Story
Please go to end of page for updates.
Thank you for visiting our fundraising page. Please dig deep and sponsor us online.
Donating through this site is simple, fast and totally secure. It is also the most efficient way to sponsor us: The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association 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.
So how did we end up here?
Dave celebrated his 50th this year and thought it would be fitting to mark it with a challenge. J.O.G.L.E (John O Groats to Lands End) seemed to fit the bill well. Last December Dave mentioned it to Alan and after 5 seconds of careful consideration said he was up for it too. On boxing day Alan arrived at Dave's house sporting a brand new bike ( An Xmas present to himself). That sealed our fate.
The planning and the training started to play a big part in our already busy lives. Word got out and everyone we mentioned it to asked what charity we were supporting. We didn' t want a mainstream charity that attracted the millions so we set about looking for a worthy cause that was not so much in the lime light. The Guide Dogs for the Blind seemed a good choice and after making some enquiries we made our commitment to help them. It costs over 35K to fund a guide dog for its working life and 5k to train a puppy. We thought the latter would be a reasonable target and that's where our sponsors can help.
You can easily donate on this site or if you prefer we have sponsor forms. Every donation will be gratefully received and acknowledged.
The 1000 mile is a challenge in its self but we plan to complete it in 10 days or so which equates to an average of 100 miles a day 
.Your support will help soothe our aching limbs so please help us. Tell your friends also.
We start our first leg on the 15th September and will email progress reports and pictures on a daily basis so that this page can be updated for you to monitor our progress. We will post a more detailed report on our company web site.
Many thanks for your support.
Dave & Alan
UPDATES...
30.08.06
Thanks for those that have sponsored us to date. Its not easy asking freinds and family to dig into their pockets ( as well as concentrate on the training). Please spread the word and help us meet our target.
Training Ride for DT with his new shoes that lock into the pedal's. Wow very good easy to get in and easy to twist out of. (or so it seems). Only 10 miles from home spotted 3 very large field mushrooms which I thought would be good with my supper. I turned bike round and stopped next to the verge. Went to put foot down but locked in firm. Result = Left hand fall with bike into thistles, nettles and wire fence. Bruised shoulder and pride. Forget the mushrooms. Conclusion - My belly over rules my brain. Must concentrate on pedals or going to get hurt big time.
Puncture ( 3rd this week 1/2 mile from home)
02.09.06
Green Man gang gave the £17.00 prize money from a Darts game organized by Tim Parker. Tim also sponsored us with a generous offer and said it would be doubled if we complete the run in 10 days.
03.09.06
Members Of Milton Keynes Advanced Motorcycle section made pledges of £360.00 (+ £70.00 more 04.09.06)
04.09.06
Helen Pearce and friends from MK Hospital have made pledges of £50.00 and say more to follow.
05.09.06
Tofield Ltd staff have pledged £369.00
Another puncture on the way to work ( character building) for Dave. Alan has to do it in style, Not puctures BLOWOUTS. Another one ( second on Sunday). Watch this space for his write up.
07.09.06
Wow! we are 1/3rd of the way towards our target. (wish I could say the same for the bike ride). We are very grateful for your support. Please spread the word among your friends and Family. We received "Super man" shirts from "Guide dogs for the blind" . We just hope we can live up to it!
08.09.06
Mary and Kitt of Barton Road ( the best little roll van in town) and their customers have raised £40.00 this week.
10.09.06
Yabbadabadoo!!!!! Thanks to Dave's Brother and Sister in Law Craig and Shelagh, we have hit the £2000.00 mark. We are grateful to all our sponsors for for their generousity. Please continue to spread the word and help us meet our target. We have worked hard over the last few weeks contacting everyone we can think of and now we have to turn to getting ourselves and bikes ready. Both bikes are booked in for a well earned service and when we get them back they will be packed down ready for our flight to Inverness on Thursday. We should land at about 1.00pm and we have just one hour to get ourselves the 11 miles to the City Centre in time to catch the bus to Thurso. If we miss it we have to wait 3 hours for the next one. All being well we will arrive in Thurso at 5.00pm which should leave just enough daylight for us to prepare the bikes and cycle the 20 miles to JoG and have a photo taken ready for an early start the next day. We have no digs booked so will probably camp that night. (Bet that's the first night of the Scottish Monsoon season).
Alan had to work all day today but Dave wanted to get in a last training ride (fully loaded) afterlunch. About 40 miles was the intention , which would leave enough time to get to the bike shop before closing. Needless to say it didn't work out as he had planned .Just 8 miles into the ride, yet another puncture. The hassle of unhitching panniers and mending the tube - no probs - but it happened out side an isolated house which had a very apparent problem with it's septic tank. Phew! The tyre was soon changed and out came the newly purchased (pump no. 4 for Dave) mini pump that " a strong man would get 110psi with, no probs" . The 80psi Dave needed would therefore seemingly not be a problem! At about 60 psi he was about to call it a day when the valve took off like a rocket never to be found and leaving a very deflated tyre. So what started out as a ride turned into a marathon tyre change (sewer smells and all). Good character building!! Luckily he was carrying that spare tube (not the one round his waist) which got him on his way.
