Its been a month or two since our adventure came
to an end and the ride pictures are now on the
blog together with the party pictures kindly
submitted by friends. Thank you everyone for
your fantastic support and generous sponsorship
and as I write, we’ve now raised over £32,000,
which is a wonderful achievement and we just
can’t thank you enough. I hope we also succeeded
in our other goals, which were to raise
awareness of deafblindness and inspire others to
do a challenge of their own. Publicity has come
via radio interviews, numerous newspaper and
magazine articles and even a good slot on the
Scotland North Tonight news programme. Louise and
I have also learnt we are Sunday Mail 'Great Scot'
awards finalists so Deafblind Scotland are
continueing to benefit.
Before I continue I would first like to say a
heartfelt thank you to Jane and Richard for
maintaining our blog throughout the fortnight
away. How Jane managed to decipher my long
rambling late night text messages and keep
everybody posted on our progress is beyond me.
That Richard was also able to join in the fun,
despite his MND, sending messages of support each
day and composing his hilarious tandem verse
(see ‘songs and poems’) was too wonderful for
words. Since we got back, I have lost my dear
friend, but he will always be with us, as will
Jane.
Meantime, please allow me a few recollections
from the trip ...
The process of getting up, (usually!) having
breakfast and jumping on the bikes to explore
somewhere new was addictive and the scenery as we
moved north through 9 counties in England and 12
Shires in Scotland was ever changing and often
spectacular. I don't want to pick out highlights
as I loved it all, but Cornwall and Devon had
everything including ferocious hills, Wells and
Bath were beautiful cities, the rolling
countryside of Gloucestershire, Shropshire and
Cheshire contrasted with the higher terrain of
the Lake District and in particular Shap where we
all climbed up to 1400feet. In Scotland, the
weather didn’t immediately deteriorate when we
crossed the border as Martin feared, and Loch
Lomond, Glencoe (especially) and the single track
Altnaharra road in northern Sutherland were all
very spectacular. However it was the people we
met on the way that really made the trip for us.
In our various parties in Exeter, Bristol,
Pershore, Manchester and Glasgow we met some 430
old and new friends, had a marvellous time and
raised another £2,700, which was absolutely
fantastic. Our heartfelt thanks go to David &
Sally Robinson, Jon & Sally Brown and David &
Jacqui Shepherd for organising the Exeter Hog
Roast, Colin & Jo Stubbings and Debbie Rutherford
for the Bristol Ploughman's party, Mouse & Mandy
Mouzer for the Shepherds Pie Tandem Bash, Alison
& Tony Cookson for the Almost Halfway BBQ near
Manchester, all our friends at Deafblind Scotland
for the Celebration of Deafblindness in Glasgow
and Lenzie and finally, Rogni, Linda & Kerstin
Brown for our End of the Road lunch in John O'
Groats on June 15th.
Many folk travelled a long way to join us in our
various parties, some to several, but I must make
special mention of Richard and Jane, who despite
everything, made the 5 hour round trip to Bristol
and knew perfectly well how special that was to
me. It also rendered me temporarily speechless,
so it was pretty special to everyone else too!
We also had a couple of great dinner parties en-
route in Taunton and Carlisle, so big thanks to
all who travelled to those too.
The hospitality and welcomes we got along the
way will all be treasured and people will be
thanked personally, but the fantastic welcome
from deafblind members and friends as we cycled
into George Square in Glasgow on June 10th was an
amazing experience. We also enjoyed meeting Team
Canary from Norwich whom we bumped into in
Cornwall, Devon and Glasgow, Team Red from
Cambridge who were behind us on the last morning
in Bettyhill, and many kind folk along the way,
who made on the spot donations. These included
many passing motorists and pedestrians, someone
in a hotel lift, generous café proprietors and
even a drunk in Sanquhar who took almost 10
minutes to dig out 2 £1 coins from the depths of
his pockets before we could carry on! We also met
a passer-by in Fort William and Inverness on
successive days and he later logged onto our
justgiving site and gave us a very generous
donation, so this trip really has shown how kind
and generous people can be. We were treated very
well by motorists along the way, though the
combination of the red van (I still look round
corners to see if its there!), our t-shirts and
bike flags certainly helped and we were nearly
always given plenty of space on the busy roads.
