pedalling to london for oxfam

Well, today I counted up my donations and banked just over £600 - so I am very happy. I know there is more to come (promised, at any rate) so good news and well worth the pedalling.
As I pedalled I had plenty of time to think, and so here are some observations:

The people we met on this trip showed such kindness and generosity, to two strangers - one on a rickshaw and the other in a camper, with a mad collie!David the vicar letting us camp behind his church for example - and making us an excellent cup of tea (and even giving Frank his "Sod's Law" beaker to keep!) And all the people who waited for me to pedal into view so that they could fill my bucket. In these days, when there is so much to make us mistrustful of strangers, it was lovely to be met with such openess.

more frivolously:

The most poplular car in the Uk has got to be a Golf
The drivers of the most expensive cars were the least likely to stop and donate
The noisiest cars almost always turned out to be old Corsas with big exhausts and big stereos - and young lads driving them

Kidderminster has the smoothest roads
Cheshire has the roughest

Lancashire people are the most generous, closely followed by Oxfordshire

Oxford freshers have dreadful headaches the day after matriculation

Richmond Hill is big

If you ask a stranger the way they turn out to be Bulgarian, or Polish

Marks and Spencer's carrot cake is delicious

long distance rickshaw riding is wonderful fun - but bl**dy hard work!

enough...........bye! x

When I set off last Friday, to ride the rickshaw to London, I had no idea what fun it would turn out to be, or how long it would take. I estimated 20 miles a day max., and on that basis, expected to take two weeks. Well, it's taken 11 days, and we covered 320 miles in the end, so - not bad for an old bird on a big bike! We have met some lovely, generous people, and seen parts of the UK that we would never otherwise have visited. We have been incredibly fortunate with the weather, something that could have wrecked the whole exercise if it had been bad, and I guess I've been lucky not to have been run into on a country lane at some stage.
Today was always going to be special. I had imagined someone from Oxfam might meet us, maybe the odd bit of jollity, flag waving, etc. (we did have good wishes from Boris J, whom Tina had e mailed, but he was too busy to come and sit in the back for a mile), so in the end we had a splendid reception from Nelson, the new owner of the rickshaw, who was waiting at the end of their road as we came down from Richmond Park. Tina and Rob came with us for the first 15 miles - round Windsor Castle, alongside the Thames at Runnymede, and through the urban jungle that is the outskirts of Staines. They turned back just at the interesting part, sadly, to reclaim their car, so Frank and I went on alone to Sudbury, Hampton Court, and finally Richmond Park. It was only as we were puffing up the road towards the top, that I remembered the song "sweet lass of Richmond Hill" - and realised that we were pedalling up what the title referred to. As we descended the heavens opened, and we finished as we had started: soaking wet. Frank had clocked up a magnificent 31 miles on his bike, something he hasn't done for a very long time, and is very pleased about - not many 80 year olds pedal those distances in a day.
We celebrated with tea and flapjack, at Rachel and Nelsons, then stripped the rickshaw of it's flags, poster etc., walked to the station and caught a train to Reading.

End of the adventure.

Thanks for reading this, I have enjoyed writing it. Will count up my bucket's contents and let you know what they add up to.

Left Oxford Holiday Inn Express, and pedalled off into a headwind. The ten previous days must have taken their toll, because I had a bit of a wobble and arrived, snivelling, in the layby where Frank was waiting for me. After a restorative danish pastry, and some coffee, it was business as usual. The problem was that a man had told me that Henley was 8 miles away, up a big hill, then it turned out it was 17 miles away, so I was dreading the distance - and the hill (the distance was correct, but the hill was quite small, in the end)
Henley, when it came, was gorgeous. Lovely buildings, and fabulous descent down an avenue of trees that were just turning colour. Led a convoy of cars over the Thames, and then followed the river downstream through the countryside, which was much the same as it appeared to be on my 1962 map, borrowed from the Bloomers. The bucket was regularly replenished, and weighs quite a lot now. We abandoned the rickshaw in a garden, about 5 miles from Windsor, took the dog to her minder for the next 2 days, in Marlow, and then drove to Tim and Robin's lovely house, for supper and bed (Tabs and Blake very disappointed not to actually see the rickshaw, but looking forward to counting what's in the bucket!). Tomorrow is the last day, barring unforeseen circumstances, and I will have mixed emotions as I say goodbye to my trusty steed as Nelson takes over ownership and puts it to work in Covent Garden. It has served me well, so I hope, having written this, that I don't get 2 punctures and steer it into the Thames tomorrow.

