The 100 mile bike journey to Ilfracombe

[Andy Hamilton]

Spent most of today trying to sort out a bike for Dave to get to Ilfracombe on. I have taken the parts of about 4 or 5 other bikes and made him a workable bike to make the journey. All bikes that would have been thrown away too!

Anyway, it means that we will cycle to Ilfracombe (for the interforum games) from Bristol on Wednesday. We think it will take about 3 days if we keep to 30+ish miles a day. We shall be trying to raise money for Friends of the Earth so if you would like to sponser us I have found a way of doing it online. Have a click here for the online sponsorship form

if that dont work then it is http://www.justgiving.com/selfsufficientish

[Chickpea]

Good luck, guys. Keep a pack of frozen peas to sit on when you finish each leg.

[Andy Hamilton]

Ok so we are off tomorrow on our epic bike journey, some of you may have long memories and recall that I wanted to cycle the length of the country last year - for various reasons this did not happen.

Fingers crossed that this one is going to happen starting tomorrow at 15.30 - arriving in Wookie hole tomorrow night. - I have spent the last two days working on all the bits of bike in my back yard to get Dave a working bike. It has been made from about 5 or six bits of bikes all salvaged from various skips and a few bits from an old bike of our Dads.

I will be updatingthis page with all of details on our return, for now it just has some details of support you can give us for the journey. - cheers to Ina for her help so far and to Melanie (chickpea) for the more than generous sponsership.

[Millymollymandy]

Best of luck and hope that you two really enjoy yourselves. Although you won't read this until you get back!

[Shirley]

Thinking of you both as you embark on your trek... I hope that the weather is better down there as it is up here... wet and windy... more like autumn than August!

Good Luck!!!

[Wombat]

Well done guys! I hope all is OK and not too many sore muscles!

Nev

[Bigsis]

Apparently they got to Minehead by lunchtime today (Friday).

[Shirley]

That's great going... really impressed!

[Andy Hamilton]

Got back on Sunday and decided that 2 days of rest were in order

we sort of did it, we defiently did over 100 miles but only made it to Lynton just up the coast from Ilfracombe. It was getting dark by that point and you really don't want to be cycling up and down the country roads round there in the dark, we had also travelled maybe 40 miles or so that day, which included some 25% hills that seemed to never end.

We got a lift back to the campsite off our mate Paul Giles (the vegie burgers Paul) and locked our bikes up. The next day we got up and he drove us back so we could at least finish the last bit. - Both bikes were locked together and to a fence. I unlocked my lock and Dave realised he had left his key back in his tent. We exchanged some harsh words, well I did anyway. Then Paul drove me and most of my bike back to Ilfracombe. By the time he had dropped me off, got the key and picked up Dave I had clamed down and we had an excellent day on the beach followed by an evening of excellent music perfomed by Northampton band The retro spankys.

Thanks all for the kind words of encouragement, which I have only just read and the sponsership.

Apart from the key incident we got on very well and it was an amazing cycle through some fantastic countryside. We have some pics taken with a normal camera that I will post up when the film is developed. One thing I have learnt on this trip is that you should use OS map with countors on them rather than a map with just roads. There are some huge hills between Bristol and Lynton.

I will update that page when I get some time to myself with a bit more of the goings on on the trip.

[Shirley]

I think you and Dave should be reet proud of yourselves!!! Three cheers!

[Bigsis]

Well done Bro. You've come a long way from riding up and down the street on your BMX.

[Andy Hamilton]

Well done Bro. You've come a long way from riding up and down the street on your BMX.

Well we did make it to Lings wood once!

[Millymollymandy]

Well done on the cycling and the hills! But were there any inter-forum games? (this was the reason for going to Devon, wasn't it?).

[Andy Hamilton]

well there were two people from selfsufficientish there and Alison from Downsizer but that was it. Can you guess the two from ssish



T'was a long way for many people to come.

[Millymollymandy]

Two against one? So who won then? Did you actually play any games with Alison, or is that a rude question?!