000 feet and it was very windy. I discovered that clouds taste like chocolate biscuits. It felt like we were walking up a stairway to heaven (or Hell). I planted a flag at the top.... it was harder going down than up. There was no Coop in town so no Minecraft stickers for me.

Day 11

Thu, 29 Jul 2021 18:50:08 GMT

Day 11 - Tywen to Snowdon

Nicks View: So much for an easy day. I miscalculated my route to discover 34 miles was in fact 48 miles. At least I stayed later and help Louise take down the tent and unmake the beds. We agree to meet for lunch in Porthmadog so I set off and waited for Louise to tell me where we should meet.

Todays cycle was along the windy west coast of Wales, the beaches here look really nice and I was flying along until I saw a really long bridge. I headed down hill towards the sea and cycled along a dyke until I reached Barmouth bridge. It was a rail and foot passenger bridge that cross an estuary... the planks of wood moved under wheel and it was super bumpy (I thought I was in Devon again). Got to the end of the bridge and there was a Troll. A troll toll - you got to place a voluntary donation into a trolls mouth. So I paid for my passage.

Leaving Barmouth, I cruised along the sea front when I got a message from Louise that she was just leaving. So I decided to speed up a bit to make our lunch date. I did take a slight detour to Harlech to visit the worlds Steepest street. It was a good 40%.....as I was pressed for time I did not climb it, or cycle down it. I just looked at it and headed out of Harlech. I then proceeded to bury myself as Louise was still 12 miles away.

I hammered it down hills, I screamed down cycle paths and I weaved through traffic, my legs were burning and I could hardly move my legs faster or breathe, all my focus was on getting a hot meal- I found Louise and Harry just finishing their lunch!!!!!!! "Oh, sorry I thought we were just meeting". said Louise.

So I walked to Tescos, with my bottom lip quivering and proceeded to have a beef and onion slice and a banana milkshake for lunch. :( Whilst I was in Tesco Louise did try and phone companies for cooking gas - but there is a 12 week wait in NW Wales. Microwave dinners again.....

I did get some good news by email in Porthmadog. My adventure hero Sean Conway sent me an e-mail.

"Hey Mate.

Really good going. Hope you’re a bit cooler now. Keep pushing

Sean"

What a legend! - https://www.seanconway.com

Louise and Harry went off to the beach and I headed off to the campsite. The first section of the Snowdonia National Park was smooth sailing, until I approached Beddgelert, where the hills started. I did notice a rather cool looking river with a perfect plunge pool. I have drive pass that point many times and I have never seen that river. Hopefully Harry and I can take a dip tomorrow.

Beddgelert has stone monument in the field marks the resting place of 'Gelert', the faithful hound of the medieval Welsh Prince Llewelyn the Great.

The story, as written on the tombstone reads:

"In the 13th century Llewelyn, prince of North Wales, had a palace at Beddgelert. One day he went hunting without Gelert, ‘The Faithful Hound’, who was unaccountably absent.

On Llewelyn's return the truant, stained and smeared with blood, joyfully sprang to meet his master. The prince alarmed hastened to find his son, and saw the infant's cot empty, the bedclothes and floor covered with blood.

The frantic father plunged his sword into the hound's side, thinking it had killed his heir. The dog's dying yell was answered by a child's cry.

Llewelyn searched and discovered his boy unharmed, but nearby lay the body of a mighty wolf which Gelert had slain. The prince filled with remorse is said never to have smiled again. He buried Gelert here".

The last part of the cycle is the reverse route of the Snowdonia Charity challenge. I love the road down into Beddgelert - in the challenge when you come down from Snowdon - this makes up the 2nd cycle leg. You fly downhill at 30 miles an hour for a good few miles. The opposite directly is slightly less fun - when your legs are fried and you are calorie deficit (as they are all in Harry and Louise.)

Tomorrow we are climbing Snowdon with the Director of Regain. We are really looking forward to it.

Louises View: Today we visited Porthmadog and Black rock sands. My Nanny Pam used to bring me here as a child on holiday so it was lovely to be back and reminisce. (A miracle is wasn’t raining today!)

We stopped for lunch and had a wander round the shops, Nick met us briefly, then we left and headed off to the beach.

I love this beach so much, but don’t think I’ve ever spent a day on it when it isn’t blowing a Gale! Today was no exception, the camper is so convenient- no struggling with the wind breaks.

The Boys are climbing Snowdon tomorrow, I’m not, I’m gonna sit back and relax with a book and make the most of the peace!

Harrys View: Today we went to the beach and some shops. Sadly they had no Minecraft cards. I had great time today I met one of my favourite YouTubers (Nick - the kid was lying lol). Tomorrow we are climbing Snowdon, I am a bit nervous as it is going to be really tiring.

Day 10 - Crossing Wales

Wed, 28 Jul 2021 20:51:00 GMT

Day 10 - Brecon to Snowdonia - records galore

Nicks view: Yesterday evening was a war zone, two military war planes flew over after conducting missions in the Brecons, we think they were troop drop planes. In the tent next door was a soldier and finally some bombs went off. I was sleeping and suddenly I heard an explosion in the camper van at 00:09. The second explosion happened at 2:17. My heart was racing after each boom, I jumped to my feet and looked out the window to see what it was. I had no idea, we were not near any trees, my bike had not fallen over or maybe it was the soldier playing silly buggers (whilst all this was happening both Harry and Louise did not stir). So I went back to sleep and at 4am, my sub conscious told me to check the freezer. Yes, mummy left 4 cans of Vimto in the freezer and two had exploded. I removed the other two and had a couple more hours sleep.

Setting off in my head I was doing what Facebook suggested. 90 miles plus 5000 feet of climbing. I was doing brilliantly well until around mile 20, when I saw a super smooth and flat footpath next to the river saying "ride me, feel my smoothness". Probably not the best idea in the world as this lured me away from my route and introduced me to the Wye Valley walk.