Refreshed and sparkling from our night in the Holiday Inn, we woke to more sunshine - what luck. The first part of the day's pedalling was through Bromsgrove, and then out into Borsetshire. Failing to sight any llamas, or Lilian and Jennifer driving to visit Peggy in hospital (well Pammy knows what I'm talking about) I also wimped out of cycling to the Bull -someone told me it was up a hill - so that was enough to put me off, and I settled for Guinness and not Shires. The other thing that I discovered was that there are rather a lot of short, nasty hills in this part of the world, and I seemed to have to go up all of them. I also now know where Harris paint brushes are made, so you learn something new every day. After my restorative Guinness, it was a flattish pedal to Stratford upon Avon, which was heaving with assorted nationalities, all too busy taking photos of half timbered buildings to toss any cash into my bucket. Nearly had a Marks and Spencers moment, then realised I had no money - prob. a good job, raspberry pannacotta might not have survived the rickshaw experience. Failed to see any famous actors, so pedalled out of town again, over the Avon, and down to Shipston on Stour, where a lady gave me £10 and a man, 2 minutes later, gave me £20 which was better for Oxfam than the 22p that a lady gave me outside the Holiday Inn, before she climbed into her Jaguar! We halted for the night in a car park (no overnight stays) and waited for the police to knock on the window and move us on - but they must have been busy with something else last night, so we passed a peaceful, but broadband free, night after an extremely disappointing curry. Mileage today was 34 - so arrival in London has been brought forward to Monday.
Saturday 18th October dawned (Frank was up by then) bright and sunny - but what else have we come to expect? I had noticed on the map that there was a 100 metre climb up to Long Compton, and it went on forever. Not only that, after the welcome descent, off we went up again for ages - and I was so pleased to find Frank with coffee and assorted croissant-y products at the top. Stuffed with these, I whizzed off (I wish) in the direction of Woodstock. Lovely countryside round here, thatches, all Farrow and Ball colours, and people on horses etc. - can see why people like it. After lunch (it's just eat, eat, eat) it was downhill into Oxford. Arrived as matriculation had just finished, and all the freshers were milling about, clutching bottles of port, cigars, and looking for the punts. They looked so fabulous in their flapping gowns, and all the boys had white shirts and white bow ties - and a death wish with the port/cigar/punt combo - bet they feel dreadful tomorrow! The buildings, and glimpses into quadrangles made me wish I'd worked harder at school.
After a brief visit to the first Oxfam shop, which was very busy, I was reunited with Frank and the camper van, and we have ended our day in the Holiday Inn Express, in the middle of nowhere, as we could find nowhere to park the camper and the rickshaw wallah's legs had done enough - another 34 miles. Tomorrow Henley, and Tina and Rob are coming to ride with us, into London, on Monday. Looking forward to that.

