WE DID IT!!  Read all about our challenge below!

 

Possibly the longest milk round in the world - Dairies 2010 challenge!

 

On Friday 18 June Trevor, Colin and Paul set off from Land's End in and travelled over 880 miles in 8 days to reach John O'Groats.

 

Over the last two years Hanover Dairies has raised over £35,000.00 for Rainbow Trust Children's Charity - helping to support families who have a child with a life threatening or terminal illness.

 

We have set a target of £20,000.00 this year - and we are asking all our customers to help us achieve this goal by making a donation through this site, or by recycling their old mobile phones. Hanover Dairies have personally donated £1,000 towards Milk float advertising and thank all of the other companies for their pledges.

 

Please support our challenge by sponsoring us today and help spread the word by telling all your friends and neighbours - Rainbow Trust really needs our support.

 

 If you are a  taxpayer please don't forget to tick the gift aid box so Rainbow Trust will receive another 28p for every £1 you donate

 

If you have an old handset you can hand it to any of our Milkmen or drop it into the dairy on Tanfield Lea North Industrial Estate.

   

From Trevor, Colin and Paul

 

Hanover Diaries Milk Float Route:

• Saturday 19 – Land's End to Exeter
• Sunday 20 – Exeter to Cheltenham
• Monday 21 – Cheltenham to Oldham
• Tuesday 22 – Oldham to Gretna
• Wednesday 23 – Gretna to Crieff
• Thursday 24 – Crieff to Inverness
• Friday 25 – Inverness to John O'Groats

Day 1

We set off early this morning from Lands End on our journey to Exeter, it was a long ride. We covered about 80 miles until we got to our first charging point. We set it to charge at a local dairy farm then set off a few hours later to finish the rest of our day. Eventually we arrived in Exeter at around 10pm where we charged the float and also ourselves! Thank you to the patient drivers along the way and also the angry ones!

Day 2

We knew this was going to be a long day, Exeter to Cheltenham was a long way and it seemed like an eternity in the float. You can feel every bump in the road; they're not the most comfortable things in the world and we were constantly driving up steep hills which slows us down and uses alot of power. When we arrived late at Cheltenham we met a group of lads who kindly donated £50 and wished us well on our way. Another early start in the morning when we set off to Oldham. Goodnight!

Day 3

After we altered our route slightly we were on our way to Wigan, the float is running nicely but the traffic behind it seems to be getting  longer as we make our way up the country, thanks to the kind staff at Shropshire 
dairies we were able to charge our float to continue for the rest of  the day. We would also like to thank kays dairy in Wigan for allowing  us to use their charging facilities overnight. The float is becoming  less comfortable by the mile but we are determined to complete the  mission no matter what. Bye for now

Day 4

We set off at four o'clock in the morning as we had alot of miles to cover on the way to our next point at Kendal. The hills keep getting steeper and we had already used up half of the batterys after a few miles and literally rolled into our overnight stop at Lockerbie lucky to make it. The days are long and tiring, we have made our way past the halfway point and into Scotland, thanks to creamline dairies in Kendal for helping us out, we could not do it without help from people like yourselves.

 

Day 5

Off to Crieff today, the hills are getting steeper as we make our way through scotland, we stopped off at wiseman dairies in Glasgow where we charged the float for 5 hours which gave us time to have a nice cold coca cola and watch england win the game, then it was back on the road for the rest of the day. We have been arriving late every night and starting early every morning so the lack of sleep has really caught up with us, only 2 days left til we arrive in john ogroats.

 

Day 6

We have made it to Inverness which was nothing short of a miracle. We managed to secure a charging point in a place called dalwinnie and local distillery let us use their power. Then after we set off to inverness. The problem was it was almost all uphill which drained our battery but just as we thought we were going to run out be came upon a down slope which helped regenerate the batteries and took us all the way into inverness, we have been living on 4 hours sleep a night but we will make it. Thanks to the people at hovis in inverness and claymore dairies for helping us with charging facilities.

 

Day 7

This is it! Our last day on the road, we set off early from Inverness  knowing that once we got well into the highlands there would be a lot  of hills to climb and not very much else about. We managed to get the  float to another distillery in Brora who hooked us up to the power and  our charge was secure. We have struggled to find places to accomodate  our needs as there is not a lot about up here. We encountered some  very irate drivers on the route to john ogroats who were not happy  with the slow speeds we had no control over. In the end we made it to  our final destination and would like to thank everyone who has  supported us, we could not have done it without you. We would also  like to thank everyone who has donated for this special charity and that donations can still be made either to your milkman or on this site!

 

Thank you to the following people for helping us along the way

Eleni at Sunny Bank Hotel in Sennen for a warm welcome and a great send off.
Dunns Dairies in Devon
Gunerdam Dairies in Somerset
Planks Dairies in Warminster
Dairy Crest in Gloucester
Shropshire Dairies in Shrewsbury

£1000 donation from Hanover Dairies