Fundraising Cycle Ride from Lands End to Stourbridge
04.06.2010
Our Leap over 60 Project Co-ordinator, Maggie Thompson reports on the Fundraising Cycle Ride from Lands End to Stourbridge.
The most heart-warming aspect of the whole ride was the people I met. Everyone was very helpful, friendly and interested in what I was doing. At the Youth Hostels I stayed at I met several other people on adventurous trips. I called at three Age Concern Offices along my route – Plymouth, Exeter and Bristol and was made to feel most welcome at all of them, being given guided tours of each centre. Lands End was shrouded in mist and began to rain as I arrived so I was wet through by the time I reached Penzance Youth Hostel 11 miles inland. I passed many ruined remains of tin mine engine houses whilst in Cornwall and was able to walk across the causeway to make a quick visit to St Michael’s Mount. Riding over Dartmoor was an experience that will stay with me the rest of my life – it was stunning! Somerset was very pretty with honey coloured cottages and Glastonbury was full of charm and fantasy. At Wells I had taken time out to look at the Cathedral and, as I was riding away I heard someone call ‘Maggie?’ only to find 4 walkers from our ‘Healthy Footsteps for 50 Plus’ project who were visiting the town on holiday! In Bristol I took time out to visit SS Great Britain – the first steel ship built by Brunel 160 years ago. Crossing the Severn Bridge to Chepstow was quite daunting, riding along a cycle path at the side of a motorway, feeling the vibrations from heavy traffic thundering across its 2-mile length. Halfway across a heavy rainstorm caught me as though a bucket of water was being constantly thrown at me. The Forest of Dean made delightful cycling and I took 2 days off at my boyfriend’s home in Ledbury before completing the ride back to Stourbridge on May Day Monday. The total mileage was 378.99 miles and the total amount raised along the way was £263.00.
