Julia Brass
Hugh Brass JOGLE Thommy Fund
Fundraising for The Oundle School Foundation
Story
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Below are 2 sections:
(1) Pre-departure explanation and fund-raising
(2) Trip report - we got there on May 23rd 994 miles
(1) Pre-departure trip and fund-raising
This is a sister page to "Hugh Brass for research JOGLE" (www.justgiving.com/Hugh-Brass) where I explain that I had hoped to open a single Justgiving page and split any donations equally between 3 charities. This is not technically possible and instead I have opened 2 pages and Tony, my partner in the venture below, has opened one as well. His is for pancreatic cancer research (www.justgiving.com/BurchBrassCycling), aimed at his and our joint friends, "Hugh Brass for research JOGLE" is for Meningitis research and aimed principally at my work colleagues and friends Tony does not know, and this one is aimed at friends of Oundle School, for reasons which will be clear from what follows. This way, there is a fair chance that any donations will be fairly equally split between the 3 charities.
Thomasin (Thommy) Purbrook was in my son's year group at Oundle School. She died of meningococcal septicaemia just before Christmas, 2008 on a school history trip to .
Her family have decided that the most appropriate living memorial to her is to establish a Thommy Purbrook General Scholarship at Oundle, where she spent five extremely happy and fulfilling years before her tragic death. The aim of the scholarship is to provide a child who would not otherwise be able to go to the School with the opportunity to do so, and to benefit from the same experience as Thommy did herself. So far, over 200,000 Pounds has been raised which is nearly half way to their target. Any donations to this page will go to the Oundle School Foundation and be reserved for Thommy's Fund.
On May 9th Tony Burch and I set off on our bikes from John O'Groats at the north easterly tip of Scotland and will try to reach Land's End, the most south westerly tip of England, in 12 or 13 days. It is about 1,000 miles (1,600 kms) and the uphill bits are equivalent to climbing twice. We will stay in bed and breakfasts and carry our kit with us. There will be just the two of us, we couldn't find anyone else lunatic enough to join us and we'll be on our own without support cars, TV crews and the paparazzi!
We had both decided that we needed a challenge in 2010 and this is it. Of course, we'd like to raise some money as we grind up those hills, probably in rain and into the prevailing head wind. I have been training on my new bike in a special tweed/lycra oufit, as you can see from the photo.
A lot of small donations will be as welcome as a few larger ones, so please give whatever you can.
(2) Trip Report
Hugh Brass and Tony Burch JOGLE completed at 11-00am on 23rd May 2010 - 994 miles.
Met by our wives and Steve and Nickie (Burch's brother and wife) at Land's End. Celebrated with champagne and a compulsory photograph at the signpost.
Day 14 - Truro to Lamorna (near Penzance), 32 miles. Cumulative 982 miles
A very easy day pottering along to get ourselves in position for tomorrow's finish. Wall to wall blue sky, glorious views and not much in the way of hills. Passed through remains of disused tin mines, as well as narrow lanes.
Called in on Mrs Agnew for tea and cycled to a delightful B&B at Lamorna. Could have easily finished today which would have put us just inside our two week target, but our wives could not get to the finish before tomorrow morning, so we stopped with just 8 miles to complete tomorrow.
Day 13 - Tavistock to Truro, 57 miles. Cumulative 950 miles
A fellow guest at the hotel was 74 year old Len from Scunthorpe who took up cycling aged 69. He was going north, a LEJOG, and had covered the ground from Land's End to Tavistock in a creditable 3 days.
The sun shone all day, the best day yet. We don't want to put anyone off any potential JOGLE'ers so won't mention the Cornish hills, except for Gunnislake. After 15 minutes pushing up this pig of a hill we thought we had reached the summit but were shocked when we passed a sign for the emergency escape lane (for vehicles descending out of control with brake failures) and realised we had at least 10 more minutes of pushing! Lance Armstrong would have pushed, too.
A little later Brass fell off and landed in a heap in the middle of the road - another cleat problem, this time whilst trying to take a photo. He also managed to get another oily chainwheel imprint on his little white legs and to put a big kink in a chain link - only Brass and the almighty know how!
