UPDATE - Well I did it!

Seems ages ago now after returning to the cold and frosty UK but it was only a few weeks ago when I completed the cycling challenge for Macmillan in Central America which I completed in February. I started in Panama City (Panama) cycling along the Costa Rica west coast and ending in Granada (Nicaragua). Despite +40 deg C temperatures, sun stroke, conjunctivitis, giant insects, poor camping facilities, corrupt Nicaraguan border officials, saddle sores and many hills I completed the 680km over eight days cycling. It was certainly an experience I will never forget.

Certainly the challenge presented many physical challenges such how to deal with the very high temperatures and humidity. It is bad enough just being in that kind of heat let alone cycling up hills and long distances. Needless to say at the end of a long days cycling we were very sweaty but at least we were all in the same condition. Not that we were able to have reliable warm showers. Most camp sites we ended up at had poor showers facilities if we were lucky. Typically the shower would be a pipe sticking out of a side of a wall about 6 feet up with a trickle of cold water coming from it. Many a night the shower queue would be long and very frustrated as typically the water run out with still several people still waiting.

Many suffered with heat exhaustion. Cycling along a long straight road on the last day suddenly found my head throbbing and my legs turn to jelly. I desperately looked along the section of road ahead for shade but only saw one feeble tree. It only had three branches and cast very little shade but I had no choice but to stop (I could barely cycle on) and rest before being ‘rescued’ by a fellow cyclist a few minutes later.

On passing from Costa Rica to Nicaragua we had a 4 hour waiting passing border control. Once we paid our $7 admin fee we found out bikes impounded by the authorities. A bit of a drawback on a cycling trip! They demanded $3,000 before returning our bikes. We did successfully negotiate the return of the bikes eventually the next day (Monday) when more senior officials got involved before continuing our journey.

The fauna and flora were many and varied cycling through sub-tropical landscapes. In Costa Rica we came across the elephant beetle. Thankfully the example we found was already dead but it did surprise us how big it was.

I would like to thank all who have already supported me and Macmillan with their kind donations; a very worthy charity I am sure you will agree. Macmillan does excellent work helping cancer sufferers providing medical and moral support not only to those directly affected but also their family and friends. It is a sad fact that one in three will be directly impacted by cancer in their lifetime. I am sure we all have felt the dramatic effect this terrible disease has through the sad loss of family and friends. It is still not too late to donate either via my just giving web site (link below) or giving the money to me directly. I have raised so far £2,600 and hope to get to over £4,000.

fund raising UPDATE - following the success of the static turbo challenge at ANL (£406) before I went on the challenge; we staged a quiz night raising a further £427 on my return. I also had £250 from the charity committee at work (ANL) and two £100 cheques from generous suppliers (Westwell and Metso). This puts the total very close to the magic £3500. I am currently flogging through eBay anything that is not screwed down at home which should push me well past the min and on to hopefully £4000!