I have always been interested in long distance walking paths and long cycles, however, I have never been that successful when I have tried them. In my late teens, I planned to cycle to Snowdonia, I returned about 1 day and 70 miles later with heat stroke. As student I tried to walk some of the Offa Dyke path with my brother, sadly my DM's mashed my feet up in a couple of days and all I could do for 5 hours is to repeatedly say "Pain, Pain, Pain." We called it quits at the next train station. So it was a pleasure to be finally cycling the Wye Valley walk. Of course this was up until the point where it turned to an old coach road leading uphill. What a nightmare..... So at the first opportunity I switched back to A roads.

A roads in this part of the world are flat and a have a good road surface - so I was happily blasting down one and then the heavens opened up. These roads suddenly became more challenging with standing water and 20 tonne lorries spraying past you. So when I saw a familiar sign from route 8 appear I followed it. The sun came out and it was all very pleasant.

One of the things I do to pass the time on the saddle is to compare the prices for half a dozen eggs outside peoples farms. Mid-Wales wins with a stunning offer of 6 eggs for a quid. People in Cornwall were charging as high was £2.50. Mind you Cornwall sells their preserves and jams outside, Devon likes to sell eggs and firewood, Somerset offers eggs, firewood, fresh milk and some cases potatoes. Wales - just sells Eggs and garden plants.

Anyway back to the cycle - the sun came out and after climbing for an hour or so I found the prefect hill. It was dry and straight, no rubble on the road and you could see oncoming traffic for a mile or so. Time to let the breaks off. 42mph!!!!!! a new personal record for me.

Carried on cycling for a good hour or two more and entered the Hafren forrest. Stopped at a picnic site and talked a mother and her two children and their friend. They were cycling from Shrewsbury and across Wales on route 8. They had done LeJog last year, what a great way to spend time with your kids. I loved doing that 126.2 mile ride with Harry - more people should do it. Anyway we got talking about route and the mother said - we reach the highpoint of our ride soon and then its all downhill from there. The high point is through the Machynlleth pass. I though we were at 1000 feet now so what's an extra 500 feet. We parted ways and I looked at my route and thought let's do this. Then as I descended from the forests into the valley, suddenly 500 feet of climbing turned into 1000 feet. Ok still doable, however, as I started to cycle up the 7% gradient hill into a bloody strong headwind, I thought oh dear. Turned out to be some 1750 feet. I made it up!

Started to zoom down the other side, however, the wind was so strong it was almost knocking me off my bike. I did manage to sustain 19.5 mph for 5 miles! Another new record...... it was down hill all the way, however, it dawned on me that Machynlleth was not my final stop. I still had over 19 miles left. I limped my way the rest of the journey and the total was 87.11 miles with 6499 feet of climbing (another record for me). Louise beat me to the campsite, so I was looking forward to a nice cup of tea and a warm meal. Did I get it?.... no I had to heat the water in the microwave as Louise was too busy eating a pot noodle. Im setting up the tent asap and she can sleep outside lol.

Tomorrow is only 34 miles and quite flat... what will I do with my time?

Louises View:We couldn’t be bothered to put the tent up yesterday, so all slept together in the van. What a terrible experience! 10.30pm lights out and sleep, but not after a good 20 minutes of Fake farting and actual farting. Oh how hilarious is was. When Harry eventually went to sleep around an hour later I had the pleasure of being kicked the the face every few hours, as Stupid Daddy suggested top and tailing. I’ll also add the van was on a slope so I had both harry and Nick practically sleeping on top of me. Needless to say, I’m erecting the tent tonight.

So today was fun, Harry and I went Goat walking in Brecon, followed by some time in a park and a walk along the river.

We had a 3 hour drive which was hairy at times, smelling the brakes burning as we drove down the very steep mountains gave me anxiety!!

Gas has run out - pot noodle tonight

Harrys View: Today we went to see goats, we walked the goats and got to brush them. Dots the goat was very pesky he tried to run away. He almost pulled me over into some poo. I was cuddling a baby goat. After I went to the play area and had some food - Chips and chicken. Then I played in a river, it was not to deep but quick deep, it was not too cold but quite cold. You get used to in about 30 seconds. We then left for the campsite. It took a long time to get here about 2.5 hours, I made friends in the campsite and I played football and cycled around with friends.

Day 9 - Welcome to rainy Wales

Tue, 27 Jul 2021 18:13:25 GMT

Day 9 - Yorkley to the Brecon Beacons

Nicks View: This morning was a 7:30 start and looking outside it was nice and dry. Today we venture into the depths of Wales. But first I had to leave Yorkley - a small town located on the summit of a hill. The first couple of miles were lovely long downhills at speeds of 30mph, I then switch to the family cycle track that runs parallel to the main road (this is a route that I have run many times whilst marathon training). I started to head towards the red mountain biking route at the cycle centre but then I thought that would be stupid knowing how many miles I had left. So I Just carried on.....

The Forest of Dean is a hidden gem, when people think about staycations they think; Peak District, New Forest, Cornwall, Devon, Snowdonia and the Lake District, but, when you mention the Forest of Dean, most people say where is that? Well let me tell you the Forest of Dean is the adventure capital of Gloucestershire. It has loads to offer: Canoeing down the wye, forests walks, mountain biking epic trails, climbing tree courses at Go Ape, visiting coal mines, steam trains, lidos and the list goes on. The place is also famous for wild boar, they root up everyones gardens and generally scare me when they jump out onto the trails at dusk when jogging. Sadly no pigs today, but I did see a herd of 5-6 deer running away from me. It does have one slight downside, it's very hilly.