Wonderful unspoilt country, Liskeard for coffee, Lostwithiel for a good pasta lunch and our first view of the sea since Day 1, above St Austell. Stopped in a village named Probus for tea and then Truro where Burch managed to lose Brass and then realised he had cycled 950 miles without Brass' mobile number.
Average but quiet and comfortable hotel in Truro, and excellent dinner in a very popular bistro.
Day 12 - Wellington to Tavistock, 63 miles. Cumulative 893 miles
Burch's sleep deprivation experiments on Brass reached their height in Wellington. They had started with gentle snoring in John O'Groats, getting louder every night. In the Borders a new technique was introduced, waking Brass at 7-45 Barcelona time for an 8-30am UK time breakfast! In Wellington the snoring was so loud that Brass only got 3 hours sleep and a new noise was added, loud yelping noises every time Burch moved his worn out muscles.
Started with a relatively easy ride via Collompton to Exeter. An easy start was essential. After breakfast, Brass slowly climbed the stairs to our B&B room and had to have a lie down to recover!
The hills problem started with a hefty climb out of Exeter, then a descent and a climb to Dunsford, ditto to Mortonhampstead and then big climbs followed by descents again and again over Dartmoor. Dartmoor is mis-named as so much is hills and not flat moorland.
The consolation was terrific views over the moor and a delightful encounter with a Dartmoor pony mare and foal which became overly interested in our flapjack rations. Escaping from the moor, on the descent into Tavistock, Burch clocked 48 miles per hour - which gives you some idea of how steep and long the hills are!
Stayed at the Bedford Hotel in Tavistock - very comfortable, old style hotel, albeit a bit frayed around the edges. Burch made slightly less noise during the night.
Day 11 - Olveston to Wellington, 74 miles. Cumulative 830 miles!
Left a little later than intended - a large breakfast and the time taken to pack copious sandwiches delayed us somewhat. It's hard to leave such comfort and hospitality behind but we bade our farwell to the Bates' (Ben really did choose excellent in-laws) and set off at 10:15am.
The cycle route proved a success, which hasn't always happened, until we took a slight detour and encountered an unnecessary short, sharp 150 metre climb in Bristol! We crossed the Avon on the M5 bridge and then had miles of unspoilt and flat country lanes, and an old railway line to use, nearly to Cheddar (where the cheese comes from).
We like Somerset, it's flat! John Scott's legs were not so strong today and his performance aligned itself with the other two weaklings'. He also managed to fall off his bike - another cleats mishap! (see below for his side of the story!)
Had tea in Costa's in Bridgewater, a nice experience if you want a conversation with the village idiot and to see one of the locals fall over in a drunken stupor, have a fit and be carted off in an ambulance!
Cycled to Wellington and met with John's wife Gillie, we left him to pack up his bike and return to normality! We stayed at a very nice B and B a few miles beyond Wellington, visited the local pub and discovered the landlord was something of an expert in JOGLE routes. The advise was chilling - Devon and Cornwall are hard. However, he did tell us the least awful route....at least that is what he said, though others we met later said our route was not the easiest.
Went to bed in trepidation of the following days challenges.
Day 10 - Leominster to Olveston (nr Bristol), 65 miles. Cumulative 756 miles!
Awoke to splendid breakfast made by Marielle and proceeded to slowly (very slowly) get the show on the road. Quite a nasty climb onto Bodenham Moor where John Scott showed off his fresh legs by standing on the pedals and completing the hills that Burch and Brass were happy to push up (see day 11 for John's latest progress). A relatively flat ride to Ross-on-Wye except for the last few miles. Had lunch in a delightful pub with some undelightful company, the underclass is a problem - how about compulsory John O'Groats to Land's End cycle rides for those with time on theoi hands?!
Asked a few locals the best road to Coleford - might as well have asked Gordon Brown about financial prudence?!
The hills were torture. Apart from being steep and long, one had what appeared to be a summit followed by a bend and then another steep climb - this happening once was bad enough but 5 times was no joke. Descended into Chepstow and met yet another cruel hill on the other side before hitting the Severn Bridge.
