Plymouth Highbury Trust

The Charity provides services for adults with Learning Disabilities including Residential care, Day Services, Community Enabling, Social Clubs, Advocacy and Benefit Appointeeships. It provides a service to approximately 450 people with learning disabilities within the city of Plymouth. Please sponsor us by clicking on the links below.

Sponsor Barnie

Sponsor Hamish and Matt

Many thanks!

A comment from Lars..

Hi, if you want to add comments but don't want to register on this website, please send them to me and I will add them.

Here's what Lars a friend of mine in Sweden wanted to say..

"I'm about going totally crazy. Don't you ever use white text on blackbackground again, I'm seeing lines all over the place. I'm getting problems with reading and I'm just on day 8.

Alright, to the topic. Fantastic thing to do, I wouldn't think that of you. Biking around 850 miles. Good stuff, next time you can do it in 10days or so. Or make Sweden from south to north, just over 1300 miles!

You are good in writing, not to short, not too long and some jokes aswell. Extra plus for using a mountain bike. But getting advice of seat hights on day 8, absolute beginners? Northernlight in England, forget about it. Maybe on the west coast of northernScotland! Any one handled the opportunity to get merried in Getna Green?

Langholm is and old viking place, comes from Långholmen - Longislet inenglish. I never thought I would hear from an english man that he's fedup with fry up. Well, let see if you still are eating veggies when I come over! A DVD, well I must get a copy!!! No flat tires?

Wick is also scandinavian word, comes from vik and means bay. A fantastic effort

Barnie, very good to have strengh to write after every day as well. Loads of food and beer during the trip, did you loose or gain anystones?"

In answer to Lars questions:

• No punctures or weddings at Gretna, although we did have to share double beds on several occassions.
  
• Northern lights (in Scotland) appear at the Spring and Autumn equinoxes apparently.
  
• Approximate total mileage was 930 miles.
  
• Yes the seat height thing was funny, I think it was more of a set up for sprinting vs set up for touring, well that's my story and I'm sticking to it..
  
• I am working on a photo DVD, the film will come later when Matt is back from his Motor biking Romanian adventures..

The Monday After.. and Barnie's sponsorship breaks the 1K barrier!

Just a note to say we have now broken through the target on my sponsor page, of £1000.

Thanks to everyone who has contributed so far, there is still time to add some more though..

The Sunday After..

..A night out starting at a nice steak restaurant with the boys and Hamish's Dad David, who met us at the finish line with some Champagne. This was followed by a few drinks in bars in the nearest town - Thurso, culiminating in some rather amusing dancing whilst under the influence of Vodka and Redbull and various dodgey shots.

Following morning we were all quite hungover. Fortunately David had hired a van to take us down to Inverness with the bikes which we boxed up the previous day ready for transportation.

Hamish and Matt jammily managed to get an earlier flight than scheduled leaving poor old me to 'rot' in Inverness airport, feeling sore and suffering from the previous night.

It wasn't until later that night that I was in the bosom of my family, enjoying a very warm welcome with some friends and taking a first look at the pictures from the big camera.

Many thanks to David. We really felt you were part of the team.

Cheers!

Day 15: part 3 Brora to JOG Approx. 65 miles. Zero miles from John O Groats

Part 3: at around 1550 today we arrived at duncansby head just east of JOG. The most northeasterly point in mainland Britain. More later..

Day 15: part 2 Brora to JOG Approx. 65 miles. 18 miles or so south of John O Groats

Part 2: Well my legs have just about gone. As i jumped back on after the tea room we immediately found a hill. As i tried to pedal my legs strapted complaining big time. This sensation usually occurs later in the day, however i had been having it earlier and earlier. Surprisingly however the next stretch was fast, the others stretched ahead as i laboured to keep up. Despite this conditions were so good we maintained a good spell of high speeds for around 6 miles into the last major town before JOG, that is Wick. Lunch then a quick stop at the station for ticket refunds. Also hamish's dad will meet up here and then drive on ahead and wait for us at the finish line.. Lets hope my legs last that long!

Day 15: part 1 Brora to JOG Approx. 65 miles. 38 miles or so south of John O Groats

Part 1: stopped at laidhay in a nice tea room for refuelling. Staffed by nice little old ladies. Stocked with large cake cabinet. We are hoping if we stay long enough someone will pinch our bikes...

Day 14: part 2 Tomatin to Brora Approx. 75 miles. 65 miles or so south of John O Groats

Part 2: As i hinted at previously anything north of Edinburgh was new territory for me, a new begining, leaving the past behind. It has been that but the ride in general has also been. Its been a leap to a higher level, it makes it quite tough to know what to do next though... Well the penultimate day went as planned, following the east coast road northward.