Woke up to a fabulous autumn morning, at the Wyke. Horses being led into paddocks, views for miles, autumnal colours, mists - maybe no mellow fruitfullness - but you can't have everything. Dog walked, I set off for a fantastic, flat ride towards Kinver. On one descent I managed (or rather the rickshaw managed, with me clinging on and grinning like a maniac) 25 miles per hour!!!!!!! Unfortunately, at the bottom of this exciting descent I arrived at the start of a massive climb, and ended up pushing my rickshaw. This pattern was repeated throughout the rest of the day. Very character forming and, hopefully, weight loss inducing. Eventually I arrived in Kidderminster, which wins the prize for the best roads so far (worst roads award, by the way, goes to south Cheshire. I did wonder if it was because everyone there drove a Bentley, until I realised that the Bentley factory is based there and they were all on test drives). We had decided to treat ourselves to B and B, so that I could have a bath and wash my hair, and by the end of the afternoon, and at the start of the rush hour, we landed up in Chaddesley Corbett, and thought we had found our night's lodgings. Sadly the lady was fully booked, but she "phoned a friend" who said she would have us. 2 miles down the road, in the dark, and conducting an "on air" interview with radio Cumbria whilst I pedalled, we arrived chez. welcoming B and B lady, who saw the dog and flew into a dog-a-phobic hissy fit, and refused to take us - citing her cats, her hens, and the proximity of the road as reasons why she saw fit to condemn us to a five mile pedal, in the dark, to Bromsgrove. Happily, we are now settled into a very comfy room in the Holiday Inn, for £20 more than Mrs WelcomMat of Overwood had denied us. Mrs Barbara Palmer, you know who you are!!!! So, thanks to Mrs WelcomeMat, I achieved my highest daily mileage: 35 miles. And thank you Sue, for the bath birthday presents, in which I wallowed tonight. Lurvly. Tomorrow, Stratford and beyond.............. Oh, one more thing: major crisis - all the flapjack's gone!

hello again. Well, last night was spent by the Shropshire Union Canal, in the car park of the Shroppie Fly pub, in Audlem, where we had fish, chips and guinness with John and Ellie last night, before they left us and went home to Lower Peover. South Cheshire was fascinating, and preferable to the initial impression given at Mere. Lovely old, red brick farm houses, albeit with the odd helicopter pad in the garden. Undulating countryside, quiet roads, and very generous people stopping to add weight to my bucket. OK, it did rain a bit in the last hour, but it was a lovely day - and Frank rode 12 miles with me, which was a splendid effort on his part. Northwich was gorgeous (but no donations) and the canal was fascinating, and chock a block with longboats - but a broadband no go area - so we felt very at home.
Wednesday morning, and it stopped raining (as Granny W says "rain before 7, fine before 11") so, after a canalside walk for Muff, F and I, I set off southwards, with a following wind. Market Drayton was fab. - a proper town, and there was a market going on. Frank and I got briefly separated, but were reunited for our sandwiches just before I hit a stretch of A road which turned out to be the main road from Holyhead to the M6 and was therefore quite busy with lorries. Anyway, we fetched up, 30 miles!!!!!!! under our belt, in the Wyke, Telford, in an equestrian centre. Lovely, long distance views over what we think is Cannock Chase and splendid dog walks to keep man's best friend happy. Tomorrow we will try and get south of Brum, and well on our way to Borsetshire (sorry Sue!)
Rickshaw riding is fun, and a wonderful way to see Britain slowly and make friends and meet people. Maybe we should all get one..............

After a peaceful night in Ince, and a successful frisbee rescue operation for the dog, David the vicar bade us farewell and we set off southwards. David had warned us that the road was up and we wouldn't get through, but when I arrived the men who were digging threw down their tools and moved the fences back, and carried the rickshaw through, and gave me money! Then a lovely lady let us park in her drive to have our coffee. After an interesting ride through flat country, during which I saw 4 llamas (don't know who was more surprised) Mr D took me to a pub for lunch - what a treat. I went over the Manchester Ship Canal on a toll bridge (12p but they didn't charge me) and seemed to criss cross the M6 several times. Am now in John and Ellie's spare room, post bath, and looking forward to a night in a comfy bed. Frank says rain tomorrow, so hope he's wrong!