Arrived at Tony and Di Bates' house in Olveston, nr Bristol at about 6:30pm and were looked after royally.
Guest Cyclist - John Scott, another great friend of Mike's [Mike Ross-Browne who died of pancreatic cancer....one of the 3 fund-raising efforts is for research into this form of cancer] Joined for Days 10 and 11.
I was lucky enough to join these two highly tuned athletes (otherwise known as Wallys of the World!) for a couple of days and nights (or should I say 'delays and flights').
What are they on??? I need to know because I want some myself....they go very quick! For those of you who haven't done Top to Bottom, my advice having experienced 175 miles (or to make it sound longer 280 kilometres) is DON'T! It's really hard and they deserve every penny they get into the fund for Mike.
I'll tell you what, we got spoilt rotten at the two B & Bs we experienced, and I have no doubt that even at Tebay it wasn't all that bad.
I doubt if I'll ever eat another banana, but I will remember two days with two old men (not my words but someone who I met when they 'lost' me on a very very long hill.)
Tony and Hugh - may your hills be down.
Well done so far. John
Days Eight and Nine - Clitheroe to Knutsford 60 miles and Knutsford to Leominster 97 miles. Cumulative 691 miles!
Day 9 saw us covering 97 miles, thanks to flattish countryside and our using main roads. Burch managed to fall off his bike in Nantwich, or rather remain seated as the bike toppled over onto concrete knobbles on the roadside, unhurt and amusing to onlookers. Our route took us through Whitchurch, Shrewsbury, Ludlow and ending up near Leominster with Gordon and Marielle Biggar. They looked after us very hospitably and there were no burglar alarms.
We bought huge quantities of energy bars and drinks in Shrewsbury and as we set of most of Brass' load spewed out of the pannier and fell into the road, some of them being run over by a following car.
John Scott joined us at Ludlow for the final stretch to Leominster, fresh as a daisy after getting there by rail.
Day 8 started with a good flat start going westwards out of our smart hotel and there was more flat as we entered Cheshire and approached Knutsford at the end of the day. We were also expecting a fast level run past the huge reservoirs near Bolton, after some very steep, though short, hills crossing rivers near Preston. The reservoir road turned out to involve 2 really steep climbs to about 350 metres and held us up quite badly! It is extraordinary that they couldn't build a track at reservir level.
Lunch was in a depressing pub in Horwich, the other clients looking as if they were on day release from a (very) old peoples' home. We then weaved our way through the Manchester conurbation in surprisingly rural terrain, passing moorland farms within only a mile or two of the centre of Preston, Chorley and Bolton.
Burch was obviously drinking copious amounts of water as the number of pitstops was more than before, and noticed by another cyclist who commented that we were stopping more often than the number 57 bus; and as we approached Knutsford another rather public stop was reported to the Knutsford Church bell-ringing group. Peter and Cherry looked after us well and we both slept well except for Burch being awoken by the burglar alarm in the middle of the night; and Brass was woken twice, by the said alarm, and later by a radio alarm clock blasting out the BBC news at 2 a.m.
Day Seven - Tebay to Clitheroe 68 miles. Cumulative 532 miles!
The Bed and breakfast owner advised us about a route and the topography to Kirby Lonsdale, only one hill, he said - he knew as little about this as Brass, and his b+b skills were similar.
Cycled to Kirby Lonsdale and discovered that our leg muscles had not recovered from previous day's rigours and we were knackered all day. Stopped for coffee and provisions (sandwiches) in this delightful market town; also managed to get our spare tyre stolen in Kirby Lonsdale (or was it Brass, who didn't tie it on properly?)
Being knackered was a disadvantage as the hills over the Forest of Bowland were steeper than anything encountered to date - did quite a lot of pushing! Hills awful, but weather great and scenery stunning, views over long distances. Got to Whalley at about 7pm and tried to find somewhere to stay. Everything booked up but eventually found a nice country hotel. Unfortunately it was about 8 miles back from where we'd come from! Good forward planning! Knackered after a relatively low mileage day but with lots of big hills. Treated ourselves to an extravagant meal.