At the bike shop another couple of items were added to the service, namely 2 brand new punctureless tyres and repairs to what appeared to a buckled rear wheel. Tony (from Chainey's bike shop) said neither would be a problem. It's worth mentioning the excellent advice and service they have given since going to see them in the first place with the crazy JOGLE thing. Highly recommended!
The afternoon was not a waste of time. A worry for Dave this week was his knees (knackered at the tender age of 21 by road running) which have been playing up. Alan and Sue put it down to the position of the new shoe clips and they proved to be right as a few adjustments enroute have left Dave almost pain free. You can imagine the relief from the worry as well as the pain!.
Both getting excited now and looking forward to the start.
12:9:2006
Many thanks to all at V L Test systems who have so far sponsored us for £95, thanks to you all.... Alan
I understand that we may be talking to our local radio Horizon Radio on Friday 15 Sept around 8:15 am... it will be our first day of riding.... probaly be fixing a puncture or a blow out when they phone?
Just another thanks to my family for your sponsorship.... Alan
13:9:2006
Thanks to Bernice at Busiprint, for taking so much time and trouble to produce some printed T shirts for us at the end of a busy day she work on past normal hours to
THE CHALLENGE BEGINS...
14.9.06 - Journey to JoG
Today went nearly to plan….. just one tiny hiccup – the flight was delayed by one hour which had the unfortunate knock on effect of making us late for our pre-booked coach, although we could have caught a later one it would have meant paying for it again and then arriving a JoG hours later than planned then trying to find a B&B and put our bikes together in the dark, so we decided to cut our losses and do the journey from the airport to JoG in a taxi. Arrived at JoG around 5pm (weather raining so taxi to gain back some hours was a wise choice) found a nice B&B with places to eat and drink close by so all back on track. Had a great evening in the pub – downed just enough of the local brew to help with a goods nights sleep and made friends with some Scottish and Americans. One funny thing that happened at the airport… well funny for us, not for the queue that developed behind us! Our bikes completely clogged up the scanner for large items, both of them refused to go through, too tall when stood up, too wide when laying down – so had to be propped at an angle on crates, THEN - Dave in his best efforts to help, hit the stop button and everything ground to a halt ! Oh well, Sue made some nice friends while hanging around at the back of the queue with all the skiers and golfers!!
15.9.06 - Day 1
First day was a good one, we covered 104 miles at an average of 12.7 miles per hour, the weather has been good to us but the hills are unbelievable. Dave has a slightly buckled back wheel but not too concerned if it doesn’t slow him down and won’t worry about it unless they find a bike shop on route. We reached Alness just north of Inverness , it was dark and we were cold and tired but managed to find accommodation in the Railway Hotel without too much trouble, had a pint, went for a Chinese – in bed by 10.30 slept like logs. Target for second day is Fort William .
16.9.06 - Day 2
Managed 93 miles at an average of 12.7 mph – lost over an hour getting a spoke repaired on Dave’s back wheel, cycled till 9.00p.m.. Cycled alongside the beautiful Loch Ness for part of the day. Decided to camp over night as we were unable to find any accommodation in Fort William, unfortunately every midge in the whole of Scotland (or so it felt) found us, we were practically eaten alive in the morning. Rough nights sleep, no aches yet though and feeling fit and ready to go again,. Should do100 miles to Glasgow for our 3rd day as we were up and ready for the off at 7.30 which gives us an extra 1.5 hours.
17.9.06 - Day 3
Reached East Kilbride, just south of Glasgow today, just over 100 miles. Weather was nice during the morning but was overcast and colder in the afternoon and it started to rain mid afternoon. The road along Loch Lomond was a challenge in itself, really bumpy, Dave lost a clip off one of his panniers and his mirror fell off. We seem to be taking it in turns to have a good day, Dave was feeling slower today whereas Alan was setting the pace. One of the climbs was 20 – 25 miles long and reached 1154 ft to Rannoch Moor. We find we are having to stop regularly and top up on energy foods and drinks so we are using garages for this as they are quick to get in and out of, this morning we stopped for breakfast at a roll van – Alan ordered 3 egg rolls, Dave ordered 1 egg, 1 sausage and 1 bacon and we both went on to order a 4th after we’d finished those, (the roll man packed up and went home soon after we left!) constantly needing more energy to keep going. After last nights camping we decided we deserved some comfort tonight so found an nice hotel in East Kilbride but nowhere to park the bikes so they said we could take them to our rooms… that led to some odd sideways glances from the other guests as we carried them upstairs. Tomorrow we will be aiming for Pooley Bridge and see how close we get, it is at least 128 miles from East Kilbride.
