Blazing Saddles 2008

Well, that was interesting. A patchy nights sleep. Tried to get as much of my sleeping bag round me as possible to try and keep those pesky mices out! I was forced into a rethink of strategy after a while as I ended up drenched in sweat, the heating was on all night, and being a muppet I didn’t think to turn the radiator off. Thanks for the advice Kate. Woke nice and early to try out the Luxury facilities before chancing a cuppa tea. An absolutely gorgeous daybreak with an amazing red sky. Others mentioned they’d been kept awake all night by the mice running around in the walls and the roof! We made our way back up to the inn for a hearty breakfast, which turned out to be just what the doctor ordered. A most worthy final day breakfast. We set off through moutainous grassy heathland with no one around for miles. I felt quite subdued and strangely apprehensive, a mood mirrored by Stu. We munched up the miles and found ouselves at Bettyhill on the North coast. Followed the road Eastwards as it became a bid undulating, crossed into our last county, Caithness. Eventually arrived at Thurso for lunch which was most welcome, although everyone seemed a little quite. Spoke to a local from Castleton, Red bugalow, who chucked a couple of quid our way. Set off again, refuelled, revived and in good spirits with a shortish afternoon ahead and the finish line approaching. Wound our way round to Dunnet head, the most Northerly mainland point in Britain. Met an old lady on a bike coming the other way. Apparently she was end to ending from Cornwall for 3 weeks. She’d made it to Thurso with a friend who didn’t fancy doing Dunnet head so she set off herself. She was on her way back to meet up with her friend from Thurso then they would carry on to John O’Groats. Charming, some friend. After a quick piccy we set off again on the final push, about 15 miles to go. Stopped just short to make sure the support crew were there and ready, but we were actually closer than we thought. Finally made it just after 4pm. The mini bus was decked out in banners and we all cycled down to the finish together. After piccys at the famous post and the finish line we got off our bikes for the last time. We celebrated with medals, cake and champers. After a short rest that was it, load back up and blast off towards Inverness. Job done, over 90 miles for the day & over 1000 miles for the trip. Stopped at Helmsdale for a nice fish n chip supper @ simply the best.

What a journey, absolutely loved it and so many memories to bore everyone else with in the future. Strange feeling, not having to get on a bike again the next day. Despite all the aches, pains, tiredness and soreness, I’m pretty certain there was a part of everyone that would miss it.

I’ll try and get some more stuff loaded on at some point, piccys and vids. Thanks for taking  the time to read this, hope its given you some insight into what happened, what it was like, and maybe its even inspired you to give it a go (yeah, right!).

Finally a big thanks goes out to:

All our families, who without their constant support this trip wouldn’t have happened.

The support crew, for being so fantastic to us for the whole trip. How you kept it together considering the conditions you faced sometimes (the smells in the morning in particular) I’ll never know.

The riders, couldn’t have wished for a better bunch of bloody nice chaps to go on such a jaunt with.

And finally all those who have supported us through sponsorship, thank you so much. You’ve really made a difference and we totally appreciate it.

So all that leaves us to say is, hmmm, what next?!……………………………………………………….

 