Cycling 40 miles in the FOD is harder than 40 miles in Snowdonia... so I had to pick my route very carefully. Rather than just plotting out what looked like the shortest route I resorted to looking at the google maps cycling option and picking the least hilly route. The solution was to get into Herefordshire as quickly as possible and then skirt around the Brecon Beacons and then dropping into them at the last possible moment. This worked a treat, today was my fastest day by far with an average of 11mph over 55 miles (even with 3150 feet of elevation).

My route took me to Goodrich castle - this really excited me as I could get some value out of my English Heritage membership. I cycled up the hill to the castle gates to find it did not open until 10:00.... So I hoiked my bike over the fence and stealthily had a private visit to the castle. Gloucestershire quickly turned into Herefordshire and I enjoyed the smooth roads and powered my way to Hay-on-Wye. Welcome to Wales and welsh Covid rules.

Hay on Wye is famous for being a town that is almost entirely second hand book shops and antique shops. I think the place is adorable. I arrived at the main car park and then camped up in a parking spot to wait for Louise. You see Louise needs a large space to fit the camper van in. The car park was huge, but yet people wanted to park in the spot I was sitting with my bike. My tactic was when people looked at me to get my spot, I made some gorilla gestures and pointed to where they were plenty of spots available. One person did park right next to me, however, the woman in a nearby parking spot commented really loudly how selfish some people were and they drove out of it again. We had a chat about our journey and how she had done the three peaks before. We then together held the spot and defended it from motorists and Louise arrived shortly after. Thank you for your help!

Books purchased: The little book of cats and kittens, a book on comets and metors and one of the history of the Tarka trail that I cycled the week before. I would loved to have stayed longer, however, Harry is not very patient. Oh we did see a celebrity in town. Russell Brand was hanging out the side of his open camper van door (a hired quirky camper van, my I add). I know its a rule that as an adult you don't have to wear a seat belt in the back of a camper van, but door surfing.... honestly. I can only think there could be two reasons for him doing this.... either he was making video blog or documentary or he just wanted people to see him. I go for the later explanation - egoistical nob :)

After doing the tourist stuff I got back on the bike and Louise when to the supermarket. 10 miles later I beat her again (sadly I did not beat the rainstorm). Tomorrow will be a long day - I have taken the advice of the Facebook group and I will cycle the 90 miles along the river wye and save 5000 feet of climbing. Btw did I mention that the 5000 feet of climbing is mainly in one shallow hill that lasts for 40 miles!

I did have some fun with Charlie this evening, he text his mother asking for Pringles to be delivered to the house as I can get them cheaper through my amazon subscription. Little does he realise there is a £40 minimum order if you want free delivery. Looks like Charlie will be receiving 30 tubes of Pringles, 5 packets of biscuits and a cucumber for the piggy at 10am tomorrow morning. I'm not joking either - enjoy the marathon training and the salt headaches from BBQ Pringle overdosing.

Speak to you all tomorrow.

Louises View: Feeling refreshed after not one but two decent nights sleep! Packed up the house and set off on our way.

We met Nick in Hay on Wye and now all have new books to read- useful, as we are the victim of some heavy showers so outside play isn’t happening too much for Harry right now. Please bring back the heatwave.

Harrys view: We did not do very much today, but I did get a meteorite for my collection, I also got a giant lolly which I have been eating for hours. I tried to get some money off in the shop, however, the man would not negotiate on the price of the rock. I did get a free chain for it though.

BTW: Thank you hippy lady from Glastonbury for the donation :)

Day 8 - Rest Day

Mon, 26 Jul 2021 19:47:04 GMT

Day 8 - Rest day in the Forest of Dean

After all coming home exhausted yesterday, today was a rest day. Louise and Harry were dead to the world in their respective beds until 9am….(when I woke them up). Great that they got their sleep in. I had more pressing engagements - watching the olympics.

Today’s family activity was Go Ape, Harry climbed his way up 3 loops and bum ground the floor on 3 zip lines. Only one minor meltdown up there. Good job Harry. What amused was what he said to an adult he looked very scared.

“Don’t be afraid of heights it won’t kill you, it’s the fall that will.”

Said adult only completed loop one haha.

After monkeying around we had two choices - go down a coal mine or have a pub lunch. I was outvoted so we went to the Rising Sun Inn. Two mental dogs love at the pub; Willow and her pal. Willow stares intently at a stone and kept slapping me with her paw. I called Harry over to amuse the dogs for a bit.

Harry played an odd game of fetch, they bounce around him wanting the stick. Harry throws the stick. The dogs fake chasing the stick and Harry goes and fetches it. One dog must have be watching the Olympics, he conducted a perfect two foot ninja kick to Harrys belly. Trunk shot 2 points :)

Food was average, the service below par , the drinks were warm and flat and the whole place looked a bit run down. An example of the service:

"What would you recommend to eat?" I asked.

"The Faggots are good" they said. I ordered that, then was told they had run out. Nice we were the first customer to order too. Louise got a totally different dish to what she asked for and the condiments glass only contained mustard, brown sauce and tartare sauces. Yet the place is always rammed. The advantages of having a captive audience.

The rest of the day was van, bike and body maintenance.

The day after tomorrow is horrific! Why did I not plan 4 days to cross Wales. My choices are 82 miles and 10,000 feet of elevation or 90 miles and 5,000 feet of elevation….. what would you do?

Day 7 - Need a rest day - we are tired

Sun, 25 Jul 2021 19:37:51 GMT

Day 7 - Glastonbury - Yorkley

Nicks View: What a long day..... started before 7am and I was quite disorganised, I started my journey and then looped around after a couple of miles to pick up the keys to the house in Yorkley that I forgot to take. Ended up being a waste of time as Louise and Harry arrived only 30 seconds behind me.