A generous donation has come in today of £100 from Malcolm Miles of M Miles Scaffolding which takes us nicely over the £3,000 mark - thanks Malc.
18.9.06 - Day 4
80 miles covered today, it rained for the last part of the day and was cold and quite windy, Alan still had some energy left but Dave was feeling more tired and cold so decided to check in at a little B & B in Lockerbie. This is the first day of the journey that we haven’t really met our target but checking our mileage again we have covered a total of 380 miles out of 950 so we are not doing too bad. We are finding that our hands and fingers and one of Dave’s knees ache a lot and can only put it down to the vibration caused by the bad roads. We are going to set off at 7a.m. tomorrow, the guest house will pack us up a meal rather than us wait for breakfast.
19.9.06 - Day 5
Today has been quite a good one, we did 98 miles in total with an average of 11.76mph, we reached Kendal by 4pm (75 miles) so had high hopes of going over the 100 today but it wasn't to be. Had a bit of bad luck but turned out okay in the end, Dave's chain broke.... 100 yards from a bike shop! - so somebody was on our side and while the chain was being repaired we were able to replace a few others things that had broken or been lost enroute. Then Alan had a spectacular blow out in Lancaster, luckily he saw the funny side. We may need to find another bike shop tomorrow because he has a slight buckle on one of his wheels now. Repairs today unfortunately cost us two hours out of the day. The weather is not looking so good tomorrow, we are hoping to miss very high winds so will try for an early start, we have a grumpy land lady tonight so daren't be late down for breakfast anway 
rooms nice though.
20.9.06 - Day 6
Completed 92 miles. The weather was very windy, unfortunately we are getting the tail end of a hurricane, and we are cycling into it, at least it was dry and warm though. Phoned Sue and asked her to book our accommodation for tonight as we lost quite a bit of time last night hunting for a place to stay and we need the extra time as our average MPH has dropped down because of the wind – so she has booked us into a hotel in the centre of Whitchurch, Shropshire - lovely land lady again NOT, at least there was somewhere to store bikes (outside) and it was cheap. Alan turned into a zombie as soon as he sat down in the hotel room so we decided to go for a Chinese and a couple of pints… four pints of cider later we were having a great evening. Hopefully the wind will have dropped a little tomorrow so that we can pick our pace up, its exhausting cycling against the wind all the time, Dave cycled in the opposite direction for a couple of minutes today and felt like someone had put a rocket up his rear end. One other thing....... Dave is suffering badly with chaffed legs at the top!! He has tried baby oil, sudocream, vaseline, extra padding and sympathy from Alan, all to no avail). Any tips on how to ease this painful problem would be gratefully received – you can email Sue at bramb@tiscali.co.uk or sue.tofield@cerulean.com and she will forward them onto him, wise cracks also accepted. 
Anyway a word from Sue..... Well done to both of you , I'm so proud of you - keep it up. 
.
21.9.06 - Day 7
84 miles covered today, strong winds all day which were very blustery, one minute we felt like we were being pushed backwards and the next it was like someone had shut the door and it was still and calrm for a few seconds. Lots of hills as well, one in particular was a steady climb for about 6 miles. We both have a slightly buckled wheel each now but we haven’t passed a bike shop recently and don’t want to waste time looking for one as we seem to be coping okay…. or is it that we are past caring anymore. We have reached Ledbury which is near Gloucester and we have met up with Alan’s sister who has a mobile home here so decided to camp in the same area, she has kindly fed and watered us. We both have sore hands and fingers due to the vibration on the roads, making it difficult to grip the handlebars now, so putting up tents is also somewhat fiddly too. Dave had one suggestion regarding his ‘chaffing’ come in after Sue’s request yesterday, and that was talcum powder, he duly bought and tried some and it seems to have helped… thanks Pud. We are counting down now and we only have 278 miles to go and three days to do it in, shouldn’t be too much of a problem provided the weather doesn’t hinder us anymore and we are also well aware that we have some steep hills to contend with in the south country – no change there then. We were talking about how to get our bikes back home when we reach out destination today and Alan said his was going straight over the cliff at Lands End! Sounds a good idea at this moment in time.
.
