round the corner....

Miles: 97
Pasties: 0
Punctures: 0

At home with the family in Cheltenham

Left brother Jack's at 7am, made good progress across the Somerset levels through Highbridge and Edithmead despite a keen wind out of the east (more of which later), but lots of sun.

Bested the cheeky edge of the Mendips at Cross and cut across to Clevedon for a well-deserved coffee and cake. Then on via a quiet little lane (thanks Dick & Chris for that tip) to Pill and the cycelway across the Avonmouth bridge . Not ideal for saddos like me who get vertigo in socks, plus the now very strong easterly wind that seemed to want to push me back to Cornwall (maybe I should have had a pasty while there?).

Thence through sunny Avonmouth (twinned with Hell), and Aust where we got back onto the small back roads to Berkeley for lunch in a bag from the bakery (very nice Corned Beef and Salad roll, plus gooey chocolate cake).

It was now getting quite hot, and coupled with the wind and the A38 traffic, the 10 miles to Quedgely were a bit of an ordeal. Nick & I split up at Matson, and I went on to pick up my girls from after-school club and nursery. It was great to see them and Jo.

Tomorrow meeting Nick at 7.45 for the long slog up to Whitchurch. Still, the weather looks good.

a reminder of why we're doing this...

As I've mentioned, Nick and I have asked that the money be used for surgery on orphans in China and for physiotherapy.

Love Without Boundaries recently launched a new initiative called the ‘Mobile Medical Program’ This was established in memory of a dear little girl called Xin who LWB met Xin through a chance visit to her orphanage.

Xin was born with severe heart disease and had lived all her short life in the orphanage. LWB arranged for her to be seen by a leading heart surgeon but sadly her condition was inoperable and sadly Xin died in January this year.

Before she died, Love Without Boundaries was able to move Xin to a wonderful foster family so that she could receive the one to one care she so clearly needed and deserved.

Xin's short life and sad death brings home the importance of early diagnosis of such life threatening conditions. So some of the money will to go to a Mobile Medical program which, in just a few short months, has identified 7 children with heart disease and one child requiring surgery for a tumour.

We also hope to fund cleft palate surgeries. These cost in the region of £200 – a relatively small amount for us but it has an incaculable effect of a child's life chances in China.

Some pictures here to show LWB at work - makes it all worthwhile!

out of the west

Miles: 72
Pasties: 0
Punctures: 0

Much better day. Our night's sleep was broken by the bladdered revellers of Okehampton as they passed beneath our window.

Did the ups & downs to Crediton, where a super bike shop sold me some new tubes and patches. Also, they showed us how to avoid the big hill to Tiverton. Lovely men!

Lunch in a bag from M&S, then on to Taunton, the back roads to Bridgwater, & on to my brother's place in Combwich.

Cheltenham tomorrow, upping the miles.

The curse of the hat and ten miles of shame....

Miles: 73
Pasties: 1 (Nick)
Punctures: 10 (all Lester)

Morning of pure hell on the A30, could not get a tube on without pinching or ripping. Lost about 3 hours, culminating with a taxi to Bodmin & the bike hospital.

Nick blamed the malign influence of the hat so, fearing he might put it where only I could hear the jingles, I've (temporarily) relegated it to the rack.

Afternoon went much better, though the ride across Bodmin moor was very gruelling - lots of long hills and traffic.

Spending tonight in Okehampton.

Day one

Miles: 30
Pasties: 0
Punctures: 2

Warm and sunny. Finishing the day with a curry - hoping for some wind assist as we slog up the A30 tomorrow. Bum not too sore.

The final touch

Hat attached!

I hope this is worth it!

Not long now!

Nick and I had our final (err, first) planning session today.

Principal conclusion is that it's a very long way. So far, in fact, that the highlighter pen threatened to run out as we marked up our route on the road atlas. Even ripping out all the non-relevant pages of the road atlas, we're still left with a hefty chunk of paper and ink.

We have had a go with our bikes fully laden and I think I need to radically reduce my packing. Just how many clothes does a man need for a fortnight?

Update on the move

This is me testing my PDA email to update the blog. And add pictures on the move!

The Hat

The hat has made it to Cheltenham. Here, being modelled by my good friend David Beadle.

Dave was awarded it for an unprompted monoski attempt on a black run with borrowed skis.

As you can see the hat is a beautiful thing. A sleek and aerodynamic little number that will in no way impair my cycling or stimulate any adverse comment from the roadside.

The next challenge is fix to my cycling helmet - time to deploy the ubiquitous cable ties.

On Saturday I did my first traning ride with loaded panniers. Ouch!

Downhill All The Way

Well, surprisingly we all managed our first-ever skiing holiday without injury. That is, if you exclude my pain of acknowledging that I am to skiing what worms are to juggling. Plus, that both my kids could (literally) run rings around me by the end of day two. Mrs Evans fared better, even getting a few runs under her belt.

We had a great time, met some super people, and hopefully we'll get to it again one day.

A big thank you to all the folks on the trip who so generously supported the bike ride. I'm also determined to do my bit with the hat to get those double pledges. Expect a post soon with me modelling the hat, just as soon as Gill posts it to me from Winchmore Hill.