Day3

Slightly easier day with only 95 miles. Started on cycle lanes through barren industrial wasteland before arriving at the original Severn bridge with fantastic views to the new Severn crossing and the estuary. A very steep hill out of Chepstow had back wheels spinning on wet leaves.
Stopped in St Brevials for a fantastic lunch continuing on to Hereford and Symonds Yat where we took a short break to look at the great views.
The rain started coming down very heavily near Ludlow where we sheltered in the market place for the worst of it to pass - we shouldn't have bothered as it rained very heavily after that for the next 2 hours and we arrived late at the B&B like drowned rats.
Here we met up with Claire and Bee our stage 2 driving team who had travelled from Exeter, via Portishead where they picked up all the kit and on to Church Stretton.

115 miles today

Well today we took a wrong turning and ending up visiting Weston Super Mare en-route. So that added an extra 10 miles. But ,we've arrived in Portishead at the end of day 2!

(Must get some pictures to you later.)

We've had a few interesting moments each morning. Everyone seems to disappear for a private ASSOS-cream moment. If you don't know what ASSOS is, look it up, and laugh.

Today started with the most fantastic tour over the top of Dartmoor. We were all at our fittest and flew along. After Dartmoor we then enjoyed the mostly flat terrain for a long long way north. Paul was the unlucky one who had to keep stopping for ponies and sheep.

Kathy, our first, and fantastic support driver, has now set off home. Kathy, from ALL of us, a thousand thanks.

We have eaten many many cakes and pasties. It is great being able to eat eat eat as much as you like. But, even then, it is not enough. In Lostwithiel, when we were exhausted, before eating our specially baked pasties, the cafe served up "Gentleman's Tea" - coffee + two cakes. (Or, in Tom's case, orange-and-mascarpone milk shake.)

Very long day on Saturday

Saturday proved a very long day up through the many hills of Cornwall. We arrived at our hotel after 9pm, and by the time we'd eaten, had little energy left to blog.

More later...

Land's End

After a drive down through the rain, we finally arrived at Land's End. Although the sun did shine, it was very windy and cold under the sign post.

We enjoyed a pleasant easy ride back to Penzance with a fair wind on our backs.

Didn't get a pasty, but did find a traditional fish'n'chip shop down near the seafront.

But, tomorrow it gets really serious...

Choosing a LEJOG vehicle

We had to choose a support vehicle, it was a difficult decision...

The Austin7 was amazing but the mitsubishi was even better besides the austin7 might have been a slight bit inappropriate.

One week to go

We've now got only one week to go until we set off for the bike ride. Fantastic! Bring it on...

I just glanced at our Save the Children just giving sponsorship page. (http://www.justgiving.com/teams/cc) We've raised £2290 already. This is brilliant. Thanks to everyone who has donated.

I received some details from Martin at Mitsubishi about the vehicle they're lending us. It is a big beast.

The vehicle we have got for you is an L200 Barbarian auto (this should help the driver if they need to cruise alongside you). It has integrated sat nav and bluetooth, so that may come in handy as well. It also has a reversing camera for parking - which comes in handy on such  bug truck. The vehicle will have a plastic load liner and canopy top - you can lock the top (but just beware of the fact that the actual tailgate section doesn't actually lock - so be careful about leaving anything really valuable in the back. It will also have a tow bar and single electrics fitted. The guys have created an additional reg plate to fix to your bike carrier.

Should be fun!

Blog Setup

This blog will allow followers to see our daily progress on the bike ride.

It is now just over two weeks until we head off...