And they're off..

So the morning of the 1st went well with everything being packed and ready for me to drive up to meet the others in Winchester, until I realised that the gears on the bike weren't working..a quick run into Clive Mitchell's Cycles meant that the fine start I had began to slip away. Running late I hopped in old faithful (Hearsy) before we ran into the first of 6 stand still traffic jams, that's right 6!! Anyway after thunderstorms, flooded roads and 7 hours of driving I had made it to the others!

Hearsy was looking fine with the stickers and the others approved and the packing went smoothly. Finally after a quick turn around we were off again to Folkestone at 9pm. We then got our first taste of the continent at 2:30am. This meant that I had racked up 10 hours of driving time as the others didn't come on to the insurance until 00:00am on the 2nd.

An uncomfortable night was spent in the hearse at the first petrol station we came across..this was a long, cramped, sweaty and sleepless night.

This morning we plugged and chugged our way down from Calais to Metz at the steady pace of around 55mph to be kind on Hearsy. However the heat picked up and we were all glad when we finally arrived at the camp site. Also our trust SatNav turned out not to be so trusty after it took us the wrong way up a purpose built bus lane and tried its best to lead us down the wrong-way on some one-way streets.

Tent pitched at the rapid pace of 5 mins, we want to shave at least a minute off of this time by the time we reach England again! Once again we were then battered by heavy thunder, lightning and some serious rain! All to action stations to push the water back out the tent.

Finally the weather has now cleared and we have been able to have a chilled walk around Metz and see some pretty awesome Cathedrals, Fred says this is the most cultural thing he has done all year!

Over and out for now!

Bike Cleaning

Ensuring bikes are clean and in good working order is obviously very important before we leave. Here Fred and I have improvised, using part of the climbing frame as a make-shift bike stand!

Supplies

Today it was Fred's task to stock up on the food supplies needed for the trip. Let's just say he got plenty. Lucky this challenge is hungry work! 


I think our diet will be: porridge, pasta, repeat!

Hearse Exploits

Having recently been slightly worried about the chances of our trusty hearse making it over the Alps, steep ascents and hairpin bends are not the best friends of a modified 1989 Ford Grenada, we are pleased to announce she has been passing all tests with flying colours.

Jack successfully drove her 400 miles from near Truro to the New Forest as a test drive. Thankfully all went smoothly. Jack suffered the most, as the poor old girl can only shift at 60 mph (at 65mph things start to sound a bit dodgy!) which meant he was sat for rather a long time on the A303. Lucky she has a fancy speaker system installed, sub-woofer and all, to keep us entertained.

In a bizarre turn of events, she was also entered into a vintage car show down in Cornwall. She proudly took her place alongside original Bond cars. Genuinely! All pretty exciting. By all accounts she held her own.........

Even more bonkers, the Bishop of St. Germans blessed her with the righteous words "May you be a place of safety, security and reliability.” Notice the Cornwall theme to all these slightly odd exploits..... No more needs to be said....

Archie, Fred and Jack

NB: All of the above is completely true.

Pride of place at the vintage car show.

The Team

Archie, Fred, Jack and the Hearse!!!

Cornwall Training Block

Last weekend we were all down at Jack’s house for a group planning and training session. Let’s just say the Cornish hills made it pretty brutal!

Rather crazily Archie had actually cycled down to Jack’s. Nearly a 240 mile trip from Andover to Truro! He did admit later that it was a silly idea in hindsight. He had only got off the plane from Australia two days before. But the extra miles in the legs will definitely help when the going gets tough. Probably somewhere in the Alps....

We trained hard every day for 4 night stay down there which was really good.  The toughest ride has to be the 20 miles to Caerhays beach and back. There was an absolutely savage hill to get back up from the beach. All of us were blowing pretty heavily afterwards.

Jack has been doing fantastic work with the hearse, fitting speaker systems and the like, as well as sorting out the interior. He has also given her a rather fetching paint job, but don’t worry it still looks very much like a hearse!  The only “minor” problem we had was when the fuel transmission fluid pipe burst on our first test drive. :( Quite a lot of red sticky liquid spilled everywhere! Initial thoughts were that we had bought more than we had bargained for from the funeral directors. Thankfully we were proved wrong......

We are all getting really excited now about the approaching challenge!

Only 14 days till we start cycling....

Archie, Fred, Jack

Training is well underway!

Apologies for the rather barren run of posts recently. I guess we were waiting for a more interesting topic to write about other than lots of planning! Also we have all been rather busy as of late which hasn't helped.

Most of the planning has been taking place at odd hours, reason being that we all seem to be in different parts of the world so a late night or early morning Facebook/Skype conversations are the only option. At one point Jack was in America, Fred in Thailand and Archie in Australia! Too many timezones!! It was a miracle we ever managed to get online all at the same time!

Anyway, the more interesting news is that training has stated in earnest! With 45 days before we leave the UK it seemed rather important that we started to make some serious inroads. 

Jack wins the prize for most bonkers training method so far. He genuinely set up his rollers (almost like a tread mill for a bike for those not in the know) on the side of an indoor swimming pool in an attempt to replicate some heat and humidity! Serious commitment too, given that he started that training session at 6am! 

Archie has been attracting some rather weird looks in hostels all round Australia. Walking into a 10 man dorm (only $15 a night - bargain!) as a sweaty mess after the latest in a series of runs does not give the best impression to you fellow dorm buddies!

While up in Cairns, North Australia, Archie's visit luckily coincided with the annual Ironman event which was taking place. It was pretty inspiring stuff to watch, especially at the finish where guys were literally collapsing over the line and being taken off by wheelchairs. An awesome sight to really see people leave absolutely everything on the road. It was also a great chance to gawp at all the incredibly expensive bikes on show! 

Fred has assured us that his training has started! Contact with him has been a bit difficult as he tries his best to find reliable internet connection as he backpacks around South-East Asia. He is a bit of fitness machine anyway so we are sure he will be fine.

We are all soon to be returning back to the UK. Though the thought of a large training block awaiting us does make the thought of coming home a bit less appealing! But we are all looking forward to really getting our teeth into the training, so we will all be able to smash this challenge!! 

Keep spreading the word!

Archie, Fred and Jack