The daughter of Aaron’s former Commanding Officer in 29 Commando Regiment has cycled 200 miles and raised £839.26 for the Foundation!
Molly, a pupil at Lord Wandsworth College in Hampshire, set off on the 4 day ‘epic adventure’ at the beginning of August, and faced everything that the English weather, roads and some dubious navigation could throw at her.
Undaunted by the challenges along the way, it was apparent that her spirit and humour (and the support of friends and family) got her to the finish. Well done to Molly and her friends Elizabeth and Eva (who were cycling for two other charities).
You can read Molly’s own account below.
Last week Elizabeth Williams, Eva Greatorex and I cycled the 200 miles from our school in Hampshire to Salcombe in Devon over four days, Elizabeth riding for the Forces Children’s Trust, Eva for the Devon Air Ambulance and me for ALF.
The first day went well; we set off in good time, didn’t get lost, encountered few hills and didn’t even crash on the hill down into Crawley as we had during one of our training rides that resulted in stitches for me. We stopped, as all cyclists should, at a pub for lunch, but sadly having to wait nearly half an hour for a BLT! We got over it. In Salisbury stayed with family friends, Mike an Lou Edwards who had just collected their 8 week-old boarder collie puppy, Otto, who had served as motivation throughout most of the day. After a very soppy viewing of Pride and Prejudice we went to bed confidant for the next morning.
Day two began with rain. It was tipping it down when we woke up but slackened off before too long and didn’t deter us or delay our start. After a photo stop outside Salisbury Cathedral and a mortified Eva and Elizabeth, who were thoroughly embarrassed by the level of excitement I was experiencing to be in the vicinity of such a key historical monument, we got going again. Pedalling through the morning along the Chalke Valley, only stopping twice; once when Eva’s Garmin took us the wrong way, and again when I realised I had been to a history festival nearby a few weeks before – I must be such a cool person to be around!. It began to get more hilly, especially after lunch, this we could deal with, however, going downhill gradually became more dangerous as my break blocks were nearly worn out. Luckily there were no crashes, but we did encounter a few blasphemous tractor drivers coming far too fast round corners. (Giving them a sickly smile and wishing them a nice day tends to make them even more angry, it’s great!). We got into Yeovil early evening and went out for a pizza at a restaurant Elizabeth’s mum had found. Having gone out in trackies and a hoodie I soon realised that this was a rather more upmarket Italian than I had first thought and subsequently spent the rest of the evening trying not to have to get up and display my attire. We returned to the guest house where we were all in one big room- two double beds instead of four singles- apparently I stole all the duvet. I then began to update the wider world of social media on our progress with a series of stats including the roadkill tally that Elizabeth had been keeping track of. This I called “Elizabeth’s roadkill count”, but little did I know that the people reading my updates had taken the name rather differently and Elizabeth was quickly becoming known for being the most effective animal culler in southern England; oops.
Day three was going to be the hardest day; it was the longest and nearly the hilliest. We started off alright but there was an EVIL 4km climb up onto the Blackdown hills. After reaching the top morale was running almost as low as the flapjack supplies and we were all eager to stop for lunch. We made better time after that, taking a despicable number of selfies at the Welcome To Devon sign and only telling Eva to stop being a stroppy cow once. Getting into Exmouth was difficult as the roads were busy but when we reached our hotel on the seafront nothing was going to be able to stop us collapsing on the beds and watching an entire season of the Big Bang theory; nothing did!
The next morning we got up a bit later as the ferry from Exmouth to Starcross didn’t start until nearly Eleven, giving us time to get my bike fixed in town. We boarded the ferry holding our “donations gratefully received” sign and managed to make a full £5 by singing ‘The Crazy Moose’ at the tops of our voices. They might have been paying us to shut up. At that point my GPS gave up and with Eva’s being temperamental at best we got lost several times getting through the seaside towns of Dawlish and Teignmouth. Much of the route turned out to be dirt track and we were all very tired and wet as it had started to rain. Luckily I was on hand to give another rendition of everyone’s favourite campfire song and point out it could be worse. It wasn’t long before Elizabeth swore and Eva threw her bike at a gate. I got the message. As it began to get dark we realised we weren’t even half way and had not yet stopped for lunch, and it was in a Morrisons café in Totnes that we very nearly abandoned. After that we blitzed and I was forced to admit I was wrong in arguing fiercely that we didn’t need adult assistance. Kristin and Alex were invaluable that evening and we would not have finished without them. As darkness fell it began to get foggy and we realised that Alex’s LED light attached to my bike rack with first aid tape probably didn’t qualify as suitable illumination so we stopped at a garage for the Mums to buy some lights and us to chat to the friendly local who knew all about bikes as his wife had had one when she was a child. He also had an MBE which made a slightly better topic of conversation. As we came over the crest of the last hill we met the welcoming party. Two younger brothers had been waiting by the side of the road since early afternoon with homemade banners and a charity bucket. In another half mile we were at Eva’s house in Salcombe and I was left in a bathroom to work out how to use this strange bottle labelled muscle relaxant; apparently you weren’t meant to drink it!