Hello - well, last night was spent in the farmyard of a very kind family in Woodplumpton, just north of Preston. There was no signal for my new toy, so I couldn't update this. Lovely people, 3 little boys - Ben, Tom and Joe - and so kind of their parents, and Granny to let us sleep there. The journey from Warton to Preston - 28.5 miles everyone! - went very well. Saw Sue for lunch - a wonderful surprise, and when we opened our goodie bag from Higginsons and the Hazelmere - wow!! Frank and the dog and the camper managed very well too, and all in all the day was a great success, rounded off by a good game of scrabble and an M and S banquet.
Today has been every bit as good, and I have had my knees out for the first time in forever! They have not improved with age. Tee shirt and shorts in October, whatever next? Swimming Tina? I mustn't forget - I have been fortified with excellent flapjack, made by Tina, and have been very grateful for it when a hill has loomed. Top speed achieved so far? - 19mph. Wheee. Have seen two good signs: bye pass (Bolton le Sands) and formally instead of formerly, which I particularly liked. People have been stopping their cars and giving me money, which has been very touching, and 2 vicars have each given me £5. In fact, one of the vicars - David Long of St Mary's Church, Ince in Makerfield, has let us camp behind the vicarage tonight, and made us a cup of tea. People are being very kind. The rickshaw - this is for Rachel and Nelson particularly - is going well and performing perfectly. Anyway, I did another 28 miles today, so progress is more than satisfactory, and tomorrow we are heading for Lower Peover, to stay with our friends John and Ellie Beharrell, so a proper bed, and a proper shower beckon. Right, Archers time, and food, and a medicinal glass or two of red. And Scrabble.

D day. Up early to deliver the rickshaw to Kendal Leisure Centre and to talk to Radio Cumbria - all went swimmingly, and Martin the radio man rode the rickshaw whilst I ran alongside with the mike. 10-o-clock and Clare the Mayor climbed aboard for the first mile, filmed by(Border TV). Off we went with Pamela and Nicky in their car and my accompanying cyclists Tina, Janet, Paul and Mark as outriders (Clare had told us how much her chain of office was insured for, so we were all on the lookout for highwaymen). The first couple of miles were lovely, beautiful scenery and 2 enthusiastic pushers for the hills - now I know what a heinzmann hub would feel like - but then it started to rain. Just a little at first, then the heavens opened and then the wind started to blow from the direction in which I was going, and for the rest of the day that was it - and it still is it as I type this. Liz and Jim saved me from keeling over with malnutrition by feeding me muesli bars in a layby on the A6, but basically it was hood up, head down, and pedal, very slowly, and very drippily, for the next 14 miles. UGH. Squelched into Pine Lake for a cup of coffee, leaving puddles on their shiny floors, and decided that, since it looked a nice secure spot, we would leave the rickshaw there for the night - locked up - and scuttle home for a bath, and that is what we did. Tomorrow morning, nine o clock, I will be back in the saddle and heading south - at least nothing can be as bad for progress as today. But it was fun, and a lady who overtook me stopped and gave me £2 because she'd read my sign, so that bodes well for tomorrow.

I have never written a blog before, so this is a new experience for me - a bit like riding a rickshaw to London, probably - something you don't know if you will like until you try it - but without the sore muscles.
Anyway: today is the 9th of October, and tomorrow morning, as the result of putting my mouth into gear before my brain, I will be setting off to pedal - very slowly - to London, in a Cycles Maximus rickshaw. I am delivering it to my niece Rachel and her husband Nelson, so that he can ride it to make a living.
In order to make sense of the above, I should add that my son Ben and I are running the London Marathon in 2009 for Oxfam, as we did in 2008, and this is a way of, hopefully, gaining lots of money for them. I aim to pick people up, for a donation, and also will be carrying my trusty Oxfam bucket into which passers by can hurl what life savings they have left after this week!
Tomorrow is also my 55th birthday, so that adds to the fun - a good way to celebrate. I am about to go out with my friends to give me something of an early birthday celebration/send off.
Tomorrow morning, at 10 o clock (on the tenth day of the tenth month) I head south to Lancaster.
If I make it there I will update this blog, with photos and a report. Wish me luck. Cate
PS I also have a justgiving page on www.justgiving.com/oxfam-rickshawride Well, as Sarah Palin would say "you gotcha try!"