Diary

I will update on progress here, particularly during the ride but also on how things are shaping up beforehand. This should really get going by 2nd June, when we really get going!


First entry: 13th March

Most of our efforts so far can be read about elsewhere on this blog. Training for the trip and working on this blog are the obvious things achieved so far along with getting the charity sites set up so that people are able to sponsor us. Plenty of things yet to be done though. Right now I am working on a revision of the email I will be sending out to breweries across the country asking for support. This is a laborious, and so far nearly thankless, task as I have also collected the details of over 400 breweries and sent out a few trial emails before getting to this stage. The first revision went out last week to 14 breweries in Cornwall, only one of which has replied so far. Better than nothing, but I feel a better response will be necessary in future and the email needs to be better structured in future.
I really believe that this is a simple way for a company to help out a charitable venture with little effort needed, and also to gain themselves a bit of good publicity along the way. Getting my message across is maybe not quite so simple and I worry that they read the email and decide that I am probably some nut trying to screw them out of something. That's not really the case, although you have to be a little daft to take a trip like this on, but then I suppose that I only really need about 20% to reply positively in order to be able to make this idea work. Will create a lot of work for myself in the process no doubt, but I think it will be worth it.

Only 74 days to go..........................


21st April

A few more miles under the belt, but most of my efforts so far have been in organising the trip. Over 200 emails sent out and 30 positive replies recieved. I am half-way through route-planning and will have that finished within a week. Then it's on to contacting breweries to confirm times of visits and other details. I am picking up my new bike in a few days and will work on getting kit sorted in a couple of weeks time. Then it will be a case of getting publicity sorted and collecting details of everyone and everything we need to know about on the trip. Going down to Somerset this week for a couple of training days across exmoor and beyond.


4th May

Went to the hospital today and now have my finger in a small piece of plastic. Apparently I have 'mallet-finger' and will need to keep my finger in this infernal device for 6 weeks, unless it looks wrong when I go back next week - in that case I will need to have my finger wired in order to set it properly.

How did this all happen? Well what happened was....................

We were riding through Somerset on a bit of a training run last Saturday. Came down Dunkery Hill and into the village of Horner. As we entered the village a Land Rover Discovery (a bastard piece of machinery if ever there was one) pulled out of a driveway. Slowly. So slowly we were not sure if it was moving or not some of the time. The choices were slam on brakes and skid to halt, possibly have accident trying to stop so quickly, or try to get past - we were still assuming that the driver would at some point stop. As it happens the buffoon in charge of a two-ton vehicle failed to look right throughout the duration of the slow departure from the driveway and also managed to block the entire road in turning. Someone had to go first and Sam just about crept through, but I was a couple of seconds later and by that time the vehicle blocked the entire road. I went onto the verge, hit a rock, popped my tyre and catapulted onto the road, rolled on my shoulder and in one swift and almost painless movement was back on my feet. It would have all looked quite impressive, but what I didn't realise was that my little finger on my right-hand had hit tarmac and was broken. The next day it swelled up and it became obvious that all was not well.

The upshot is that it will be some 3 weeks into our ride before the finger will be healed. Great. A few days later Sam found that his bills were suddenly to increase while he is away through no fault of his own and he may have to work an extra week. This makes the fact that I have sent out times and dates for arrival to nearly all of the breweries a little annoying. What we are currently considering, and believe will have to happen is postponing the trip for a week. Much annoyance, but sometimes these things have to be done.


23rd May
Arrived back in Oxford after doing 125 miles in the space of 30 hours. 75 miles on Monday afternoon, 50 on Tuesday morning. Sam did a solid 80 on the Monday after working in the morning. We visited Exe Valley brewery on the Monday and things went well enough so we are now just 10 days from the start and everything seems to be going fine.............................