It was Sunday so I could have taken the A roads, however, I stuck true to my mission and continued on the back roads. I know the people of Somerset have a funny accent, however, I believe it has translated into their spelling. Instead of cycling down a long drive, I cycled down a number of droves. Took the strawberry line, another disused railway, thought it only lasted a mile or so. Made it to Wells and it started raining, so I get my wet weather gear out and accidentally reset my trip computer - this is annoying as I would have completed my longest activity on Strava.

The cathedral in Wells was very disappointing as it was covered in scaffolding so I moved on quickly. The next port of call was Wookey Hole. As Louise mentioned that was where I proposed. We stopped there on the way to stay in a hobbit hole for two days. Love you babes!

I thought I was don't with hills, noooooo... the first hill of the mendips was brutal. 600 feet tall and rather steep, I sweated my way up - I was lucky this was early in the morning. If this was the last hill of the day I would have probably sat on the verge and called a taxi. The next few miles were uneventful, and I continued into the Chew Valley, quite pretty, but I made the stupid choice of trying to avoid Bristol and I opted for Route 41. More hills and more badly trimmed nettles.

I thought I was heading towards the Clifton bridge today, but it appears my guidance went wayward again. I ended up in a massive country estate with high deer fencing, I asked for directions and I was guided into woodlands. I did meet two lovely ladies training for the Green man. An ultra marathon around Bristol - you go you. Arrived at the end of the forrest to be met with a deer fence. Do you know how hard it is to carry a bike over a 10 foot fence lol.

Out of the estate route 41 took me to a mountain biking course. The garmin told me take blue. So I took the blue course, road bikes don't do well on gravel downhills. The blue run ejected me on the Avon and I had to track it for what seemed miles to get to Pill. At pill you can cross the river next to the M5, very cool I was cycling faster than the traffic. A bloke in the other direction said good luck. I was puzzled by this...

Upon cross the River I ended up in one of the less desirable parts of Bristol. I see what he meant by good luck.

1) The route was closed and badly directed

2) Anyway that has Kill the Police painted on the roads might not be a great area.

3) All the subways had their lights out with signs pointing out that had set on fire. I could see the fire had got a few cars as well.

This was one of my faster sections, the route then took me through deserted industrial estates past the first Severn Bridge and onto the next one. More routes closed so I had to power it down the major road to get to the Old Severn Bridge. Please note the last 3 of my adventures have taken me across the Severn Bridge so it has a special place in my heart.

I was tried and I frowned my way across it. Refuel at a petrol station in Chepstow, looks like my deathly eating is screwed. Fuel was two mini pork pies, two milkshakes, two bottles of water, a peperami and a bag of scampi fries. Next I dropped into Chepstow and I really did not want to use the A48, but I looked at the elevation profile and decided I just could to make it up more hills. My plan for this undulating route was - get to the top of a hill, switch to my highest gear, pedal like a maniac and hope to get up the next hill. It most worked. At Lydney I arrived at the turn off to Yorkley and walked most of the first hill. Eventually got back on the bike and just about made it home. 72 miles, with limited calories and 4700 feet of elevation was tough. Thankfully tomorrow is a rest day. If you can call going to Go Ape as a rest lol.

Louises View: I’ve totally given up hope of getting a good night sleep on this trip, last night was truly ridiculous!

Live music stopped around 11pm, followed by a fabulous storm and Harry spent the next hour spying out the window at the party goers in the beer garden �� ( nosey like Daddy! ) A brilliant place to stay however if your on a proper adult night out and not with your 7 year old.

After a posh breakfast in town we made our way to Wookey hole. Last time I was here Nick proposed!

Harry had loads of fun in the old time arcade, and was thoroughly freaked out by the tarot card lady ��

After buying a load of tat from the gift shop and another bubblegum ice cream we set off to Newport for a sarnie and a cuppa with my mother. Managed to clean the van out after Nick trashed it this morning I’m guessing on one of his search and destroy missions!

Received a text from Nick saying he was close to the Forest of Dean, so we set off to meet him. Arrived at the Forest of Dean house, I cannot tell you how nice it is to lounge on a sofa as I write this! We have 2 nights here, so time to catch up on some TV and washing!

Harrys View: We went to wookey hole and I got to go in a cave and a play park and I had bubblegum ice cream. The cave was cold and drippy. I don’t really know if I like caves or not. We bought Daddy some cheese.

We went to see Nanny and then drove to the Forest of Dean. I like being back in a house.

Day 6 - Thank you for the rain

Sat, 24 Jul 2021 19:31:59 GMT

Day 6 - Dulverton to Glastonbury

Day 6 - It appears to have rained overnight, when I got up in the morning it was reasonable dry. Today was planned to be the longest day of the trip to date - some 59 miles (however, 64.3 when I got lost a bit). Starting at around 900 feet in mid Devon, the first 5 miles of the day was a bracing downhill jaunt, wearing a jacket for the first time I zoomed down hill at an average speed of 14.7 mph.

Mid Devon drivers you guys need to take care on the roads, the road kill count was pretty impressive. 3 rabbits, 1 hedgehog, some pigeons and sadly a black cat (Charlie keep puss puss in the house). Mid-Devon is lovely, the town of Bampton is gorgeous - they were hosting the mid-Devon country fair, however, it was not open when I passed.

It started to rain harder now, so out come the waterproofs. I cruised through the town of Cockland, I did not hear a single chicken. I also wondered how the owner of Cockland manor addressed himself in public. The master, the lord? Either way sounds like an x-rated film.

I snuck into Somerset and enjoyed the roads and chatting to a couple walking their dogs. One of their fathers had done a similar ride for his 50th Birthday. If you read this you are now obligated to sponsor me :)

Somerset is lovely and flat, Greenham is a pretty village with a church and about 5 houses, I wonder if Church is compulsory?

