9th September Lostwithiel to Lands End

Again a very hard day, with mile after mile of hills.
Pictures will follow, but Jess's ecstatic face as we rode towards a wonderful sunset at Lands End, and were met by all the guys, was one I will never forget. She was incredibly strong and tenacious throughout the whole trip, and her completing such an amazing challenge was what made it all worthwhile for me.
Jess, you were amazing. I couldn't have done it without you. Thank you!

8th September Exeter to Lostwithiel

Devon is horrible. Not really, it is gorgeous, but we found this to be the toughest day of all physically and mentally. We stopped for quite a while to help a group of 3 ladies who were having trouble with their bikes, which made us run a little late.

Devon is very very hilly. Brutal ascents, followed by raving mad descents, which after a while we came to dread, as we knew what would follow afterwards. We both actually felt quite sick half way up one of the hills.

We arrived at a lovely b and b , Penventon Farm, where we were made to feel at home, and then rushed out to grab a bite to eat locally

7th September Burham on Sea to Exeter

A very long day, over Dartmoor. Breathtakingly beautiful, and breathtakingly hard as well. The rain hurt, but it was more than made up for by the Dartmoor ponies.

Jess had one of her highlights too. She was upgraded o The Cromwell Suite, the poshest room in the hotel! We didn't see her for two hours before she came down for dinner, looking decidedly happier with her lot, Princess bed, bath to die for etc etc.

6th September Cardiff to Burnham on Sea

Another hard day. After we'd all spent the night at home in our own beds, our spirits flagged at the thought of leaving again. We also had to get over the Severn Bridge somehow. Jess got lost a couple of miles before our prearranged meetup at the services with Mike. My fault, I wasn't looking behind me. Oops. I got a right tonguelashing when she turned up as she somehow ended up cycling through a field. This was probably the rainiest of days as well. Jess was very brave to keep the pace up as it totally lashed down. Scenery not that exciting either.

Sunday 5th September Llandridnod Wells to Cardiff

We were joined today by Derek Thomas, a local Headteacher, and his friend Ian. Jess was still half asleep when it was time to get going, especially as it was raining. Needless to say, Dave, who doesn't mess about with anything, sent Mike and I up to help her with her stuff, and we set off not too long later.

Bearing in mind most of her male companions were roughly twice her age, she set off at a furious pace which none of us could keep up with. We assumed she was going to stop at the prearranged tea and buns stop in Brecon. On our arrival, she was nowhere to be seen, and after about an hour of searching she was found, having started the main ascent up towards Storey Arms. This was a gruelling ride, really strong headwind, and at least Jess stayed behind to coax her Dad up the mountain. They were fabtastic! We stopped for another breather just after the summit, as we all recognised we needed a rest.

Jess and Dave stayed back, whilst Derek, Ian and I blasted off towards Cardiff to meet up with our welcoming party. Jess arrived with her Father literally minutes after the appointed time, a masterful piece of pacing. Dave wasn't so happy to be carrying her makeup bag for the group pictures, and soon unloaded it onto someone else.

The greeting provided by our friends, all of whom have been very supportive was heartwarming. Thank you all very much, it meant a lot to us all.

Derek announced after this arduous stage that he'd only been out training on his bike once. He gave an amazing account of himself, and is still looking for his underpants after several hours on a razor blade of a racing saddle.

Sat 4th September Oswestry to Llandridnod Wells

We were joined today by Jess's Father, Dave Hill. They set a cracking pace all day long, as they are very competitive with each other. A long hard day in the saddle, but Dave treated us all to a wonderful meal in the eveing which was most relaxing. Not so relaxing was the huge wedding party downstairs, which was still going at about 2am!
Bleary eyes in the morning.

3rd September Wigan to Oswestry

Very pretty day, with some tough roads, used a couple of weeks later for the Tour of Britain cycle race. Can't remember a great deal at the moment, as any memories were overawed upon our arrival at what was probably our best overnight stop, at Moors Farm, Welshpool. We were honoured to meet up with Jess's parents, to spend a night at what is a shooting lodge. Free drinks on the house, and the most glorious home made food. Absolutely five star!

2nd September Windemere to Wigan

Started the morning nicely. Despite having some horrible late finishes, we couldn't resist the idea of going out on a boat on the Lake. Jess is good at rowing, so Mike and I sat back and enjoyed the views, before returning to shore in time for lunch.

