Cycling from Land's End to John O'Groats , or vice versa, is apparently achieved by about 4000 people per year. I don't know where I found that stat. It certainly isn't easy, but then neither is it impossible for the average person so it makes it ideal as a charitable challenge. Having done it all before, a couple of years ago, I was never going to be happy doing the same thing again even if the route was more interesting. Doubling the length of the journey (and a bit, the quickest route is about 900 miles so we are essentially trebling it) seemed to be a good idea at the time. An extra challenge, physically and mentally, and a better opportunity to raise money and see the country.
Sam has supported the Air Ambulance ever since his old man was airlifted to hospital in 2001. This incident openned his eyes to the life-saving worth of the service, particularly in areas such as North-West Somerset, and he has been looking for ways to raise money for the cause ever since. With heart problems prevalent in our families, along with so many others, raising money for the Heart Foundation also seems like a worthy and sensible choice. Hopefully our efforts to gain publicity and exposure for the trip will have a positive effect for the charities in terms of raising finance and awareness.
It would be ridiculous to claim we are selflessly doing this ride for purely charitable reasons, the truth being we want to do it anyway. (The charity aspect adds a fair bit of motivation and purpose though.) Visiting all four corners of the mainland gives us the chance to cycle through Bodmin moor, Exmoor, Wye Valley, Shropshire Hills, Peak District, Yorkshire Dales, Lake District, West coast of Scotland, Caingorms, Northumberland, Pennines, Yorkshire Moors, Lincolnshire Wolds, Suffolk coast, New Forest, Dorset Coast and Dartmoor. That all sounds like a pretty fine way to spend 5 weeks in summer. Blood, sweat and tears will probably be prevalent, but how many people can say they have circumnavigated the country by bike? Nobody I know.
Why a brewery tour? Well we like a pint of ale or two firstly, it would be pretty daft to pretend that wasn't the case. It's a brewery tour though, not a pub crawl so while we hope to sample a few ales we will not be trying to get drunk at the expense of others. Have you tried to cycle 90 miles the moring after a heavy session?
Firstly I find the brewing process interesting and I think there is a story to be told in the changing attitudes and practises involving ale across the length and breadth of the country. By visiting breweries from all 4 corners I think we could learn a fair bit about the subject.
Secondly we get to meet some interesting and kind people. The people we will be meeting will be the the type of people (about 14% by my calculations) who reply to emails sent by people like me asking for a bit of help in a charitable venture. My logic suggests these are exactly the type of people we want to meet, and people who ignored us aren't worth visiting anyway.
Thirdly we should get to raise more money by our visits. Most breweries have kindly offered products for us to raffle in aid of the charities and some have offered small sums of cash for the same end. This should give an excellent boost to our totals and I am also hoping that interest in our trip, public and press-related, should grow as a result.
So on balance....................
It will be a costly trip, plenty spent on equipment already, plenty more to spend on food and accomodation, 6 weeks without money coming in and rent still to pay. Certainly not likely to profit us in a financial sense, but then that's not the point. It has taken a large amount of time and effort to organise and we haven't even started the trip yet, plus there is plenty more to come. But..............we will get to see people and places that we would otherwise never see, we will have the satisfaction of completing a trip that few others will get to achieve, and we will get to hand over a hopefully sizeable donation to each of the charities, maybe even saving lives albeit indirectly. Got to be worth it.
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