Easy roads but a lot of miles for tired legs, and with the temptation to do some sprints on some very rideable stretches. I must say scotland has been spectacular the Lecht pass in particular although i don't think we've gone the most scenic route. Donerobin castle brought a smile.. The thing about this ride is perhaps you can do fifty or sixty miles in a day stamina wise, but endurance is about how many days on the trot you can do that many miles for day after day. Conceivably i think hamish could do the ride in less days, but for matt and I this is about right. As for the average bloke in the street its certainly not as tough as i thought however you do need to be fit enough to do sixty or so miles in a day and be able to get back on your bike the next day. Anyway back to the ride. Last two nights we've played bnb roulette and managed to stumble across two very good places its a gamble but it meant we could be flexible about the distance we rode. We are now sitting outside a rather shabby pub chatting and thinking about todays ride, and tomorrows big finish. We normally set out about 8am. Find lunch about 12 then finish about four although this depends on the ride and the weather. Apparently there is one large hill/dip to come tomorrow.... Hamish's dad is meeting us tomorrow night to help celebrate, you are all welcome too but i would set out now ideally if i were you though! Then he will drive us to Inverness for our flights back to london sunday night. That's all for now the blog will be updated with tomorrows ride, pictures from the last few days, and news on sponsorship, the dvd, book, dvd launch party, etc. probably well into august. One more thing we just got back from our evening out in Brora. Make no mistake this town is in the middle of nowhere so if you ever come here take nothing for granted. In pursuit of a pub that actually had someone in it on a friday night (we only knew of one place) we were directed to a 'hotel' on the main rd. Yes it was the semi derelict building you wouldn't wee against in case it fell over. So we made our way and eventually found the entrance.. Lo and behold it wasn't quite the crack den it looked and was actually quite a good if small bar. Sadly we were just to tired to dance with the local ladies and it was off to bed dreaming of tomorrow. Incidentally Ashley has warned us that JOG is rather tacky.

The River at Brora.

Day 14: Tomatin to Brora Approx. 70 miles

Part one: for those of you who won't log on now until Monday here is your last update. With seventy miles to do today and sixty tomorrow, we hoped for good conditions today. Slightly overcast and not too windy, so far so good. The cumulative effect on our muscles and joints is really starting to tell. The day after day pounding without time to recover was starting to mean daily pain. The only relief was the hope that we had seen the last of the major climbs. Finding a cycle way for the first distance most of the way to Inverness meant some more pleasurable riding, it was the north near the black isle and Invergordon an industrial port which featured several oil rigs, on the comarty firth which ran inland and eventually into loch ness. Now for lunch and another 40 miles this afternoon... Pain...

Day 13: Wednesday 3rd August Braemer to Tomatin Approx. 63 miles

The theme of hills continued today, although the weather seemed to have brightened as we departed our lodgings. The hotel where we dined the previous night had me thinking 'maybe I will and maybe I wont' (Little britain), lots of stags heads, big fire, very ordinary food, and the owners had a rather crazed pug which started offering its rear end to us in a rather contorted and frenzied/disturbing manner.. I won't say more but I couldn't help thinking there was perhaps something in the water in this sleepy village not far from Balmoral... Incidentally, you may have to put up with some poor spelling, punctuation and grammar from now on as our excellent editor Pamela is now off to France. This will also mean more no more maps and pics till next week. Soz.. So back to the ride, feeling quite tender from the day previous, we set out on a steady ten miles or so, but expecting some more climbs. The first two or three came easily however, there only a certain number of climbs I can do in a short period and eventually I had run out of steam by the time we reached a rather long hill. By the time we reached a hill at Cockbridge, Matt and I decided it was just too much and decided to push. The weather had gotten steadily worse too and we were greeted with high winds at another ski resort. After lunch I found my rhythm a bit at a hill near Bridge of Brown, although steep I stayed with it. As the ride began to level out with the worst hills behind us we found we still had at least 15 miles to go to be in touching distance of Inverness, and no accommodation booked. We struggled on northward eventually finding a special bike route alongside the increasingly hairy A9. After turning off some way later to find a bnb we fortunately stumbled across a very reasonable one and got settled. I must say that the weather combining with the steep climbs has made the last two days perhaps the most challenging of the ride so far. I know myself and Matt are feeling very sore, but hopefully the next two days will be somewhat easier. Incidentally if anyone wants to join us at the finish line this Saturday afternoon please let us know, particularly if you have a large people carrier and bike rack! LOL, don't worry the journey home is all planned although some of it very recently, and we should all be in London for Sunday night.