Guess what, We were late arriving in Wigan, just in time to nip out for an Indian meal in a nice restaurant. Whilst enjoying our food, Jess was most disturbed by what might be described as two young ladies in pyjamas, the other side of the window. They were making and mouthing unmistakeably offensive gestures for no apparent reason. She sent Mike and I out first,both being trained in Aikido, to check the coast was clear.

We described our experiences to the Landlord on return, who said 'we apologise for the behaviour of our neighbours in Horwich'

1st September Carlisle to Windemere

One of the most beautiful days of all. Lake district etc. Oustandingly lovely. We were actually there on time that day, and were treated to arrive at a beautiful hotel, next to the Beatrix Potter Museum. We all had a lovely meal, again well deserved after some of the disastrous 'Tesco Sandwich' affairs we'd resorted to previously. Mike actually got to eat Bambi pie. Very nice!

31st August Sanquar to Carlisle

The longest day of all mileage wise. We were still making up mileage from our navigation disaster, so ended up doing a soul destroying 95miles. The last couple of hours of which were along a pitch black never ending road, where we'd been helpfully told that some cyclists had been hit off their bikes recently. It was me who started running out of willpower here. It never seemed we were getting any closer. We got to our friendly digs just in time for a quick well deserved drinkie over the road.

30th August Paisley to Sanquar

We actually started off where we'd finished early the day before, as we didn't want to 'cheat'. It was a very hard day as it left too many miles to cover. At about 10pm, we gave up trying, and were welcomed into a tiny pub called the 'Wee Train' to warm up and wait for Mike to rescue us. Jess went to sleep on one of the leather seats in there, so I sent the crowd of very friendly locals over to wake her up. They soon had her at the bar, plying her with Baileys.

If you can imagine around 15 well meaning Billy Connolly style people, that's what made Jess blush so. They were also very very welcoming, and posed the most direct of questions to us. That is for us to know only. What happens on tour stays on tour.....

29th August Crianlarich to Paisley

Fantastic beautiful day. Except we went the wrong direction out our lodgings, and ended up 40 miles in the wrong direction. We had a lovely ride, but as we were due to meet up with the Scottish Bipolar people, we called it a day after 45 miles or so, and drove to Paisley. A picture of us meeting up is attached, along with one of the entrance to their office. Nice.

They looked after us very cordially, and we were all very interested in how their work is conducted in Scotland..

This was the worst accommodation of the whole trip. The manager, after about 5 telephone calls was completely unable to describe how to get to her hotel. We decided that it was because she lived there and didn't need to know.

There was the most almighty fire near the area as were searching. So big that several fire tenders were out, and kids from all around. They couldn't stop laughing at my Borat style shorts. There was a huge Hiroshima like plume of black smoke going up into the air. I even asked the hotel lady to look out the window, could she see the smoke, as a point of reference. She said not.

When we found the place, no thanks to her. I stood on the front step, and there was the smoke, 100 yards away. What a dipstick.

I was just settling down in my bed, when Sue (christened Jane Austen for the trip with regard to her sensitive and proper demeanour) invited me down to their shared bedroom. I entered the room, which was bathed in a gentle and romantic light, a mixture of provocative and sensuous feminine aromas in the air. They were both in their night attire, in their respective beds, and said they had a special request of me. Thinking my luck was in, they kicked me out of their fire door into the cold and asked if it was secure from the outside, as they were on the ground floor and wanted to feel safe. Hmm.

28th August Fort William to Crianlarich

A very physically demanding day. As we were bimbling along at our own not too fast not too fit pace, I saw a large group of cyclists behind us. My job for the whole tour was watching out for stuff from behind. Anyway, I urged Jess to speed up in order to sit on the back of this group of chaps. They were racing cyclists. out for a leg loosener of 150 miles or so. One of the pics is of me enjoying following up the rear over one of the lengthy climbs. We were ripping along at around 30mph or so for loads of it, the sheer pace was exhilarating for Jess. I had my first and only near death experience on one of the downhill sections. 45mph in the wet round tight bends, front wheel starting to skid, down a mountain. Not good

The annoying thing for Jess was that were all laughing, joking and behaving in typical bloke fashion all the time, which she found completely disgusting. She forgave them when a kind chap gave her the most delicious homemade flapjack ever in the whole world. Yum yum.

