Day 11

Today was Shap Day, the climb from Kendal en route to Penrith which we had all been warned would make or break us. Well, it was tough, but the good news is that it isn't as tough as Cheddar Gorge. So we were feeling pretty euphoric by lunchtime - until that is we met Steve.

Delightful reunion with my family for lunch in Penrith, made especially memorable by my first sighting of my daugher, Clare and Ted's new daughter Tilly who was born on the day we set off from Land's End. A delightful run in the sunshine to Carlisle, this being the first sun we have seen since Somerset a week ago.

Day 10

Another lightish day in the office. We saw the sun for a couple of minutes in the morning for the first time since Somerset, but otherwise just a little light drizzle early on, not much wind of any description, and relatively easy cycling took us to Kendal.

We have now completed 486 miles, which we hope is a little more than half way. Very nice dinner this evening with Vicky, Geraldine's good friend who lives near Penrith, in the Brewery Arts Club in Kendal which was humming with anticipation as it was the opening night of "Sex in the City".

Early bed in our 3 different B&B's, amidst much speculation about tomorrow morning's big event: Shap Fell. This is where we become, in the words of Martin's son Jeremy, "Fell's Angels". Say a little prayer for us tomorrow.

Day 9

An unusually quiet day at the office! The expected rain did not materialise, the wind abated somewhat, and the hills were gentle and few and far between. So riding conditions were much improved.

Riding through the territory between Manchester and Liverpool is hardly scenic, and the parts that we covered between Middlewich and Preston were very much the areas in which they used to “weigh” the Labour votes not "count” them.

We did, however, pass over one real gem, the Manchester Ship Canal. It was beautiful, quiet and empty this morning, but it was easy to imagine the freight that must have passed over the years from the “dark satanic mills” of industrial Lancashire.

Tomorrow we’re heading for Kendal and the Lake District, with yet more dire predictions of rain from the Met Office. We trust they’ll get it wrong again!

Day 8

All were nonplussed last night when our waitress asked for my name, but asked noone else. All became clear when my steak and kidney pie crust was engraved “Richard”. The things they do to attract attention in Shropshire!

A hilly morning was accompanied by a 20-25 mph wind, gusting to 40 mph, against which we laboured all day. It’s an odd sensation; normally one goes along the flat at around 15 mph on average; today the best we could muster at times was 6 or 7! Gritty stuff.

Coming through Telford we engaged with a group of teeny boppers doing a 100 mile time trial. They'd completed 85 miles of it before we'd completed 10. And they left us for dust as they passed, wearing boy racer helmets, and crouched very low over the handlebars. We decided that we're not ready to turn professional just yet!

Lunch was a lively affair in Jones’s coffee shop in Market Drayton. Soup to die for, and the hostess with a winning smile looked like a younger version of Jancis Robinson. It turned out that she and her other half have a vineyard to the North in which they are experimenting with eight different grape varieties, seven of which we'd never heard of.

The afternoon continued the morning’s hard pounding, but through fine countryside and Nantwich, now very peaceful and devoid of election posters, to the one horse town of Middlewich. Fortunately we’re staying nearby, not in town. The forecast for day 9 is for marginally less head wind, but for showers…….sometimes we wonder why we’re doing this......but the thought is only fleeting!

Day 6 and 7

Day 6 - Saturday - had been planned as a rest day by the 4 guys, and so on Friday night the team dispersed, Geraldine to London, Peter to Oxford, Martin to Hay on Wye, Stewart and I to Cheltenham. After the rigours of the first week, this proved to be a very good thing, enabling us all to recover from the previous five days of intense physical activity.

Day 7 required the musketeers to be at their steeliest, esp. Martin and Peter. Stewart and I had presciently ridden on the Sabbath to Worcester, and so missed the morning’s steady cold rain. Martin and Peter, who had gone variously to Hay-on-Wye and Oxford on Friday, were scheduled to ride from Tewkesbury to Worcester on Sunday morning.

The rain was not so much the “interesting” part, as was the blustery, anti-prevailing Nor’ Easter. And so the two were pleased to get, damply, to the Old Rectifying House, a fine pub by the banks of the Severn in Worcester, to sit by a warm radiator, to catch up with Stewart and I, and also with Stewart’s gracious daughter, Laura, and her beau, Duncan, who teaches Poker..... The couple were headed to Hay-on-Wye to hear Jimmy Carter et al at the book festival.

After a restorative lunch, the team set off, delayed slightly by Peter having two punctures and needing to replace a gashed outer. The rain had stopped, but the wind hadn’t, and it was barely 50F at best. Any thoughts we may have had that the N.Worcs and Shropshire countryside would be as benign for cycling as it is for its scenery were quickly dispelled. It was like the more rugged parts of Cornwall, and we had 37 miles to travel. The best part of the journey, undoubtedly, was arriving at our destination, the very pretty and historic market town of Much Wenlock. And a very hot bath!

Day 8 takes us into Cheshire and through Nantwich where we hope that the dust has settled from the earthquake which was last week’s by-election.

Day 5

Today had its different elements, as we will explain.....

We dragged ourselves reluctantly away in the morning from Harptree Court, mindful of 60 miles to cover. David and Linda Hill are the most gracious hosts, and included among the many luxuries of their house was a lightning fast wifi connection. Martin was able to broach the 351 msgs which had accumulated for him since LE.