I arrived in Taunton only 1.5 hours late for the Parkrun, never mind. From Taunton I took the canal path. It was called the space walk, the only thing space like about it was they had a few signposts taking about planets. The route was a little overgrown so the choice was smacked in the face by reeds on the left of the path or nettle stings on the right. I am getting immune to stings and bites... nice :) I did notice multiple pill boxes/bomb shelters on the way - did they or the locks come first? Who knows....If they came second, why not place them overlooking the locks?

On the canal I bumped into another cyclist called Jay, you can tell a cycle tourist, they have the look. He was embarking on the massive mission of visiting all of Englands cathedrals. Much respect goes to him. We posed for a photo and then he departed for Wells and I aimed for Bridgewater. I watched the traffic crawl on the M5 and laughed at anyone leaving Devon choosing to take the M5....rookie mistake.

The canal turned into fens, flat and fast and unforgiving if you take the wrong road. 1 mistake resulted into an additional 5 miles. I powered down the roads and at the end of the day managed a 10mph average... nice. Glastonbury is funny, its full of people who forgot they got old. The facemasks came in handy to block out all the incense and weed in the air lol. Harry bought me an Adventurite gem for good. Luck I will carry it on the journey. I would like to have climbed the Tor with Harry, but I best save the legs. Another long day tomorrow, we are off to the Forest of Dean - where we will take a semi rest day. Off to go ape.

Louises View:

So last night I was in the tent again! And let me tell you, it was scary!

The sky was black, the wind was howling through the trees, I just laid there praying the tree I was under was not going to be struck by lightning. Heavy rain started around midnight and continued into the morning. I got up around 7.30 and joined Harry in the camper, we decided the best thing to do was to watch Willy Wonka before doing anything.

After packing away the tent and sorting the camper out we headed off on our way to Glastonbury. Traffic was a pig (on the M5) and took us around three hours to get here.

We’re in a hotel tonight - above a pub, in the centre of town that has live music on until 11 - once again I don’t anticipate getting much sleep, but I have a lovely comfy bed and a proper loo - result! Harry absolutely loves it here, totally in his element with all the quirky shops and people. Had a nice meal out so no spam wraps tonight! Spoilt for choice for nearby attractions tomorrow, not sure where we’ll end up.

Harrys View:

had a great day today looking at all the cool gems in the shops. I got a cool rainbow sequin hat, I’m not risking wearing it up a mountain as it might blow off. I had scampi, chips and peas, my favourite dinner. Mummy annoyed me because she said I couldn’t have dessert.I wanted sticky toffee pudding.

Day 5 - What goes up must come down

Fri, 23 Jul 2021 19:20:56 GMT

Day 5 - Barnstable to Dulverton

Nicks View: Another early start, I snuck around the campsite like and ninja and nothing heard me apart from the snarly woofy dog in the next tent. Bella the dog, thoughtfully woke everyone else up at a reasonable time lol. The first problem of the morning occurred after the leaving the campsite...... GPS said locating satellites and found nothing, so I had to improvise and use the OS maps app to find my way. I wanted to stick to my plan of continuing along national cycle route 3 so I headed towards a place called Stoke River, I assumed this would be a nice quaint village by a following river - not the source of the bleeding river. The good news is I am getting my cycling legs in shape. I puffed my way up the first 6.38 mile long hill. I passed a lady and she said not long to go now.....she was so tanned, I assume its because she lives at this ridiculous altitude.

Finally broke 1000 feet in elevation and headed off the wrong way down the hill. From this point on at any up or downhill junction I would check the direction first. I have also discovered three additional things about hills.

1) If you weave from side to side like you are running a slalom course you can get up gradients of 10-15%.

2) When you get really high up, you actually feel very sad dipping into the next valley knowing you have to climb up the other side.

3) Horse files are bloody annoying, they follow you up the hill and as I am peddling about the same speed as an OAP paying for their shopping in Waitrose, they keep on biting! Horse flies 3, Nick 2 :(

Anyway after another couple of miles and a depressing loss of 250 feet, the next uphill started. Another 3.5 miles of steep gradients - up to 1600 feet. This brought me into the Exmoor national park. All that effort and not a pony, horse or wild cow in sight. Stopped for my Mayo (with cheese) sandwiches and went to open a can of Fanta I decanted into a bottle. I guess the shaking from side to side pressurised the bottle. The lid fired off like a Champagne cork, at least 30 feet, I was very impressed. Great new btw, I read my e-mail at the top of the moor and together we have raised over £1000 pounds. Kept the sponsorship coming ;)

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/nicolas-peksa6

Today: 31.3 miles cycled, 10.8 miles uphill, 3222 feet of elevation.

Tomorrow will be a long one over 60 miles - I have binned the Parkrun idea btw (30 miles to get there for a 9am start. No thank you.)

Beat Louise to the campsite again by half and hour....Louise thinks we have a hotel tomorrow, its a B&B above a noisy bar in the centre of Glasto. Good luck with parking the van lol. At least we can improve our diet with a takeaway.

Louises View: Tired today! A third night of being woken up by crazy bleeting farm animals that don’t seem to need any sleep at all! After around 5 hours of broken sleep in the tent I had a marvellous 6am wake up call from a VERY annoying barking Labrador. ( turns out it was Nick getting up so bloody early that started the dog off ).

Think it’s time for Nick to get back in his tent tonight. Enough is enough of being nice and letting him sleep in the camper.

Time to move on out Peksa!

Lots of late nights for Harry as well so he’s been a grouchy monster today. We didn’t visit anywhere, just drove an hour to tonight’s campsite and have had a lovely lazy day recharging our batteries. So nice the weather is finally cooling down, and yay, we have a hotel tomorrow night.

Harrys view: it took quite a while to make friends here as we arrived early. I cycled 30 laps of the campsite, each 5 laps is a mile. I found a friend and we played Minecraft. The owners have two dogs called foxy and badger. I like them.

