UPDATE - we made it to Spain, 1150 miles and three weeks after leaving De Panne (Belgium). The story of the trip can be summed up in a very few words - cold, hills, rain, wind, more hills, much more wind. All the gory details, including the story of how we almost literally crawled across the Spanish border - there was so much wind it was almost impossible to stand, let alone ride, are at www.ffortissimo.org.uk.
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Thanks for taking the time to visit our JustGiving page.

There's another one here which you may also like to visit - we have to set up one for each charity we're raising cash for.

We will be cycling from De Panne in Belgium (it's on the North Sea), through France to the Ile de Noirmoutier (that's on the Atlantic) and then down to Port Bou in Spain (that's on the Mediterranean). We'll be doing the whole thing on a tandem. The coincidence of being able to get a perfect anagram between NAtMed and Tandem was too good to resist.

We leave sometime around May 31st (that's the late May bank holiday) and expect to be on the road for around about 3 weeks. We're then taking a week to come back home again. For those three weeks, we will be entirely self-sufficient, carrying everything on the tandem apart from somewhere to sleep!

The basic route is on Mapmyride.com, and once you add in all the wiggles of the French road network it adds up to something in excess of 1000 miles. We'll be taking a bike computer and probably a GPS so that we can keep track of exactly how far it is.

Why? Why not! Stephen has a significant birthday later in 2010 he wants to mark in a special way, and wants a long holiday. Rachel also wants a long holiday, but her significant birthday was a few years ago (she organised a concert singing Spem in Alium and other music for a significant number of voices). Of course the downside of having a long holiday in June is that neither of us can take much time in the rest of the year. And the downside of cycling in June in France is that it's likely to be hot.

This page is set up to raise funds for UCLH Charity, which is Rachel's employer: we are also taking donations for Help the Hospices, the corporate charity supported by Stephen's employers.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

So please dig deep and donate now.