Day Six - Langholm (minus 3) to Tebay 67 miles.
Started about 1:00pm after having Brass checked out at local hospital, a Swiss resident being checked out by a Texan doctor in a Scottish public hospital. It cost nothing, despite offering to pay; no wonder the UK is bankrupt. Even more medicaments. Made enquiries with Guiness Book of Records to see if there's a record for a JOGLE carrying an entire pharmacy. After about 15 miles crossed the border into England. Had tea in Brampton where Brass scrutinised the maps, declared contours benign and decided we'd aim for Tebay.
Later we suffered a hefty climb over to Orton. Brass had failed to notice that our route was parallel to the one over Shap Fell, a road feared by early motorists ! Having Brass in charge of navigation and topography makes about as much sense as having Genghis Khan in charge of a maternity ward!
Finished knackered in the dark and cold at about 10pm, after a hurriedly eaten pie or two in a nearby pub.The Bed and breakfast was not quite up to the standards we had hoped for and the room felt sub-zero.
Day Five - Dalkeith to 3 miles short of Langholm 69 miles.
Burch's new phone is proving a technology leap too far. Alarm set for 7-45 am with a plan of waking Brass but unfortunately Burch incompetently had the phone set to Barcelona time (goodness knows how), so Brass not pleased with his early start!
After a magnificent breakfast from Poppet, Suzi ferried us back to Dalkeith and we set off with a plan to ride to Langholm. The weather was fine, but cold with a very strong headwind making progress very difficult - moderately steep descents needed pedalling against the wind and the climbs and flat sections were very hard work. Knocked back our average speed to below 10mph.
Climbed out of Dalkeith over to Peebles. Brass thinks he momentarily fell asleep whilst riding, so in Peebles had to have a power nap in a cafe. Finding the going tough, we decided that yesterday's long day might have depleted our energy levels and decided to stock up on energy gels and bars from the local cycle shop. Bought about 6000 calories worth and ate most of them - helped considerably. Brass also bought yet another cough remedy from a pharmacy - efficacy report awaited! Later, came across our planned pub stop to find it shut but fortunately were able to top up the food intake up with some sandwiches prepared by Poppet. Cycled off towards Eskdalemuir where we planned to stop as Brass struggling with his cough and lungs.
Tried to phone Suzi Ross Browne to arrange a Eskdalemuir pick up point but no mobile signal which meant we had to cycle further. Brass very grateful that the climb over to Eskdalemuir gentler than we thought and mercifully somewhat sheltered from the wind by the terrain and trees. Eventually picked up about 3 miles short of Langholm and again ferried back to fantastic hospitality from Mike and Poppet Thompson.
Day Four - Blair Atholl to Dalkeith 92 miles
Set off from Blair Atholl at 8-40 am (remarkable - on time). Stopped at Pitlochry to feed Brass's habit - more purchases from the pharmacy, including knee bandage and cold sore cream. Later Brass is seen wearing his knee bandage half way down his shin - apparently the bandage made the knee worse (the good news is that Brass bought two of them and the cold sore cream didn't work either!).
Followed the cycle tracks and minor roads down to Dunkeld and Perth, where Brass had a minor argument with a white van driver; then lunch in a pleasant restaurant and then onward and upward (a severe climb), heading for Kinross, the Forth Bridge and Edinburgh. Fantastic scenery, pity about the hills! As so often, the cycle routes took us miles off the main road and made us climb way above it! Even the Forth Bridge was a problem - the south bound cycle way was closed which meant we had to lug the bikes down the steps under the bridge and back up the other side! Fantastic views from the bridge followed by the trickiest navigation challenge known to man - the Edinburgh Cycle Routes. Got horribly lost in the centre of Edinburgh and were eventually rescued by a fellow cyclist who looked like a little gnome and who mistakenly thought we were interested in some esoteric aspects of Edinburch's history - endured this to be put on the right track and were very grateful.