Started off going over the Kessock Bridge from Inverness to the Black Isle then over the Cromarty Bridge. Progress seemed a little slow initially, but we carried on towards Bonar bridge. Had some head scratching when we came to Ardross, it didn’t seem to be where it said on the map. This seemed to be a feature of a few of the smaller places we came across, but we decided to use the force and trust our instincts. It proved to be the right choice as we were where we were meant to be and we could’ve ended up going majorly wrong. We stopped just shortof Bonar bridge for a rest and a bite to eat, after a nice twisty downhill section. We stopped at Lairg for lunch, we had made good progress in the morning and had a fairly short afternoon, 15 miles or so in the end, which was a welcome relief! Spirits were high and they were a very enjoyable 15 miles of riding in some very remote territory. We arrived at Crask in good time, still nice and light and most definitely rural . A small inhabitance, just a pub and the house across the road where we stayed it seemed, we always knew it would be interesting. The house didn’t look like it was frequently inhabited but it wasn’t like there was alot of choice. It had some interesting ‘quirks’ such as the quick release toilet seat, as found by Ian. The showers were warm, but there was absolutely no water pressure. Then we found some mouse dropping on Ians bed, seems like we had company! After we unloaded and freshened up we had a nice cuppa and moseyed on up to the pub for some grub. Met the local one eyed dog who went outside to play with Kate, and got chatting to a nice chap at the bar who was a regular visitor and sponsored us a tenner. Had a lovely meal for tea which we were all more than ready for, pitch black when we went back outside when the torch on my phone came in most handy. Got back to find the mice had helped themselves to our shortbread the little buggers. This made everyone a bit uneasy about what the night had instore! Found the outside toilet, described by the landlord as luxury. Well at least this one had the seat firmly attached. After all that had happened it was easy to forget, ONLY ONE MORE DAY TO GO!!!!!!

First things first, apologies to everyone whos visited the site only to realise it hasn’t been posted yet. No excuses, it should’ve been done but wasn’t, sorry. Ok, so here it is, apologies for the essay but I’ll try and tell as much of it like it was…………..

 

The day started of really well with one of the best cooked breakfasts you could imagine (oh how we’d need that later on!) which went down really well with everyone, although I just couldn’t stomach mine for some reason. Nerves I shouldn’t wonder, I’d counted the amount of arrows on the map or something! Had a few miles warmup before we hit the first arrow, which was just a taste of things to come. Headed into the mountains again after that, passing a rather large dead adder on the side of the road as we went. Down the road, had to stop at Cock Bridge for a piccy, boys will be boys! before setting off in search of more gradients. We didn’t have to wait long as a little further we came across the first of a double arrow, at the bottom of which was a sign saying ‘Welcome to the Highlands’, they weren’t kidding either. Winding back on itself a couple of time and just so so steep. I ended up zig zagging across the road in an attempt to flatten it out a little, it really was all I could do to keep going. We all struggled up to the top and one by one were met with the same spirit crushing view as we got to the top. There was the second arrow winding away in front of us and we could pretty much see all of it. Yes, we were going to have to get to the top, right after we’d caught our breath. We managed to haul ourselves up it, and it strangely didn’t seem quite as bad as it looked (don’t get me wrong it was still hard going) and we motored on stopping at the Lecht ski center for a comfort break. Got a personal best of 41.8 mph (wuss) going down the other side, nothing compared to the trip record set by Mr Belcher, 49.2m mph, who must’ve been concerned about catching the mini bus up, not to mention the road works at the bottom of the hill (how inconsiderate). Bouyed by our efforts and the downhill sections we cruised on till we reached Darra where we stopped for lunch. The afternoon seemed fairly short as we made good progress. Dans route cards kept blowing off and nearly all ended in tears as some close group riding on a main road coupled with some braking oh so nearly resulted in contact! Pasta and rice pudding for tea, not at the same time though as that would be disgusting.

** Apologies for the comments disappearing, the site has received a huge amount of spam but protection has been put in place to hopefully stop this - please feel free to comment if you are genuinely interested in the blazing saddles **

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE BLAZING SADDLES FOR COMPLETING THEIR CHALLENGE, WELL DONE!

Monday, 22nd September

The guys got going pretty early.  Another glorious day - so far the weather had been exceptionally kind (touch wood).  With blue skies and sunshine lifting our spirits, we set off into the Glen Shee landscape.  More moutainous than we’d previously seen, so it made for a tough day’s cycling.  We stopped at the highest mountain pass in Britain for some nice hot soup and bread rolls at lunch and then glided down the other side of the 12% mountain we’d cycled before lunch (we find it much better that way around!).

Arrived at Ballater nice and early so for once the guys got a chance to wander around the town before having our tea at 5.30!!  Really nice pub meal and generally very pleasant surroundings.  Like a big bunch of OAP’s we were all asleep by 9.30!!

