Image credit: Heather Graz
Recognise this mountain? It is the tallest free standing mountain in the world ... Mt Kilimanjaro.
Kilimanjaro stands at 5,895 metres above sea level or 19,341 ft.
Today, we summited Kilimanjaro with our cumulative climbs - actually we have now climbed 6,941 meters in 4 days (22,772 ft). Next stop, summiting Mt Everest.
We started early in South Bristol on the Avon Cycleway and found ourselves crossing the Avon with the tide out, leaving an empty river. Unfortunately the NCN near the bridge was closed, with minimal signage, making us backtrack on ourselves for miles, to get to the Avon river bridge.
New Bridge (M4)
Old Bridge (M48)
Day 3 saw us ride 89 miles and as has already been said in a previous blog, saw us climbing 5886ft.
Day 4 will see us doing about the same distance, but with hopefully less than half the climb of the previous day.
Did someone say chocolate? The intrepid duo stopped off to visit the Chocolate factory, whilst we made our way to Land's End on day 1.
When they arrived at Land's End, on their way to have their picture taken at the "Land's End signpost", Moose and Mouse were distracted by Paddington Bear ... and shared a marmalade sandwich instead. They never did get to have their official photo taken 😁.
Yesterday we were holding our collective breaths for what today's trip to Bristol would bring. The day lived up to expectations. For all of us except our old friend and "Sherpa", Almero, it was the first time that Michael, Arlene and I had ridden up a hill with a incline approaching 17 degrees. In short, some might say that that is the reason that one drives something with an engine!
Today's 1811m of climb takes us to a total of 5481m of elevation climbed in three days...four times the height of Ben Nevis.
The flip side of this is that it is also possible for some of us to do in excess of 60km/hour on a downhill.
We also got to meet and follow the some cows taking a walk down the lane and to have coffee and ice cold Coke at a working sawmill. All in a day's work.
A massive thanks to Almero for the expert sherpa-ing over the past two days. It was quite a ride!
Day 2 was a day of many highs...all made possible by covering 148 km that climbed 2593m (or 8507 feet) in just under 10 hours. With that much climbing one gets to see the hills of Cornwall early in the morning,
to ride over deep gorges a few hundred feet below and then be ensconced in the tranquil tree-lined cycle path of the Granite Way in Devon,
and be rewarded with pints of ice-cold Coca Cola at Strawberry Fields Farm in 27 degree heat at 4pm in the afternoon.
What a day! We were definitely holding our breath a bit for what the next day's trip from Okehampton to Bristol would bring!
The first leg from Lizard Point to Land's End was 34 miles.
From Land's End we headed out a further 20 or so miles to provide us with a great springboard for the ride to Okehampton. The red star shows where we stopped at the end of Day 1 and marks the starting point for Day 2.
found coffee and a swing and weren't to bothered about the ride ... they'll catch up again tomorrow.
Our first day started at Lizard Point, the Southern most point of mainland UK.
Along the way, we found a chocolate factory ...
We didn't quite make it to St Michael's Mount ... mainly because the tide was in.
And at last we arrived at Land's End ...
We rode an extra 20 miles from Land's End to make a dent into what is widely known to be the most difficult day on LEJoG. Land's End to Okehampton would otherwise be 112 miles with 7,889 ft of elevation (180 km with 2,4 km elevation).
So I'm posting this is a day late as in the excite of the final rush, I forgot to post yesterday.
The car is packed, the bikes are on the roof and the first part of the journey to Cornwall is about to start.
We left Perth in good time, and then got stuck on the M6 with thanks to an oil spill. 9 hrs later we finally arrived at our overnight stop in Tewkesbury.
Only a 4 hr drive to Penzance today ... pictures to follow.
And on a windy Sunday,
we had our last training ride up Little Glenshee,
and contemplated the amazing challenge ahead.
new places to have coffee, chocolate and cake ... wait did someone say "cake"?
You’ll need to use your imagination.
Picture six 330ml soft drink cans stacked into a pyramid. That’s around 2 litres.
Now imagine those six cans sitting inside your body, below your ribs. That is five more cans than an average healthy person would have in them. That is the size of Michael’s kidneys, enlarged by Polycystic Kidney Disease, or PKD — a cruel, inherited condition that causes the kidneys to grow larger and larger each year, while kidney function steadily declines.
Sadly, the growth in size goes hand in hand with loss of function. We now expect Michael to need dialysis, or ideally a kidney transplant, by late 2027 or early 2028. His soulmate of 40 years, Heather, has bravely offered one of her kidneys, and her blood type makes her a potential donor. Michael knows all too well what this disease can do, having already lost both his mother and an uncle to PKD.
Before this disease forces us to stop these mad adventures, we are setting out on a very special challenge: cycling from Lizard Point to Dunnet Head, the southernmost and northernmost points on mainland UK, via Land’s End to John O’Groats. And along the way we are raising funds for the PKD Charity.
We are not doing this alone. We are incredibly lucky to have Bruce with us every step of the way, with others including Almero, James, Andrew, Tanya and Chris joining to cycle with us and support us whenever they can. Their generosity, encouragement and friendship mean the world to us.
But a challenge like this cannot be done without support. We are deeply grateful to Biophys Ltd, Disperazol Pharma, Vikings Fisheries Ltd, Fulhold Pharma Ltd, and the University of Highlands and Islands Academy of Sport and Wellbeing in Perth for their financial, practical and media support.
Look out for us on the road from the 19th of July in our brightly coloured shirts.