Day 4 - Hello Devon, you are very strange

Thu, 22 Jul 2021 18:03:42 GMT

Day 4 - Bude - Barnstable

Nicks View: We slept in a holiday park just across the border in Devon. I had a minor panic that delayed my start by around 45 mins. I could not find my wallet - so I went on a search and destroy mission in the camper van. I opened and emptied all the cupboards, and rummaged through the baskets, emptied my cycling pack and eventually found it where I had left it. The comical part was I was standing on the bed, straddling Harry, items of clothes were hitting him in the head - doors were opening and clicking shut and the boy never woke up - he is the OG of sleeping!

Eventually got going and avoided a few murderous white van men in the first few miles and then settled down to the climbing for the day. This part of the world is full of disused railways which have been converted into cycling routes (might I add they are cycling routes - will come to that later.) Anyway joined the Ruby trail after crossing a rather cool viaduct and found my 3 geocaches for Devon. When cycling past a field I heard a massive explosion like a gunshot, however, when I looked over the hedge there was just a grinning cow..... So I mooed at her and the rest of the field joined in. I must have an excellent cow like bellow.

I stopped for breakfast in a tiny village called Sheepwash, they have very strange village names in these parts. They keep on adding extra letters: Shebbear and Meeth are just two examples (well that cracked me up when I was thinking of it). Breakfast was a cheese and bacon slice and crisps, washed down with Lucozade. Devon sort your roads out, I have experienced less bumpy roads in the deserts of Dubai!

After bumping up some more hills and bumps in the road I discovered the Tarka Trail. What a brilliant cycle.... the trail was nice and smooth so I blasted along it finally breaking 10mph average across 5 miles. Stopped at an awesome cyclist cafe called Yarne Orchard and quaffed two cokes and nommed a slice of lemon cake. Got talking to a gentleman from Yorkshire and he said it was down hill for the next few miles. I took that with a pinch of salt and then did not have to pedal for 10 miles. How epic! I got to cycle across bridges, through disused railway stations, through a really long tunnel and what was best of all were the ridiculous benches that littered the trail. Some photos of my favourite ones are in the Facebook post for today.

Going back to the cycle route. I approached some old ladies head on and slowed down. They saw me and starting shouting bell, bell, bell. How odd.

The first 46 miles of the day were lovely. The last 2 were horrific: Barnstable I don't like your traffic and guess what the campsite was on top of a 470 feet hill. Yet again I beat Louise there by 60 minutes and got to roast in the sun whilst waiting in sweaty lycra. In the middle of nowhere again so cheesy pasta for dinner again (which is great I love it.)

Louises View: Another chilled out day at the beach for us, making the most of location and weather.

Harry makes friends wherever we go, so trying to leave the beach/campsite can be challenging ( just ten more minutes mummy! ) We were an hour late meeting Nick at today’s campsite because we were having too much fun - sorry Nick!

Location for tonight’s camp is great, on top of a hill overlooking farmland with the best breeze ever!

Only one more day of horrid heat forecast, then it looks like rain, which I’m really looking forward to!

No idea what we’re doing tomorrow, just gonna wing it!

Harrys View: Went boogie boarding again and found a dead crab today. Sorry I can't write more, I have to ride my bike around the campsite.

Day 3 - We are melting

Wed, 21 Jul 2021 19:39:10 GMT

Day 3 - Bodmin to the boarders of Devon

Nicks View: Day 3 was broken into two stages. The moors, followed by the beaches. Leaving nice and early I pedalled off down the painful hill to realise about half way down that I was heading in the wrong direction. First major hill of the day I lost my sunglasses, I realised this as I was bombing down the other side. I considered shlepping back up to look for them, but I thought stuff it.

Back on the route I was really looking forward to the camel trial, I read about it in a book on two friends cycling LeJog - I was expecting a long winding trail in the shade along the side of the river Camel. Except I must have joined them trail at the very end as I only got to enjoy 1 miles of it. Oh well.... after finding my geocache for Cornwall I was spat out of the trial onto the road that lead to Bodmin Moors. All my complaining about hills for the last two days was eclipsed today. The road up to the moors was close to 600 feet in elevation - I laboured my way up with sweat flowing like a leaking tap fro my head. Nothing much today to report from the top except I was chase by a young male horse, I slowed down deliberately to see how far I could draw it away from the other horses lol.

Louise text me from Widemouth beach and she said let me know when you are close. I looked at my GPS and saw it was only 5 miles away, so I thought be with you in half an hour. First 3 miles were wonderful, zooming down hill at 20-30 mph on well paved roads. And then I saw Widemouth bay, 2 cliff faces away - the hill was too steep, 30% gradient, so I held onto my breaks all the way down. Much to my horror the 30% gradient went up the other side. What a long hot walk. I eventually found the camper van parked illegal in the car park, so I dumped my bike inside and waded into the sea for an hour to cool down. I really did not want to finish the final 8 miles to the campsite, however, I found that preferable to 2 more hours on the beach. Oh I did purchase some homemade jam from a farmer, is it wrong to drink it from the jar?

Miles cycled: 43.61 miles, Elevation gain: 3910, Hills climbed 6 and 1 escape from a horney horse.

Louises View: Another great day at the beach, was lovely to park the camper yards from the sea. This is what camper vans with fridges and showers are intended for. I got talking to a fellow Welsh lass, on the spur of the moment she decided to crew for two people who were paddle boarding LeJog. I don't envy her 3 months in a van. I am pleased tomorrow will be last of the hot weather. Another night in the tent for me, I caught nick looking at hotel rooms on the internet and said why would you want to stay in a hotel with Aircon, TV, a bed and room service. PS. I was really looking forward to this campsite as they has a bar servicing hot food, but alas they are closed on Wednesday - so packet pasta for dinner again.

