As you may remember a while ago I wrote my list of 16 things to do before I turn 16 in September. One of these was to cycle 50 miles in a day and another was to raise £100 for charity. I combined these two together and created my 16by16 50 mile sponsored cycle ride. I set the date for the 19th April and got planning. I made myself a justgiving site where people can donate online. This proved to be very successful and useful for all my twitter and geocaching friends who donated. Thank you to all of them. I also posted notes to my paper round customers’ houses informing them of my cycle, this raised me around £80 and was very kind of them all. Before the event I had the task of getting sponsorship, and most importantly getting my bike and route in tip-top condition. I planned my route from Stubbington up the Meon Valley disused railway, to West and East Meon, before returning through Hambledon and back to Stubbington. Most of this route fell into the newly appointed South Downs National Park.
Then the day came. I was up and awake and ready! I set off with my lovely welcome party at 9am and cycled very fast and was in Wickham in half an hour. There I met my first problem, they’d closed the Meon Valley railway for resurfacing. A quick detour and I was back on track. I stopped a couple of times for geocaching and checks with my back-up. The railway was a really lovely cycle which I’d never done before. I got to the end of the railway and arrived at West Meon, I had my urgently needed stop for Oasis and carried on.
My next stop was East Meon. I stopped here for my lunch. It’s a lovely little village that I’d never been to before. Then once I’d left here I met a very annoying patch of my route. My first big hill. I struggled all the way up, the sun was burning me as it was the middle of the day and it was the most exhausted I was all day. But I made it. Then turned the wrong way.
I didn’t realise for about 2 miles when I arrived outside the Bat and Ball pub at Broadhalfpenny down. I stopped to take a photo of the famous stone before turning around and going back up the hill for 2 miles to go the correct way. I turned along and stopped at a beautiful viewpoint. I did a quick bit of geocaching, took a few photos then had to carry on as I was only up to 30 miles.
My next stop was Hambledon, a lovely village where I had been before. I had a quick car trip to grab a geocache that wasn’t en route. Then carried on my cycling. This was where my major problem occurred. Somewhere along my route I dropped one of the radios. My bag came undone and it fell onto the edge of the road somewhere. I don’t know how. When I arrived at Titchfield (after a cake stop at Wickham) I informed my back-up and we had a trip back to look for it. But to no avail.
I carried on despite this small downhill section and returned home to my lovely Laura. I was more energetic at this point than I was when I started!! I had to go and do more cycling, after eating the flapjack she’d made me.
Despite another trip back to the lost radio location in the evening it still couldn’t be discovered. I’m very sorry for losing that. Thank you to Lester though for accompanying me on my ride and being there just in case he was needed, I really appreciate it.
Most of all thank you to all those who have sponsored me, it makes it all worthwhile!