The morning ride was hilly and fiddly and we were consulting maps constantly. On one occasion we were just hanging out in the middle of a rural road checking our route, when along came a small car which could only just squeeze past us. The driver gently remarked: “I see that it’s getting difficult to find anywhere to park bicycles these days!”.

We ended the morning at Pucklechurch where the HFT (Home Farm Trust) HQ team were there to greet us. A lively and sunny celebration at the Rose and Crown.

Rain had been forecast for the afternoon, a light shower or two we thought. But what came was a thunderstorm of biblical proportions, and we were all completely soaked. This gave us experience of riding through heavy rain on busy roads, which will come in useful during the next few days. Wearing lycra pants means that the nether regions dry out pretty fast, and we all have rain repellent jackets. Peter even has something like a bath cap to wear under his helmet to protect what remains of his hair.

We have now all retired for our Sabbath rest after a hugely enjoyable and often testing 281 miles. Normal service will be resumed on Sunday.

Day 4

With one notable exception, day 4 was flatter and quieter than the previous three. We whizzed through early drizzle and the N. Somerset countryside, and covered 39 miles before lunch. What the countryside lacked in stunning views, it made up for in cycle friendliness.

We passed through the town of Highbridge, which has a sculpture of its “son”, Major Tom Foley, who is thought to have rescued as many as 10,000 Jews from Nazi atrocities, more even than Oscar Schindler. Then lunched at a pub called the Packhorse in the village of Mark, the house next to which had, we were told, been owned by Jeffrey Archer’s ‘Gran', and was a home from home for young Jeffrey. The residents (at least the drinkers at the Packhorse) seemed proud of him!

In the pm the team assaulted the Cheddar Gorge, definitely a 5 piper, and, apart from “declining” 100 yds of ultra severity, climbed the 2+ miles in a little over half an hour.

We are staying the night in a baronial B/B, Harptree Court, near Bristol, which is 5 star in every way. This was organised by the saintly Geraldine Conneely, who has proved herself supremely adept at looking after four '65 year old children'. We can’t imagine where we’d be without her; still at Lands End probably; whereas we’ve actually covered 215 mls.

.......there is a question, since we’ve been eating and drinking rather well, as to whether the calories out on this trip yet exceed the calories in!

Day 3

As you can see we started off the day in outstanding fettle. Our day opened with another delightful rail track ride from Bridestowe to Okehampton, in perfect cycling conditions (apart of course from the continuing Nor Easter). One of the technological advances of contemporary cycling is cleated shoes which clip into your pedals, but which require a certain dexterity of foot when you stop. As the man at Condor Bike Shop said, there are two kinds of people who wear cleated shoes: those who are going to fall over and those who have done so. Stewart was determined to be in the latter camp, hence the involuntary pit stop. Then shortly after that he unfortunately mislaid his odometer. This is not, as you might think, a device for determining when your cycling colleagues are next due a bath, but rather one for recording distances, speeds, times etc. Happily it turned up. After the rail track, we battled a stiff series of hills to Crediton where we lunched at the excellent Three Little Pigs. Then thanks to the man in The Bike Shop in Crediton, we took a fine and altitudinally forgiving detour around Mount Tiverton (as we designated it), culminating in our approaching Tiverton up the beautiful Exe Valley. Another 47 miles completed, making 157 so far, with legs, cardiovasculars and posteriors all still present and correct.

Day 2 In tres partes divisa sunt (est? erat?)

First was the idyllic Camel Path, along of the disused railway track from Camelford to St. Austell through an ancient forest by the Camel River with dappled sunlight. Martin said that the best part about it was that it was flat. An old schoolfriend of mine, Chris who lives nearby, met us with coffee and biscuits for "elevenses". This sybaritic idyll was then rudely replaced by a climb onto Bodmin Moor which Peter suggested that Sherlock Holmes would have called a "five piper" (three pipes being the number required by the great man to solve the most intractable of mysteries). Half way up, to use a technical expression, we declined. Then I was attacked once again by the bicycling gremlins, this time with a puncture, which produced an "oh bother" or two. The third part of the day was spent cycling down the Tamar Valley into Devon, interrupted by a heartwarming visit to the local Home Farm Trust in Tregadillet. Finally after a few more wind and limb testing mountains (strangely called hills by the natives) we arrived exhausted at Bridestowe.

Day 1 was full of excitement

Martin arrived hotfoot from the opening night at Glyndebourne on the overnight sleeper from Paddington to Penzance where he was greeted by Peter and Geraldine.

We assembled at Land's End with a greeting party from Home Farm Trust who gave as a royal send off. At approx 1015 a.m. we set off. T

he whole point of doing the End to End in May is that it is always warm and the prevailing wind blows steadily from the South West. In fact it was perishing cold and the wind was blowing at 15 mph from the North East - but it was a spectacularly beautiful day. We passed St.Michael's Mount, and then glided effortlessly (if you believe that you'll believe anything) through the wonderful Cornish countryside, finishing up at an appropriately named pub in Redruth for lunch. Just outside Truro, I managed to remove my chain and wrap it several times around his back wheel. Just as despair was setting in, a 12 year old boy came by and fixed it for him. We arrived in Columb St. Major at 6.30 p.m. having covered 54 triumphant miles.