Hi Friends!

Thanks for visiting our SPAM Challenge fundraising page. Please dig deep and donate online! It could make a difference to many folks future...

Donating through this site is simple, fast and totally secure. It is also the most efficient way to sponsor us: Cancer Research UK will receive your money faster and, if you are a UK taxpayer, an extra 28% in tax will be added to your gift at no cost to you.

We have cycled from Calais to Germany and back in FIVE days, passing through France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Holland and Germany and carrying camping kit. It was a massive mileage of nearly 600 miles but the real challenge was completing the trip on only £70 (we actually did it for £62.20!) - this had to cover our ferry from Dover and back too! That meant camping rough, begging for food where necessary and using our initiative and personal resources whilst cycling up to 140 miles a day! Oh yeah, we also had to carry a tin of spam around with us as part of the challenge. Why? Don't ask...

OK, if you really want to know then the details are on our website at:

                     www.paulbraithwaites.co.uk

We were given great support before we left by our two esteemed local bike shops, Surosa Cycles (Oldham Cycle Centre) and Saddleworth Cyclery. The rest was up to US and now YOU!!!

So please donate now! We buckled down, suffered fairly badly, and did our bit to complete the difficult challenge and were all the more motivated by thinking of the money we might raise. What's fantastic is that ADVENTURE TRAVEL MAGAZINE are publishing the full story in their September/October issue!!! So we've been allowed to keep our donation pages open for another couple of months.

Many thanks for your support if you've already given - we're gobsmacked by the generosity of our friends and have upped the target! The money Si has donated is in return for favours during the trip - the kind folk didn't want payment so Si said he'd donate an equivalent amount himself. And thanks to people like Dan, John, Graham and co. who visited the shop personally to make kind donations!

Si and Geoff

Si and Geoffs challenge log submitted by Si each night:

Day One: We set off with a fast pace despite heavy weight of kit and managed 120 miles on Sunday to finish just north of Brussels. Camping on some good folks lawn and very tired. Despite the big mileage, we're already behind schedule... Heading to Aachen in Germany tomorrow and hope to get further towards Luxembourg if possible.

Day Two: Just made Germany as planned and celebrated with a 1.68 Euro bottle of Cote de Rhone. Had to spend 13 Euros on a campsite but well within budget particularly since we haven't spent anything on food yet. (Si's powers of persuasion brought donated bread and cakes from friendly shop owner and a packed lunch from the owners of our camping lawn!)  But we have a very difficult day tomorrow in some big hills to look forward to... One of the major problems has been the amount of water we've had to drink - 5 to 6 litres a day. Had to scrounge from all sorts of places as some of the tap water isn't drinkable - everyone buys bottled stuff.

Day Three: Very demanding day in much bigger hills than anticipated as we collected Luxembourg. Geoff's legs need re-charging and we had to stop short of schedule so a big push will be needed tomorrow to complete the challenge. We also had to sacrifice one of the cans of Spam today in order to save ourselves! But son of Spam (the can of Spam Lite) lives on...!!!

Day Four: Really difficult today because of falling behind schedule and some major aches and pains that are defying ibuprofen and paracetamol. In the saddle from 8am to 9pm but still have 140 miles to do tomorrow. One of the problems were some big hills again and a head wind as we biked up to Namur along the River Meuse. And the heat was a knockout factor too - 28 degrees Centigrade at least which sapped the energy in a big way... Camped for free in a nice little village and ate the last of our food to try to re-fuel and recover. Getting pretty fed up of pasta by now though!

Day Five: MADE IT - but only just. This is the hardest, longest and most painful days cycling either of us have EVER known. 140 miles from 7:00am to 9:30pm into a head wind was horrendous and we finished in the dark at Calais. Had enough budget left to easily afford our ferry fare after being super frugal all week and are hoping that our efforts will persuade more good folk to donate much needed money to Cancer Research.

Details of the trip in full are now on the website.

Si and Geoff
27th April 2007