Just gone 8pm on Tuesday and recovering from yet another battering from the elements. Today really was hard work for me with strong, cold headwinds and the usual rain (sorry, keep banging on about the weather!)
We're going to start heading North tomorrow after a visit to St Anns Head Lighthouse on the Pembrokeshire Coast, hopefully stopping the night at St Davids in far West Wales. Yesterday I cycled across the Gower Peninsula to Whitford Point Lighthouse, a disused cast iron lighthouse thats in pretty bad shape. In 2000, it was put up for sale for £1 on the proviso that the new owner repaired it...it's still available. Gower is a place that I'll return to when the sun shines.

Here's a pic of the hills I mentioned in my last blog. This is the hill down to the lighthouse at Lynmouth Foreland (I didn't actually cycle down that particular hill (that would be crazy) but one that cuts in behind it...that's even steeper ;0)


Another screenshot of the GPS, cycling from England into Wales.

Finally, a view from the Severn Bridge (old) looking across to the new bridge in the distance. Big storm front coming in.

Thats it for now, cheerio

South Wales

Had a lovely day off today in Cardiff (decided against Newport), great city and some beautiful architecture. Currently sat in the dry and warm and thinking about the weather forecast I've just read issued by the met-office...plenty more wind and rain and a chance of snow on Wednesday!..what the..? Anyway, Ive just been doing a bit of route planning and I'm going to try and get up to Aberystwyth by Good Friday and then have a day (or 2) off for Easter lazing on the beach with cocktails. There are 14 lighthouses to visit between here and there, some of them a bit tricky to get to. I'm cycling in snorkel and flippers tomorrow.
Bed now as we lose an hour tonight. Hopefully get some more pics posted if we have decent phone reception tomorrow night. cheerio

Come on Sunshine!

This picture sums up that last few days. taken after long, wet days on the North Cornwall, North Devon coast, shortly after coming off and constantly getting sprayed and blown around by passing lorries and coaches.

So after the first few sunny days its been pretty much rubbish weather every day...but character building...apparently. Today I finished what I hope is the last of the major west country coastal hills. These included the infamous knee exploding hills around Lynmouth and Porlock. Despite the rain and terrain I'm still loving the ride.

Heres a picture of Hartland point Lighthouse, couldn't get too close as unfortunately the road is unsafe. There's been a lot of great surf up the north coast (when you can see it through the mist!)
The beautiful little harbour of Cadgwith, North East of Lizard Point.
The lighthouses I've managed to get to so far are as follows ~ Start Point, Smeatons Tower, St Anthony's, Lizard Point, Tater Du, Pendeen, Godrevy Island, Trevose, Hartland Point, Bull Point, Ilfracombe and Lynmouth Foreland. Also visited lots of other Harbour lights inbetween.

While in Lynmouth I came across a story I hadn't heard before about a huge flood in the town. Check out this link if you have time about cloud seeding...interesting! http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1516880.stm

Anyway, although its been a shorter day today I still feel tired and ready for bed (and its only 9pm)

Cheers for the coffee and bacon sandwich in the olde chapel Restaurant in Porlock today...Fab!

and hi to steve compton and family, sorry i missed you :)

Saturday in Padstow

Saturday, first day off and really enjoying the rest day. it was dads 65th birthday yesterday so we met up with friends and family for dinner at the Cornish Arms just outside Padstow. Im going to leave on Monday morning and head up towards Hartland Point in North Devon (approx 60 miles) The hills and shocking weather over the last few days have been quite exhausting and im hoping its going to get a little better in the coming days/weeks. I cycled yesterday with a good friend of mine Mat W S from Padstow and im currently staying with his brother Rupe on Stepper Point.

Thanks to everyone who's following the trip on the spot tracker on the site, Ive had loads of emails, comments etc ...such an amazing bit of kit!

Finally big thank you to the owner of The Royal Dart Hotel in Kingswear who kindly donated the money we spent on wine/champagne on the eve of the trip to the charity... Best gormet burgers and ribs in the South West!

Here are a couple of pics from the last week ~

Whitsand Bay, Just over the border into Cornwall

Charlestown, South Coast of Cornwall ~ amazing tall ships!

Windy and wet Godrevy Island Lighthouse, North Cornwall Coast

I had to post the cover of this amazing Devon Cycling map I found dated 1911. I like the way it says 'Showing Danger Hills' at the top

cheers for now.

First blog of the trip

Day 3 and the first blog...mainly due to lack of internet connection. First of all a massive thankyou to all involved in making the day such a success...especially Kate at Alfs restaurant. The weather was great and we had about 25 riders come down to start point. I did my first ever live radio interview and had a couple of newspapers there. Ive got limited internet access tonight so thought id quickly post a few pics ~


getting ready for 'take off'






Nick Baker, Kate from Alfs and me



crossing the river at salcombe (thank you to the ferryman for a free crossing!)

Early on day 2 (only yesterday...seems ages ago!) at Smeatons tower on Plymouth Hoe

The terrain has been incredible so I thought id post a screen shot from my GPS of todays ride.

Also a big thank you to Mike Davidsion for sorting out the spot tracker at the last minute. Ive already had loads of comments about how great it is.

And thank you to mr and mrs Curtis (no relation) who made a donation when I met them at St Anthonys Lighthouse today.

Spent the first 2 days cycling with Nick Baker the zoologist (from BBC, National Geographic etc.) which was great. had a good laugh, interesting chats and I learnt some naturey things. Thanks mate, look forward to our next leg of the journey

off to bed now, big day down to the lizard tomorrow.

cheers

Thursday before take off!

Well it looks like the weather is going to be nice for the set off. I haven't been training much this week due to feeling a bit rough, I think I have been wearing myself out...feeling much much better today though.

