Welcome to our 'mini' bike ride.
We're off again ! This time down to Falmouth in Cornwall. Mary Ann's son Jack is coming to the end of his 3 years at uni down there and we haven't ever seen the house he moved into for his second year ! Sal has to see it too as she is his Godmother and feels the need !
So we are leaving from Putney Bridge on Friday 9th March 2012. This is near the beginning of the UK cycle route 4 which ends in Wales. Actually we are jumping off at Bristol and then heading down to Glastonbury and joining Route 3 which is part of the Lands End to John O'Groats route. We should take 7 or 8 days to do it soooo Welcome to the ride.
Our charity page is still up and running. PLEASE don't feel obligated as we are well passed our target but if you are feeling flush........
Our chosen charity is Cancer Research UK. Anyone wishing to donate please go to:
Tuesday, 31 May 2011
From Lake Luzerne to St Gottards Pass and then down again !!
The beautiful lake Luzern |
Bruce bet us two bottles of champagne that we wouldn't make Andermatt by sunday night so the challenge was on !! Once in the lower Alps we climbed and climbed and although like nothing we had done before it was manageble. Bruce met us at Goshenen just below Andermatt on Saturday and we had a beer. We were now pretty confident we could meet the challenge. We drove back down to the camp and then restarted at Goshenen the following morning. The steep hills started almost immediately and we both had the colly wobbles as we watched bruce and Arby (the caravan!) disappearing up the mountain and through one of the first rather horrible avalanche shelters. We tended to walk through these because the noise of thundering motor bikes of which there were hundreds was just too scary.
Soon the motor bikes were joined by Ferraris galore out for a Sunday trip to the top. We made Andermatt in about 2 1/2 hours with bruce waiting for us as we emerged from a long tunnel. Devils bridge before the tunnel was extraordinary and we were both glad to be cycling at this point and not one of the rock climbers that were scaling the sheer and super high rock face.
Wow!!! and it was so worth the effort. The views, the lake at the top, the snow, the blue sky were just mind blowing and made us all feel very humble.
So then we went down !! and down and down. The first 14 km on the old cobbled road you can see in the picture which rattled our teeth, our brains and our bones! We were over taken by 10 guys from the 16th Regiment of the Royal Artillery who sweetly stopped to talk to us. They were already on their 2nd pass of the day and were riding from London to Venice in ten days, a distance of 1000 miles ! We met them later in our camp and they were gracious enough to say how proud they were of us ! the British Army no less. One of their group had hit 50 miles an hour going down hill !
a beer at Goshenen |
The first hill out of Goshenen with the first avalanche tunnel |
Sal getting the best possible picture of the valley we had just come from |
Twists and bends as we went up |
At the top at last |
Other tourists took pictures of us at this sign!! Goodness knows what they are going to do with them |
The longed for daily beer. bruce had cooled them in the snow. |
Then the cobbled road down to Airolo. |
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