Harrys View: I had a great day, I was playing with my friends and we were playing murder mystery with a stick shaped like a gun. We also went to the beach and I saw jellyfish. I love the beach. The sand was very hot and I felt that I was getting sunburn on my feet. Im a pro body boarder now.

Day 2 - Sun, Sun go away

Tue, 20 Jul 2021 19:49:12 GMT

Day 2 - St Day to Bodmin

Nicks' View: Day 2 was an early start, was woken at 4am by some animal rustling next to the tent. Then the annoying cacophony of seagulls woke me again at 5am. So why fight it, coffee coursing through my veins I left at 6:47 am. The morning cycling along the Cornish Miners Trail was a chilly 4 miles of downhill. The first savage hill presented itself after a 5 miles, and I was kindly notified that the other 6 hills were at the end of the day in the heat of the sun. Water was a big problem today, I could not find any shops, I had to sneak into two campsite to steal their water.

Two highlights stand out today. 1) a 6 tractor queue blocking the back lanes near Newquay, the lady in front said you are going to have to reverse. I looked at her with a puzzled expression and simply wheeled my bike passed her much to her annoyance. 2) Sitting down in the town of Roche, munching on a very hot Cornish pastie, in the sun, on a metal bench. I got burnt 3 ways. Proper job.

One thing I have started to notice is that all campsite in Cornwall have a tendency to be on top of the largest hill imaginable. Not what you need at 49 miles, on roads sticky with melting tarmac.

Stats for today: 50.53 miles, 4774 feet of elevation, 7 large hills, 5 litres of drinks on the road and 1 Cornish pastie.

Louises' view: erm....hmmm.... sleep was rubbish as the van was not level. I dreamt that all the blood flowed away from my legs and I exploded. Thanks Nick for leaving all the tents and gear outside, it took me 2 hours to pack away. I get the tent tonight yay. Getting to main beach of Newquay (Fistral) was a challenge, I don't do hill starts and reversing Tenacious-V is a bitch. The day was still epic as I floated and shrivelled up in the sea for a good 2 hours. Getting to Nick was also a challenge as the van was so hot my phone kept overheating. Driving in swimming costumes rules!

Harrys View: Sorry daddy I am too busy to talk to you, we are playing hide and seek.

Day 1 - Let the charity challenge begin

Mon, 19 Jul 2021 20:27:10 GMT

Day 1 - Lands End to St Days - Surfing and suffering!

Nick's View: So the journey begins.... we arrived nice and early at Land's End and were disappointed to find out that they were no eating facilities open and that you had to pay to get a personalised Land's End signpost shot, so we just took a long distance photo and avoided paying (breakfast was had in the van). Spam sandwiches for Harry and vegan protein bars for me.

The start of the journey had a few hills, everyone warned me about how hilly Cornwall and Devon were - so after a few hills and following a trail of potatoes dropped by Cornish farmers, I thought this was ok...... until my Garmin beeped... hill climb starts in 400 ft. Bugger, it was too steep in 28 degree weather - I walked, what made it worse it Garmin told me that this was only hill climb 1/4 and that the next one was in 15.3 miles.

Hot, Hot, Hot is all I can say - 3 litres drunk and I still needed more. Miles travelled: 39.13, hills climbed 4, total elevation 2572 feet, Calories in deficit 2500! At this rate I will be 2 stone lighter by the time I finish.

But I am happy to say I arrived at St Days Caravan park only 15 minutes before Louise and Harry. St Days is a lovely quiet site with super clean facilities and a laundrette (we no longer smell). Also thank you to St Days for offering to donate our camping fee to the cause. If today was hard, I am dreading tomorrow.

Harry's view: I figured out why it's called Land's end, because the land ends in the sea, when daddy went off cycling we went to the lands end attractions and played in the park. Next Mummy and I went surfing in St Ives, this was my favourite beach ever and the fish and chips were sooooooo good. In the campsite, I cycled my bike and made new friends, we camped next to the play park. I was cap flipping bottles.

Louises' View: erm...I am a bad supporter. Nick arrived and was sweating to death, so I sent him to the shops to buy dinner. For some reason he thinks I should be supporting him, does he not realise I had a really hard day at the beach. Thank you for cooking me dinner Nick. Don't wake us up in the morning, we have another busy day on a new beach. Hills climbed 0, beaches visited 2, kitkats eaten 4.

1 day to go - Life is a beach

Sun, 18 Jul 2021 19:48:58 GMT

Somerset to Lands End - t-minus 1 day and counting

Harrys View: It was sunny when we left the reindeer ranch, it was a long, long van journey to get here. The YHA was not open when we arrived so went to the beach, we had to skip across big boulders to get to the sand. There were big waves, so I charged at the waves. One day I want to meet a wave as tall as me. We returned to the hostel and we ate pizza, I stacked two slices onto of each other to make a pizza sandwich. I then sat in the garden between two peoples tents in the shade. The room is ok, but it has no toilet, shower or bath. The van has that! I wonder what will be my next adventure.

Louises View: erm... I drove the van - I am actually quite enjoying driving it. Nicolas Peksa this is not the standard of hotel accommodation I'm used to. I feel like I am on a brownie camp being at a youth hostel. We are all fighting for the top bunk (I win) - enjoy sharing a small double with Harry. Now to just try and fall asleep in 1000 degrees heat. Btw -the truckers arm tan is taking shape.

2 Days to go - it is Christmas?

Sun, 18 Jul 2021 08:50:56 GMT

Summer holiday traffic - where were you?

All the essentials finally packed and we set off on our way. We were dreading the school holiday traffic heading down to Devon/Cornwall. however, leaving at 2pm we seemed to have missed it all. Rather than taking on the entire journey we decided to have a stop off on the way - so we picked a quaint and quirky campsite close Yeovil in Somerset; Somerset Reindeer Ranch .

Owned and run by a lovely couple - Sarah and Dave (with the support of their two daughters) and loads of fluffy animals.