We must have saved a couple of hours that day from being towed along at such a speed. Thanks guys!

Lovely accomadation, loads of animals

Apparently, Crianlarich is Gaelic for 'low pass'. My a**.

27th August Drumnadrochit to Fort William

First part was along the shores of Loch ness, and most of the rest of the way was equally beautiful. We stopped for a quite a few photos today, so were running late as usual. Jess and Simon found the most gorgeous specimen of manhood (made Jess blush) in the whole world. He even stripped for us and dived into Loch Ness, emerging. aftershave ad style from the frigid waters, cascades of which were running down his muscular torso........ . His name was 'Rocas' which made him all the more 'fit'.

Possible highlight of the day was meeting up with a lovely lady who lives in Fort William. She invited us round to her house, having prepared an outstanding vegetarian meal. We couldn't stop giggling as she described her work in Antarctica, and her (then) beloved. When describing him, she went red as a beetroot and quivered a little, as if she was having a 'crisis'. We got her to do this multiple times until she appeared to have run out of energies. You know who you are thank you so much. We trust you will find another to fill the gap left by Mr X.

26th August Brora to Drumnadrochit

A more attractive day cycling wise, sunny during the middle of the day. We stopped for lunch, and the boys noticed that the indigenous ladies of the area were all about 6 feet tall. Even the schoolgirls were model height. Weird.
Day ended in absolute deluge, testing our waterproof gear to the max.

Our lodgings for the night were outstanding, we had a whole newly built chalet to ourselves, which we referred to as the big brother house. Wonderful. Jess forgot her 'ruby slippers' when we went to the chip shop, so had to be carried 'piggy on the back' style.

Are you sitting comfortably

(we weren't!) then I'll begin.....

24th August. The day kicked off at around 5.30 am, collecting the team from their various abodes. Luckily, our tardis like love bus managed to containg the ladies' make up etc. Mike being a travelling bluesman, had his guitar, a small case, and a bar of soap. Mike started driving after a while, and after a while of very competent motorway driving, I announced to the girls (who hadn't noticed because they were reading Hello magazine etc) that Mike hadn't actually driven for a few years. He did a fantastic job, and say that as an ex police highly qualified driver.

We collectively needed around 7 stops for Expressos etc en route. It's a long way! We were so bored that even the most feeble of jokes cracked everyone up. Everyone's favourite seemed to be 'Have you ever been groused?' as we passed another distillery. This had the girls in tears for about ten minutes, I can't imagine what they were thinking about.

The hotel place at the other end was basic but OK, as we were completely worn out, after a very long day off sitting down and doing nothing.

August 25th John O Groats to Brora. Started out very promisingly rainbows etc.

Following what we referred to as 'Road 1' , as there isn't any choice, we set off to the delights of dramtic sea and coastline to our left, barren landscape to our right, and a very steep up and down road grinding off into the distance. After a while, this became quite depressing actually, the cause of one of the very few squabbles or 'domestics' we had. We stopped for a few minutes to have a breather, then had to psyche each other up to get going by being really rude to each other. All forgotten after a few minutes though.

We stopped for dinner at a wonderful place called the Red Lobster, and along with delicious food, were treated to a French manager, who made it taste even better.

It was all worthwhile when we arrived at our DREAM of a b+b, you must go there. Straight out of country living magazine. The owners just said 'here's the keys' and went out. Very trusting, they also kindly made a donation,

http://www.inverbrora.com/

12 down 4 to go!

Thank you thank you thank you!!!!!!!

Massive welcome to Cardiff yesterday from all the guys and girls from MDF Bipolar Organisation. It means a lot to us, a real lift.

Sorry we haven't kept y'all up to date. The wifi, telephones etc just plain haven't worked most of the places we've been. That and disasters timewise, getting back at midnight a few times, due to stopping and checking out loads of stuff en route. In the fullness of time, after we have finished and slept for a week, the full story with all the laughter and tears will be here for you read.

In the mean time, 4 more days to go, we're off to the seaside today!

JESS HAS BEEN A STAR!!!!!!! All the folks along the way could not believe she started riding a couple of months ago. Amazing!

thanks guys!

WEWWW   TRY AGAIN. WE HAVE HAD LOTS OF GOOD WISHES.THANK YOU. ALL ARE WELL, WE WILL UPDATE IN FULL ASAP.