Woke up in our wonderful house in Belfast to dry and clean cycling clothes, amazing breakfast to start the day(I know Sam likes to know what we have for breakfast!) porridge, fruit of all descriptions, toast, croissants, tea, coffee! Di and Zac cycled with us to find the national cycle network which gives Zac at 11 the status of our youngest rider! Thank you again Di, Stephen, Matt, Ben and Zac for your warmth and hospitality. You made us feel relaxed, comfortable, nurtured and as Di said ‘we all felt like we’d known each other for ages.’ Zac wore the yellow jersey and showed us the way and paid us our big compliment of the day when he told us he thought we might be boring and not say anything, but actually we were very nice!! Thank you Zac! Carl went off to find Pru and Toddy in their accomodation and Reka and I set off to meet them at lunchtime. It was a beautiful journey from Belfast to Killileagh… very hilly so as we both felt a bit weak and tired to start the day, we took it gently and enjoyed the beauty of the hills, lakes and huge skies. No rain! We arrived at Forkhill… and just from the description, you can imagine how hilly that bit was. Everyone met up and we had our usual big lunch at 2… Reka and I covered about 26 miles in the morning… there was still a long way to go… about 60 miles…. Carl, Toddy, Pru and Reka set off after lunch… we have 4 bikes between 5 of us and as Reka is riding every mile… 3 bikes between 4 of us and 1 driver.. and now everyone wants to cycle as much as they can! It was a long ride for the rest of the day and I re-joined for the last part into Ardee… I somehow have to always do the first part of the day and the last. It was a real up and down journey yesterday.. hills after hills after hills… but we do love the cycle routes even though they often take much longer. We cycled up to the most beautiful old rectory and wonderful Paul and his Mum, Jane were there to meet us with warmth and care and hot water ready, dinner on the table. The house is full of history and wonderful things. Reka says she keeps wanting to open cupboards to look at treasures. Jane is 90 and a total joy…. we’ve all been chatting with her and she’s shown us her garden which goes down to the river. The roses are out and huge red roses frame the windows.. Paul has taken our bikes down to the bike shop in Ardee and again servicing has come without charge… so thank you again Ardee bike shop… Off we go now to Dublin, late start as downloading film etc takes time and we finished late last night….. Photos hopefully from Dublin tonight… more fashion shoots to do too in our sponsored clothes! We have over 1000 hits now on this blog which is great. Please keep commenting and adding thoughts to it…. the more comments we have and the more in the blog, the more we can prove the evidence that people are interested in the importance of exercise during cancer treatment…. so reply, reply… please…. will send you more photos asap… x x x
Jul21
Hi Reka and all you are doing a great job and having lots of fun by the sound of it, as it should be!! Sounds like a lot of hard work, great to see you are meeting some lovely people too.
Keep cycling…:-) xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hi Pen, why not send some of your Boden pics to Boden to put on their website and see if they’ll mention ‘The Ride’? (Sure that has all been thought of and I am light years behind!!). Hope you’re ok Pen. Did you get a bike cam to get the POV (point of view) shots? I would also be great to get some audio of people back home – record the odd phone call if you cn. You can then lay the audio under the pictures and its a very potent combination, especially when you’re thinking of folks back home. Just a thought? Tx
1000 hits! That’s absolutely fantastic! You’re going tong to want to live in beautiful cottages by the end of the journey 🙂 I keep re-posting on my facebook, so hoping that some people are linking to the blog via that! 🙂 Pleased the rain’s stopped – hoping you’re getting good publicity and promotion along the way. big love xxx
Hi Penny.
Am following with admiration the exploits of the “team” ! Thank Goodness its stopped raining.You are doing an amazing thing and we are in awe of your achievements each day. Tons of love and encouragement. Cherry xx
great stuff – keep on keeping on.
thoughts and prayers
Marion
Hi Penny and friends. Here we are tucked up in our highland cottage and ready to sleep. Hope you are warm and comfy and are rested ready for tomorrows joys and challenges. Love to all. Night night. Ali and Ed. X x
Love reading about the ride..Lance Armstrong would be proud of you.I think Boden should feature you in their next catalogue.Maybe you could get Phil Liggett to do the commentary for the film!Fabulous adventures to you all.Love Antonellax
You wrote us up so very quickly. We really enjoyed you being with us breathing life and love into the old rectory. It only comes alive when people like you visit you know! Hope you enjoyed Newgrange. We’re still talking about you and forwarding the link to your ‘site far and wide. Good luck and a safe journey wherever else you are cycling to. Paul, Jane and Rockie (Balboa)
we have all been sweating in lovely sun in Hull today! BBQ at Leila’s and Jon’s with Jon gushing about what an amazing time he had with you all…Jon says its hard work but then we know what a lazy bum he is!!!!
thank you 4*…… Mmmnn the Boden idea is very good….. thinking of you..
Much love, Penny x x