Crossing Edindurgh took ages but we eventually met up with Suzi Ross Browne in Dalkeith at about 8-15pm - a very long day. After tying the bikes down in the back of a pick-up, Suzi drove us to Mike and Poppet Thompson's farm in Melrose and very welcome hospitality.
A very long and tiring day with one or two sense of humour failures brought on by unexpectedly steep climbs and numerous difficulties with the Edinburgh Cycle Paths, which took us too far off a direct route.
Day Three - Inverness + 12 miles to Blair Atholl 78 miles
Burch/Brass 2 - Slocht/Drumochter 0
Left Craggie with gentle climber to Tomatin, tiny place with whisky distillery. Cold and windy, sleeting but when the sun came out it was very pleasant, though still cold for the time of year. Mac Baldwin accompanied us on the first part of the trip to the legendary Slocht Summit of which we had heard so much and which filled us with trepidation, but it turned out to be easier than we thought and we conquered it fairly easily. We bade farewell to Mac and proceeded on to Carrbridgde where we stopped for coffee to get out of a snow storm; then Aviemore and beautiful back lanes to Feshiebridge and Kingussie, for lunch. Brass bought a warm gilet, much needed. Then up the long hill to Dalwhinnie, a tiny place with little more than a whisky distillery and railway station, and wind and sleet and miserably cold; stopped for another coffee to shelter from a storm, then off again for the ascent of the Drumochter Pass, which again was not quite as challenging as we had feared, so a second conquest of the day. Finally, a long descent to Blair Atholl where we arrived pretty cold. A friendly bed and breakfast and dinner in the bar of the Atholl Arms. The Duke of Atholl has the only private army left in Europe.
The highlights of the day were the ride from Aviemore to Kingussie and the Ruthven Barracks, and Burch falling sideways into a gorse bush, which was a cause of huge hilarity to Brass, who regrets not having taken a photo.
Day Two - Altnaharra to Inverness + 12 miles. 82 miles. 12 miles head of schedule.
Left Altnaharra in a snow flurry - fortunately it didn't last long. Steady climb for about half an hour followed by a long descent and level ride into Lairg, but with the wind assisting us for a change. Good ride speed and fantastic scenery. Made good progress to Lairg - a thriving town without a coffee shop or any of the other things we wanted, except a pharmacy for Brass' chest infection.
Eventually found a coffee shop in Ardgay and then tackled the climb over Struie - quite demanding. A little later met up with Mac Baldwin and rode into Inverness. Based on good progress we decided to cycle beyond Inverness covering the climb originally scheduled for Day 3. During this, the weather threw a hailstorm at us and there was about an inch of snow on the ground where we had arranged to leave our bikes for the night. We also encountered the steepest climb to date! A demanding extra 12 miles, but nice to have them behind us rather than first job for tomorrow!
A good day - plenty of miles covered and no real problems. Brass's cough much better and although a little tired, we are coping well with the ride. Tomorrow aiming for Blair Atholl.
Kindly fed, watered and housed by Mac and Janet Baldwin.
Day One - John O'Groats to Altnaharra. 76 miles. Survived intact.
Started the day with the obligatory photos at the John O'Groats start signpost. Problem 1 - the office was shut so the signpost saying 950(ish) miles to Land's End was missing! The photo is a bit lacking - a job for Photoshop.
The weather was forecast to be fine with NE winds which should have been tailish. It didn't work out like that - we had head winds for most of the day, some drizzly rain and a few sharp bursts during squalls and very cold. Don't believe the forecasts.
The roads were quite quiet and very narrow in places. Some drivers are not too considerate of cyclists and when Brass had to avoid a car, he had a slight impact with a wall and then the inevitable happened - he forgot to disengage his shoe cleats and finished up in a heap against a wall. A bit of blood, but no significant damage except to his pride! We had been advised to gorge on carbohydrates, and found macaroni and chips (French fries) on the menu for our first lunch.
Mainly bleak landscapes on the North Coast but some fantastic scenery on the route by the river and loch from Bettyhill to Altnaharra.
Medical Bulletin. The main roblem is Brass's lungs - coughing quite a bit and producing some green stuff Porton Down [the Ministry of Defence's chemical research establishment] would be proud of!