3 DAYS TO GO (though tomorrow looks tough - so fingers, toes, arms and legs crossed!!)

After a cooked breakfast the lads started out and only got 2 minutes up the road before we realised Dan had to van keys in his pocket!  First puncture of the trip goes to Mr Weeks after riding through a patch of glass.  The lads managed to change the tube and called the support bus for the large bike pump.  Another 5 minutes down the road and Ian got a puncture this time!  Not a good day for inner tubes!!  Again is was the support bus to the rescue with the bike pump.  Edinburgh was very busy on bikes.

Went over the Forth Road Bridge and stopped at Kelty for lunch.  While we were eating Ian noticed that Belcher had a flat tyre so he claims 3rd place!  A nice easy afternoon’s ride into Perth and made good time.  Had pasta cooked in “Kate’s Kitchen” (also known as the back of the minibus in a Travelodge carpark) and then as a bonus had fruit pies and custard for pudding - mmmmm pudding….

FOUR DAYS TO GO!!!!!

Set off in good time on a belly full of porridge.  Made a good 15 miles progress, but just before the border seemed to take a while.  Finally crossed into Scotland!!

Scenery is beautiful and the downhill bits are most enjoyable.  Purely by coincidence, we found out that the B&B we were meant to stay in at Peebles was no longer open - they just hadn’t told us!!  Had a bit of a rush to find somewhere else, but between Dan’s brother James and Andy Ramsden we got something booked.  Dan’s family visited today - getting through the centre of Edinburgh in a minibus is no mean feat!!  Again, was nice for us to have some other people to talk to and share our fish lot of Fish & Chips with!!

The barman at the hotel we stayed at very kindly gave us £20 sponsorship, having lost his sister to breast cancer.  I’m afraid I never got his name, but he has our website details, so if you are reading this - thank you.

Bussed it back to Blackburn to pick up the ride from where Dan was hit.  He was very stiff but carried on regardless.  It didn’t seem to take long to get out of Blackburn, though the hill to Slaidburn seemed to have no summit!  Some nice sweepy downhill parts to the ride, were a little bit wet and the lads were cycling in some low cloud at several points - very cold!  To road seemed very long today - as the landscape cleared and the lads could actually see the road ahead of them it all got a bit psychologically challenging - much better when you can’t see how steep the road ahead is!

The afternoon was much better, spirits had improved greatly and we motored on.  Heading to Gamblesby for the evening with a very kind offer of a roof over our heads and a big pasta mountain for tea from Andy Ramsden and his family.  The homemade chocolate brownie made it all worthwhile!  We’d all like to say a MASSIVE thank you to the Ramsden’s for housing and feeding us - it was very much appreciated!

What an “interesting” day.  All started off as normal - lads faffing about while we tried to pack the van and send them on their way.  They got plenty of miles under their belts and it was another (lucky) lovely day.  Progressed through Chorley up some very steep hils (this time they were necessary). Saw the Reebok stadium in Bolton and started through Blackburn.  All was going well until a set of traffic lights in the centre of Blackburn when a VW Polo took a dislike to Dan and decided he should be knocked off!  The driver had decided to turn left without indicating (or checking her mirrors) and caught Dan’s handle bars with her rear wing.

After a short trip to casualty he was all good and ready to get back on the road.  He’s been x-rayed and no broken bones were found, though they were concerned about the metal work in his ribcage, that turned out to be a multi-tool!

The lads sorted out Dan’s bike - lucky the damage was minimal and easy enought to fix, bought him a new cycle helmet and then went for sausage and mash at the Youth Hostel in Slaidburn.  But don’t worry folks - they started from the scene of the accident the following morning to make sure they have covered all of their miles!

Bit of a wet morning - not good, but did eventually clear.  Definately a day for your waterproofs!  Windy, single-track, muddy roads made for very slow progress.  Ian’s wife and friends met us for lunch and for the evening meal, which was a nice change for everyone (not that we’ve all had enough of each other - happy, happy people!).

Today we went through Ironbridge - the lads cycled up a rather large hill, which wasn’t entirely necessary.  Again, navigation skills may need some attention!!