22.9.06 - Day 8
98.4 miles completed today doing an average of 11.54 mph. We are now in Taunton – stopping in a Premier Travel Lodge, nice one actually, we were really made welcome, lovely room and bikes are safely stored in the laundry room hopefully the saddles are not resting against any clean pillow cases! First opportunity to have a soak in the bath but showered instead and opted to go and eat. We are both suffering from aching and numb hands, it even wakes us in the night and makes holding things like cutlery difficult. Dave had a little incident today at some traffic lights, Alan went up on the path to get past a car while Dave decided to filter in between the traffic, big mistake, the lights changed, the car next to him pulled away but moved slightly closer to him than he’d expected, Dave started to pedal but his nearside foot was out of the pedal lock, he lost balance, hit the kerb, the bike went one way and Dave went the other – splat on the road 
Alan was still steaming ahead completely unaware of what just happed behind him. All okay though luckily - no broken bones – just hurt pride.
Our moment of fame came this morning at 7.20 when Horizon Radio rang us, Dave was able to give a good plug for the Guide Dogs, and then asked lots of questions like why we decided to do it, how many miles it was and even some personal questions like how our bottoms were, and also able to mention a quick thanks to Michele at
Tofield s for getting the radio station to feature us and to Sue for her back up from home, we have since heard that Mark and Andy were very upset because they never got a mention 
............... so Dave would just like to take this opportunity to reassure them both that he loves them too xxxx
Dave seems to have cured – or at least eased – the unbearable saddle soreness/chaffing that he was suffering with combined help from a suggestion of talcum powder and the purchase of a new saddle and shorts today – he discovered on closer inspection a couple of days ago that his saddle had a rough seam running round it and this was causing all sorts of friction. New saddle in place and new shorts donned on top of freshly talced sore bits – problem now fading into insignificance
.
23.9.06 - Day 9 (One day to go now...)
Penultimate day today, only 90 miles to do tomorrow now, found a hotel in Launcester for the night, it has been a long old haul today, lots of very steep hills which takes it out of you. We will be going through Bodmin moor tomorrow on the A30, we are sticking to the fast roads now just to get there, hopefully the weather will be kind to us, its been much less windy today and at some points we even had a slight tail wind, not a lot, but it all helps. Once again we lost time at a bike shop getting buckled wheels repaired, a nuisance but a necessity. We are being met by some of Alan’s family when we arrive at Lands End tomorrow so that will be a real moral booster and hopefully crashing with them for the night and then travelling home by train on Monday.
.
24.9.06 - Day 10
Well we did it, we arrived at Lands End at 4.45pm on Sunday 24th to banners, balloons, hooters and champagne from some of Alan's family – fantastic, what a welcome and what an experience.
Sue (Alan’s sister) is driving us back to Bristol tonight and Sue (Dave’s wife) is collecting us from there, hopefully be home in the early hours of Monday morning. Thanks so much to everyone for their support and encouragement along the way. Watch this space for more info tomorrow.......
We are back folks!
No need to get up before 6.00am ready for a first light start. No putting on wet clothes, soggy shoes, creams or potions. No apologies for one of us keeping the other awake from snoring or fidgeting. No worries about the wind or weather, finding a bike shop, the way out of town etc but most of all not having to carefully plant that oh so sore rear end on 60 mm of plastic. And do I miss it? Yes I do! (been looking forward to saying that though).
We had a wonderful reception at Lands End from some of Alan's family (Sue, Sue, Mark, Gemma and Ryan) joined in by many tourists. It made us feel very special.
We arrived at 4.45pm after covering 83 miles (a very early finish for us). In travelling home we realised just how far we had cycled that day alone on day ten of ten. Yes we felt proud. We had a job to do and we worked hard and well as a team.
The support and interest we have received is simply unbelievable. We planned to have a cycling holiday (which turned into a holiday on a bike) and in seeking sponsership we set ourselves a 10 day target. Your support and encouragement helped us complete the task and we will always be grateful.
Many Thanks Dave
A first and last word from Alan – AKA Dai
Many people have told me that I should be proud of our achievement in some way I do feel proud but more than that I feel privileged for a number of reasons, that I have been able to spend the time and money to go on this adventure, that I have the physical ability to achieve this goal, privileged that I have been able to take in sights the length of this country and also privileged that I have a friend without who I would probably not have considered to attempt an end-to-end cycle ride.
Nearly 10 months ago over a pint Dave told me of his idea to celebrate his 50th, soon after a little research on the web I realised how it could be done with preparation and training, from then on I felt that we both knew we could complete this goal. We had many discussions, making strategies and contingencies but not once did either of us discuss with each other a contingency should one of us want to retire, a sign I think of our self belief.
Proud is what I feel about all those people who have helped us along the way, how ever they have helped us and proud of all you kind people who have donated your ‘hard earned’ to Guide Dogs, many thanks to you all.
There are two distinct moments (apart from many on the ride itself) that will always be with me, I will always remember saying, over that pint in the Green Man 10 months ago, that I would take up this challenge with Dave, and at the very end while I sat on a bench at Lands End on a beautiful sunny evening having chatted to my son Harry my Mum and my Sisters just looking out to sea being warmed by the sun, feeling very contented.