Tom and Dave’s BIG Ride

Right. It’s one week before we head off to sunny Tierra del Fuego to start our ride. All is sorted, apart from the tent we’re waiting for in the post. WE’ve booked a hostel in Ushuaia for our first 2 nghts then we’ll be off on the 9th November. We’re both getting seriously itchy feet now.

The fundraising total is now up to £2500ish now, which is WAY more than we had expected before we left. There have been a few really generous donations lately, namely from Pat & Gill Bird, Sarah Baker and Local Estate Agents Ensum Brown who have agreed to sponsor us for the trip.

We tested the tent out the other night too after a 40 mile ride to Cambridge and back. It was excellent. We had a little camp fire going too and, naturally, a couple of beers to keep us company. It was a prety good 2 days, and a good insight into what we’re going to be facing in terms of our day to day packing/unpacking, chores and the like.

So… the next update will be most likely from Ushuaia before we set off. We’ll also start mailing out to those of you on our mailing list, so if you’re not already signed up, then fill in the little form at the top of the page and we’ll add you on.

Dave

I also received an email recently from Ian at Vango who kindly agreed to donate a tent. It’s en route in the post now, and will be the last bit of kit we need before leaving next thursday

Just a short post to say a massive thank you to Continental tyres for giving us a set of tyres each for the trip. THey’ve been put on now and are far better than the original tyres we had!

A link to their site to see what they offer will be put up on the site shortly.

Hi all,

The last three days have been AWESOME with charity collections in Ware, Hertford and Bishops Stortford raking in a massive £623!!!!!!!!!! Both Tom and myself would like to thank everybody who donated. Some were very generous indeed, with quite a few notes being put into the buckets

Tom’s also raised another £60 from PGL in Torquay, bringing the total to £1655. That’s over half of our original target amount! Hopefully we’ll make £2000 before we leave.

As for the training, all’s going well. I (Dave) have all my gear now, and Tom just has to get a few more bits & bobs then we’re ready to hit the road. I was looking at the map the other day, and the first day of riding will take us up hills at least triple the height of any i’ve climbed lately! t’s definitely not going to be a walk in the park.

As always, people have been really generou lately, not just with the donations, but also at shops. I received a 20% discount from th nice people at Cotswold, where we bought a stove, pots & pans and water steriliser. Also, Tony at Trax has given me yet more discounts on lots of spare bits (spokes, tools, locks, tyres etc). A massive thank you goes out to all of them too!

That’s about it for now. Look for more updates soon,

Dave