The Plan -

 updated 21st July 2011

Donate to Macmillan Cancer Support 

To celebrate my 65th birthday, and do something I have never done before I have decided to ride my bike from Lands End to John o'Groats.  The idea was quickly seized upon by my daughter Sarah and her husband Scott who quickly formed a team.  Our original research showed that lots of people do this trip every year, therefore it couldn't be too arduous - how wrong can you be.  We planned a route up the West coast of the country, and booked our accommodation accordingly.  It is only when we looked at the detail that we got to know the seriousness of this challenge; 945 miles, with a total ascent of 80,430 feet - the equivalent of riding up mount Everest more than 3 times. Still, I suppose there must be an equal amount of descent!

The Team: Eric, Sarah and Scott

We start the trip in 2 days time and hope to update this blog on a daily basis.  So here you will be able see our progress and hopefully share our pain!!

The Cause

My original intention was to simply to ride my bike and enjoy my trip, but many people have asked what charity I am riding for.

Patricia Jameson, a dear neighbour and good friend recently, at the age of only 60, lost her battle against cancer.  Prior to her passing she was helped by the Macmillan Cancer Support organisation, and it is they who we are raising money for.  We will need as much motivation as possible and the more we can raise the greater will be our will to succeed.
Please help us exceed our target of £2,862 by donating to this excellent cause.  Since creating this Blog the generosity of our supporters has been overwhelming and we have had to change our target from £550 to £1,000 to £2,862 (this number represents the total miles the three of us will cycle over the duration of the trip.
You can do this  by donating on line at  www.justgiving.com/DanielsandFawcett  .

Thank you for reading our Blog and Donating

Training

update 21st  July 2011

Help raise funds for Macmillan Cancer Support

February 2011: At 1,732ft this is higher than any point on our trip.
A good start to the training.

Training started in February 2011 and now the start is imminent and training finished we have ridden 2,600 miles, taking 220 hours (9 days & nights) and each burned 158,000 calories (600 Mars bars)!!  Much of our training is done where I live in NorthYorkshire Dales, where we are not short of hills.

After 170 miles, Fish and Chips never tasted so good 

Most of our routes are made on an ad hoc basis, but in May we rode the new 170 mile Sustrans route from Morecambe to Bridlington, taking two days rather than the expected three.

Looking remarkably fresh after 91 miles

And in mid June we took part in the Great Yorkshire Bike Ride, a mass event of over 1,000 cyclists starting in Wetherby and ending in Filey  71 miles later.  However we rode from the Sarah and Scotts home, to the start, and then from the finish to Flamborough, where we stayed the night which made our total days trip 103 miles.  The following day we rode the 74 miles back to Sarah and Scotts home.