1000 Miles in 5 Days…………well, that was tough! But we did it for Nightingale House.
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/bencox1985
The ride was an amazing experience, in some proper Welsh weather. It was great to see and ride with some of you on our first day where we rode out to do the Wild Wales before coming back to Wrexham via Ruthin and Prestatyn to complete a 350km first day.
A quick feed and a few hours sleep and we were up and away by half 5. Because we had chosen to keep the ride 100% within Wales the ride South was far hillier than our usual route, and with our bikes fully loaded and weighing in at 18.5kg it was a lot slower too, but some of the views were spectacular, and we kept a good pace. Around midnight we finished day 2 and jumped into a field to bivi for the night.
Day 3 however did not go quite so smoothly. Our route passed through the docks in both Cardiff and Swansea, neither of which, it turns out, are accessible to the public, and we lost hours re-routing and trying to re-join our course. West of Swansea however, the route closely followed the coast, and the roads came good. The sun shone and coastline views were awesome, but we were well behind schedule, and by the time we got to Tenby it was late and we needed some sleep, so a few miles out of town we found bivi field number 2.
With 550 miles left to cycle, the sound of rain outside and no shelter to get packed up was not ideal. A wet and very windy start to day 4 saw us taking a while to warm up and get moving, but a Mc Donalds in Pembroke Dock saw us right, and as the day went on the rain subsided and the winds backed off. The coastline was rolling, I’m not sure we hit a flat road all day, but the legs kept turning and we slowly chipped away at the miles. By the time we got to Aberystwyth we knew we were done for the day. Further behind, things were getting tough!
After a decent sleep, and waking up to a dry morning we had a decision to make. We had 302 miles left to go, try to do it in 1 and be near our target, or take an extra night and add an extra day on……..we decided to push through. Heading North we started to hit some familiar roads and we knew that we had ridden the distance before. The ride up and down the Llyn Peninsula was tough but we rode strong and made it up to Anglesey by 23:00.
What followed was the toughest, windiest lap of the island I have ever done. Anyone who tells you Anglesey is flat is a liar! 77 miles and nearly 6 hours later we were back at Menai Bridge, on the home stretch……finishing a 27 hour final push.
5 days 6 hours, and over 1020 miles. An amazing challenge, a fantastic experience. Something we will never forget.
Cat and I would also like to thank all of you for who have supported our fundraising efforts for Nightingale House so far. We hope to have raised well over £2000 by the time all monies are collected. If you would like to sponsor / support the challenge please use the link below, every pound is appreciated.