Highlight of the day.... Feeding the reindeers. Sarah, with her baby skunk in tow led us down to the reindeer paddock. We initially got to feed a mummy and baby reindeer by hand, sadly these two were outcast from the herd. Our weapon of choice - imported moss and mushroom mix harvested from the forests of Finland. Whilst intimidating at first, they are super gentle and almost cuddly, and they are super cute when they lips slap against your fingers when you are feeding them.

The second part of the experience was to feed the herd, we were warmed not to try and play with the alpha female's calf. The gates were open and they bundled towards us, massive antlers and all. But do not fear poking and prodding is not in their nature. If you annoy them they antler slap you. After a good half an hour the reindeer has finished their food and walked away. What a lovely experience.

The campsite itself is great for families, the site is secure with no public access so the kids and run free (and that they did until 10pm). Turkeys, Horses, Bunnies, Wallabies, Skunks, friendly cats (thank you Bandit for nicking our cheesy bread lol). We recommend coming here.

Harry and Louise were in the van and I was in the tent, the new sleeping mat is awesome as it covers the floor of the entire tent. The vacuum flask was ready for the morning and I had my coffees, however, tomorrow I probably need to prepare better with regards to toiletries and something to sit on.

Harry's view: It took three hours to get here and I loved feeding the reindeers and I made some new friends and we toasted some marshmallows and built a bug hotel. I saw a bald cat and very soon we are off to the next place.

Louises's view: Nick did you know this is aspiration for a future lifestyle when Harry finally leaves school. BBQ pits, a horsebox bar with cocktails and camping huts. Although, I would be happy to own a place without so animals to look after.

Learning experiences: Maybe mention to Harry that sneaking into peoples tents certainly is a surprise but maybe not in a positive sense lol. (Don't worry it was the tent of a family we met. Harry enjoyed his time with his new friends).

So onto a night in a YHA hostel close to the start line. Tomorrow it begins.

4 Days to go

Fri, 16 Jul 2021 11:00:35 GMT

The countdown has truly begun.....

Even though the official start of the charity challenge starts on Monday, we set off tomorrow on our two day journey down to Lands End. Probably not the best time to leave, given that today is the official break up for most schools. We could not leave early due to a commitment to our local scout group (AGM). The weather seems to be with us, not sure if this is a good thing; being locked in metal van for a month and getting burnt cycling on the road.

The van is overpacked - still under full payload, I hope. So if you see a Tenacious-V trundling down the road give us a wave. The packing process was interesting.... Louise, Harry and I have very different priorities.

Louise's luxury items: Cushions, decorations, throws, a camera and a hedgehog ornament.

Harry's luxury items: A bike, pack of UNO cards, a boogie board, bucket & spade and an iPad.

My luxury items: Rollable chess set, membership to English heritage, my MacBook and a cheese grater.

We have comprised on this list for example: No TV, No hair straighteners, No hair driers, No tennis rackets and no spare bike.

I am pleased to say we have now raised £845 for Regain! So thank you to all those who have sponsored us to date.

The key questions we would like to answer in the next 30 days.

Harry: Can I learn how to surf?

Louise: Can I use this trip as a method of losing some weight?

Nick: Can I get the value from the English Heritage membership?

Time to figure out to drain the water tank in the van!

15 Days to go - "Van Life"

Fri, 02 Jul 2021 17:11:16 GMT

With time running out fast we have taken our first possible opportunity to test what living in a camper van will be like.

For our maiden voyage we needed to select a campsite close to home. The only search criteria was - Electric hook up within 50 miles of home. The winner was Suddene Park Farm , a lovely site hidden away in Wiltshire countryside with some spectacular views. The site was very basic with regards to facilities, however, the location more than made up for it. How many places in the UK can you lie in bed and watch a windmill turn in the distance? (Wilton Windmill).

After picking Harry up from school, we set off and eventually arrived to be greeted by our host Sarah and her wonderfully cute dog Rambo.

To say we are camper van virgins would be an understatement, we parked up near an electric point, with no idea how long our charging cable was or even have to connect it. The next problem we faced was how to prime the cassette toilet. Armed with blue and pink chemicals we tried to figure out where they went. After searching inside, outside, underneath we eventually (thanks to the help of google), established that the toilet flush was plumbed into the water system of the van and the pink rinse chemical was not required. Next journey we will be 2kg lighter.

With the pup tent erected and camper van bed made up, we set about to explore the footpaths of Wiltshire. A short walk from our van, surrounded by fields of ripening rye we embarked on some educational activities. Harry concluded that rye is better than wheat as "you can make bread and alcohol with it ". After eating a few wi ld clovers and getting excited over the presence of wild cherry trees we returned to the site and met our neighbour.

Our closest neighbour was an ex-Derby county footballer; Peter (he played in the same side as the legend Peter Shilton). Peter was wonderfully engaging and spend an hour teaching Harry how to get his Boxer dog, to fetch and sit. Peter, a fellow adventurer was also on a test run for his own epic journey. Peter let us know about the magically barn owls that swoop the site at dusk. He lent Harry a pair of binoculars, and then Harry patiently sat and waited for a Hedwig experience. Sadly, on this day it was not to be. If all the people we meet will be as nice as Peter and Sarah, we will have a great month on the road.

Test successful we returned home and prompted ordered. Some magnetics hooks for rubbish bags, a new camping mat and a seat belt cover to protect Harry's neck when we are travelling. We also had to come up with a plan how I can set off in the morning without waking up Harry or Louise. As coffee is a vital part pre-cycle preparation, Louise came up with the idea of leaving some boiled water in a thermos flask. Needless to say when we returned home, I ran some scientific experiments on our vacuum flask. We have a winner - black vacuum flask added to the pile of stuff we need to take.

Overall the virgin voyage was relaxing and we are now feeling slightly more confident.