The event has managed to get quite a bit of publicity so far and has been in a lot of the local papers this week and last. I have another 'photo shoot' this afternoon and I'm also waiting to hear back from the PR company as to whether we may have some radio/TV coverage. It's also starting to get a fair bit of national media interest.

I've just seen Noel and Katie have set up their own CycletheLights facebook group, as they will be cycling the first and last day with me in addition to doing a week long stretch on the East Coast in June, so good luck to those guys in raising more funds and awareness.
More to come over the next couple of days :0)

Hooray... the sun is out!

fab training in this weather, a bit nippy but nice and sunny. the wind is also whippin up some nice little surf in Torbay...something we dont get a lot of on the South coast.

The new bike has been great too. Its the German built Tout Terrain - Silk Road. I've spent the last couple of days setting it up and its feeling pretty good. I've got a fairly long ride planned for tomorrow and still need to get a few bits for it. Its got lots of fancy additions though and I can even charge my phone and GPS as I cycle!

well its 8 or 9 days left until we leave. We're meeting at Alf Rescoes Restaurant at 8am on Sunday 14th March for breakfast then cycling out to Start Point Lighthouse a little after nine (once the fry-up has gone down!) I think there should be a good crowd there.

Finally, thanks to my wonderful girlfriend Elsie who has been busy baking me lots of cycling fodder - marmalade, chocolate and chili flapjack which is amazing!

Old Posts

Monday, 15 February 2010

4 weeks and can't wait!
This weather isn't warming up much but still managing to get out on some nice rides in the South Hams, Tobay and also did some training down on the North Coast of Cornwall...beautiful!

Watergate Bay, Cornwall

Ive been using my new SatMap GPS system on the bike to plan routes and collect data on the rides I've been doing. Really pleased with it and it'll come in really handy for the trip.I also took all the cycle clothing from Polaris down to Jim and Sue at Etees for printing today so hopefully that should be back in a week or so.I've recently been chatting with Kate from the famous Cafe Alf Resco in Dartmouth about the launch of the ride. Kate is also a keen cyclist and has been on some amazing long distance rides with her girlfriends over the past 7 years. She has very kindly offered to supply breakfast for all riders that are cycling the first day with me and is going to follow my progress on a map on the wall of the restaurant and raise money there while I'm en route. Hopefully there should be a bit of media there on the first day. So a big thank you to Alfs and I'll keep you posted on breakfast/departing time on the 14th March.

Finally, I'm now twittering...or trying to! Just getting used to the site really. I'll get a link on the site ASAP (if anyone's interested in following!)Still loads more to tell you in early March with the launch of various campaigns for ovarian cancer month etc.Cheers for now
posted by Simon Curtis at 22:41

Sunday, 31 January 2010

Six weeks to go!
Well it's been a little while since I've updated the blog and so much has been happening. The trip starts 6 weeks today so training has started to step up... although the icy weather is still causing some problems...I came off last night on the infamously steep 'Jawbones Hill' in Dartmouth. No Damage.

OK, update. I've decided to include Ovacome as a second charity and will be adding another 'JustGiving' button to the website. Ovacome provide support and information for all those affected by ovarian cancer. I'll be including more info about them shortly.Over the past few weeks I've been talking a lot with a company who are due to launch a new early detection ovarian cancer test in the UK, whichis obviously very exciting and very much needed. As well as this newdevelopment I've also been liaising with the charity Ovacome to help raise awareness for ovarian cancer awareness month in March. We're spending a lot of time planning and working together to see how we caneffectively raise awareness about ovarian cancer and specifically in identifying the early symptoms. Ovacome are announcing a fantastic newsymptoms awareness project in March. There's a lot happening here so I'll keep you posted. Very Exciting Stuff!These guys are also assisting me with PR for the ride and have very generously donated clothing and equipment for the trip.The big news from AMBA marketing is that my new bike has just arrived from Germany! Its a hand built Tout Terrain and looks amazing (www.tout-terrain.de). Nik's going to be building/modifying it over the next couple of weeks so hopefully I should get a month or so to get used to it before I leave.Got quite a few more things in the pipeline but will post more in the next couple of days.Cheers
posted by Simon Curtis at 18:23

Tuesday, 24 November 2009

All good on the training front but not getting in the saddle quite as much as I'd like due to the shocking weather recently. I test rode the first stage of the ride last week, down to Start Point and back. It was only 30 miles but very hilly....beautiful ride!

Riding back up the Teign the other night.

A quick thankyou to the guys in Bendells and Everything Ink in Newton Abbot for photocopying a load of stuff for the event. Also a big thankyou to Judy in Dartmouth who has taken over the fundraising down there.
Big News...My dad has now gone out and bought a campervan and is going to come along on the journey with me as backup which is fantastic news. I'm also starting to get a few friends interested in cycling various legs of the journey. cheers for now!

posted by Simon Curtis at 21:58

Tuesday, 27 October 2009

Thank you blog
So.....Hooray!! the website is live and we've started raising money.I've been training quite hard this week in the gym and had a couple of Dartmouth rides. out again tonight training with Mr Mat Steel, hopefully on the moors.First of all a few quick thank yous...to Mark at Frankman Design in Torquay for developing the site, logo and everything else...fab job mate! also to Nik and Ruth at AMBA Marketing in Exeter for the bike and trailer (what a bike!), Mike Davidson for his work on the soon to be interactive map app thingy, also thanks to Miss Fran Newman for the website photography down at start point and finally to the lady in the campervan on the Dartmouth ferry (you know who you are) who gave me £20 towards the charity. And thanks to everyone else who has helped so farso now all we have to do is train hard and raise the money!

posted by Simon Curtis at 13:21

Monday, 19 October 2009

New Cycle The Lights website goes live!!
It's live!!!!
posted by Simon Curtis at 15:13