The eagle has landed

Hello all; firstly sorry you’re getting this on Sunday, I’ve had terrible trouble getting connected to the internet all week and my O2 dongle has been unreliable at best. The good news is that we completed our journey at 12.20 on Saturday and have spent a very pleasant couple of days in a lovely Hotel in St Ives, a few miles from Land’s End. As planned we left Launceston at 7 am in the hope of beating the traffic. One fact from the previous day that Stu and I hadn’t publicised was that we met a few police officers at the scene of an accident on Friday afternoon (a lorry had overturned on a narrow country lane, completely blocking it) and we chatted to them about what we were doing. They told us it was best not to take the A30 down to LE and that 8 months ago they attended the scene of an accident on that road where two Joglers had been hit by a car and one had died. We decided not to share this info with Sarah and Maria but it least explains our trepidation about the A30. We started off well, with very rapid downhill stretches (where we exceeded 40mph) interspersed with long, long shallow climbs of a mile or more. As we climbed up to Bodmin moor the temperature fell and the fog came down; as the traffic was getting busier this was a rather unpleasant half hour. The forecast had been for a very warm day and we weren’t carrying any cold weather gear or, indeed, any lights. With no other option, we pressed on and as we went “over the top” the light improved but the traffic didn’t ease until after we had been past turn offs for Bodmin, St Austell (where the Eden project draws hundreds of thousands of visitors) and Newquay; in our adrenalin fuelled charge we managed to cover 50 miles in three hours riding without a break. After Newquay the A30 flips between a dual carriageway and a single road; we preferred the single carriageway because we felt motorists were more predictable. And then we saw it; just before Penzance; the first sign to Land’s End (16 miles) what a boost that gave us! Motorists became more supportive, with several leaning out of the window to shout support, thumbs up and shouts of encouragement made us feel great. The only motorists we were really concerned about, however, were our support team who we hadn’t seen all day and as the miles to Land’s End ticked down we started to think the unthinkable that the two people who had been with us all the way would miss the finish. As we turned out of Penzance and up along the narrow winding road to Land’s End this seemed a more and more likely scenario. Cornwall, however wasn’t going to give up without a fight, as the miles ticked down 9, 8, 7 she threw everything at us hill after hill after hill; but the thought of the finish being so close helped keep us going and then, with just under 7 miles left and halfway up another hill I heard a distant toot of a now familiar horn. Sarah and Maria sped past whooping and hollering and blowing football horns and shaking rattles like mad women; it was a very emotional moment for us all. They had spent the morning buying up the contents of the “England Football” shop in Launceston (I guess their lease will end in about 10 days) to help us celebrate at the end. They narrowly managed to beat us to the finish where we were greeted with a cacophony worthy of a formula one winner, sprayed in champagne, photographed, hugged and generally praised to the skies. It was a wonderful few minutes and the realisation of what we had done sank in and even the pain in feet, hands, knees and bum disappeared for a few minutes. I know both Stu and I are very proud that we managed to complete the journey relatively unscathed, but we recognise that we were also pretty lucky in a number of ways; the extremes of weather forecast didn’t materialise except on the first day; the wind, which we had hyped into such a big factor was as often in our favour as against us, we had hardly any mechanical problems and no punctures at all, and most of the motorists (except one idiot in the great glen) gave us a bit of room. The biggest factor in our completion of the journey, however, was the unstinting support, patience, help and motivation of our support team, Sarah and Maria. It’s rare to get the chance to have an adventure in your mid 40’s and Stu and I have both been so lucky to find wives who not only let us get on with it but played a full and important part in the adventure itself. That’s why we’re pleased to say that the Joglers are a four piece, not a two piece.
Thank you all for your sponsorship, comments on the blog and interest. It looks like we’ll make about £2,500 for St Margaret’s. Money that’s much needed and will be well spent.