We were also lucky enough to meet the ex-mayor,
current mayor and district mayor in Bridgnorth
(thanks Les and Tim), the Provosts of Dumfries,
Kilmarnock, East Dumbartonshire, West
Dumbartonshire, Fort William, Inverness and in
Glasgow, the Lord Provost Bob Winter, who gave a
terrific address in support of DBS and our
challenge. The downside was that many of these
visits put us under real pressure to get to
places to a tight timetable, not least Drena who
had to coordinate it all, but the hospitality was
always great and despite everything, we were
nearly always fashionably late!
I also achieved an ambition to cycle as part of a
peloton with Murray, Ian, Graham and Alan from the
Dumfries cycling club accompanying us from Gretna
on the border, to our reception in Dumfries and
then onto Drumlanrig Castle in the north. They
were great company, seriously fit and mostly
turned down our offers of doughnuts, though Ian
did eventually succumb near the end of our joint
ride! We also enjoyed the company of a number of
other cyclists along the way including 2 Caithness
riders who rode the final 20 miles with us, Colin
who did Marshfield to Stroud, Jonathan who did
Cheltenham in his lunch break, Judith and Jerry
who took us through Cheshire and treated us to a
great lunch and Dr Jim, who struck lucky with a
cream tea with the Provost in Dumbarton and a
cycle along Loch Lomond!
We were supported with free accommodation and
breakfasts by the Thistle in Exeter and
Manchester, Premier Inns in Taunton, Telford and
Carlisle, the Purple Hotel in Tewkesbury and the
Lochside Hotel in New Cumnock. We were also put
up by long suffering and new friends in Liskeard,
Honiton, Bristol, Pershore, Lenzie and Evanton
and had offers of many more, for all of which we
are truly grateful. I must also mention Ian
Lawrence of Shell Geomatics who drew the route
map and will be asked to update it for our photo
book, Dot Graham, for driving 600 miles to John
o' Groats and back, to join in our last 2 dinners
and bring Louise and I home, and last but not
least, Douglas O'Malley, Jill Brown and my sister
Caroline Greenhalgh for all the work they did in
promoting the trip and securing accomodation.
As for the team, it meant a lot to have Martin
and Abbie with us, and despite injuries and in
Martin's case also a heavy cold, they kept going
right till the end, supporting and encouraging us
all the way. In Abbie's case, the end was the
UK's most northerly city, Inverness, as she had
her daughter Camilla’s leaving service from Mary
Hare to go to. She may have been sad to leave
us, but when we reached the Inverness city
signpost, her smile was the broadest!
All 4 of us are deeply indebted to Drena and
Hammie for being great company throughout,
keeping us safe, driving the van and cycling with
us whenever they could. In Hammie’s case, he
also shut up his shop for a fortnight to be with
us and keep our bikes on the road and we later
presented him with a very well deserved ‘Friend
of Deafblind Scotland’ award (see press
cuttings). He has been a big hit at our many
parties and on the blog and has all but been
adopted as a Mary Hare old pupil! Hammie, we’re
just grateful you didn’t eat all our donuts!!
Whilst I have always valued Drena and Hammie’s
friendship, after that little jaunt, we all do,
and some.
However, I couldn’t have done any of this without
Louise. Having not had a bike since 1985 I
started riding with her last October and it took
time and miles to learn to ride together and
build up our fitness. Louise was amazing
throughout the trip and long hours cycling, she
kept us both safe, never gave up and it was
fantastic to have her company for the entire
ride. Words are inadequate to describe how I
feel about her and the pride I have in her, but
we did it, and we did it together.
Thank you all for being part of it.
Robert
1st September 2008
