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Hello I'm Rowan and my son Chris and I are cycling from London to Rome this summer/autumn and are very keen to highlight the need for donations to support our local, very special and dedicated Pembrokeshire Hospice service.

We will be following the river Rhine through Holland, Germany and on to its source in Switzerland,  then carrying on down into Italy. ( only a few hills!!)

Paul Sartori's ancestral home is south of Milan and we will be calling in to say hello and hopefully swap stories with his family in Piacenza before pushing on down to Rome.

Friday 1st  August: We have arrived in Harwich two days  early for the ferry and this is not the most scenic of sea side towns to be hanging around! Never mind the weather is dry and we have found a pub camp-site!! Last night we camped beneath a most beautiful old oak tree which served as a great umbrella when we cooked supper. Sunday we catch the ferry to The hook of Holland and then search for the Rhine.

Sunday 10th August: Arrived at St Goar, halfway down the Rhine, hoping to reach Mianz on Monday.  Cycling alongside the Rhine is beautiful, we are in the valley with all the castles.  We are doing 50-60 miles a day; our legs are fine but our bums are numb!

Thursday 14th August: Nearly in Switzerland!  Yesterday we cycled 85 miles into a headwind; so punishing I don't know how we made it.  We scoffed our supper and collapsed in the tent.  Today we are cycling to Basel, on the border of Germany, Switzerland and France, and will have a rest day there.

16th sat. we have made lake luzern and yesterday was so hard. We hit our first real up hill trail in the pouring rain, I have discovered that you get boiling hot cycling up, and then freezing cold on the way down. I was really begining to get seriously worried for the first time on this trip. We had no campsite and it was getting late and the cold was a problem. Then a small village and a woman walking. I dashed over and begged camp please. She pointed ahead and Chris and me ended up on some ones front lawn with a birthday party in full swing. the noise never bothered me as i was safe and warm for the night. 

22nd August.

NEVER AGAIN!!!! Cycling up and over those mountain in Switzerland was unbelieveable hard but we made it. I was on my knees when I dismounted my bike at the top to celebrate our achievement. I could never have done it on my own and Christophers constant encouragement got me to the top!

Unfortunately we received news that meant we had to return home and so we continued our down hill journey to the boarder of Switzerland with Italy before getting "thousands" of different trains back home. We had cycled nine hundred miles and reached a height of about nine thousand feet! Not bad eh?

I am hoping to complete the journey on my motorbike and will keep you all posted on this site.