The Great French Bike Ride

Four of us are taking the Brittany Ferries boat from Plymouth to Santander on 6th April, catching a train to the French border, and then cycling the length of France (camping along the way), before catching another ferry back to Plymouth from Roscoff on 20th April.

We are collecting sponsorship for two charities - The Joliba Trust (www.jolibatrust.org.uk), which works with communities in Mali, and the Rudolf Steiner School South Devon (www.steiner-south-devon.org), where two of my children go to school. These are two brilliant charities, so please look at their websites - then SPONSOR US!

Donating through this site is simple, fast and totally secure and all you require is your credit or debit card number. The Joliba Trust will receive your money quickly and, if you are a UK taxpayer, an extra 28% in tax will be added to your gift at no cost to you. Joliba will pass on 50% of all funds raised through this page to the Steiner School.

We also now have our own website (thanks Mike!), where you can have a go at guessing exactly how far we will be cycling in kilometres (with a prize for the nearest guess!) and follow the progress of the trip - have a look at www.thegreatcycleride.org.uk

6th April: We're setting off today! (despite early morning snow in Totnes). Sadly Andrew is ill and won't be coming

10th April: first internet café! We are now in Arcachon in the Gironde - we have cycled through heavy traffic, hills, 22°C heat on Tues, small flat cycle paths and  beautiful forests on Wed, boring but flat roads, 13°C and rain today and have survived a thunderstorm last night, but are in YHA tonight to dry out. Have now done about 250km. All getting a bit sore, but surviving!

13th April: 6th cycling day and we have just passed 500km. Tonight we are in a Youth Hostel again (in La Rochelle) as it started raining after we reached our campsite last night, and although there was a brief respite to allow us to have breakfast, the rain has been torrential all day. On Friday and Saturday we spent beautiful days cycling through pine forests on cycle paths, and on Friday night we camped out in the woods and had a campfire (it was well contained but we were still a bit worried the local fire brigade would be round!) Yesterday we crossed the Gironde river into Royan, a big resort, which was a bit of a culture shock after days in sleepy places. All holding up well - no major problems (1 broken spoke on Friday - Mike's - but we found a friendly bike shop in Lacanau, and got a replacement, and 4 punctures - all Ken's - he now has new tyres!)

25th April: We arrived back on Saturday evening (19th April - a day ahead of schedule!), after 1027km of cycling. The second week was a real mixture - we had some days of cycling on small roads, through farmland, some days along the Nantes-Brest canal, and one very wet day along main roads (we looked very chic with plastic bags over our shoes to keep our feet dry!). On Saturday morning we got up early to make sure we made the afternoon ferry from Roscoff, but we made it easily, and we had a great welcome from our families and Andrew in Plymouth.

Thank you very much to everyone who has supported us,

Susanna (and Mike, Andrew and Ken)