The Sprout

To Conquer Mountains

Posted by archifCLICarchive from National - Published on 16/02/2011 at 09:45
4 comments » - Tagged as Environment, Health, Sport & Leisure, Travel, Volunteering

Tweet

Recently I was asked some questions by a friend about a 650-mile cycling journey I’m undertaking in April to help raise funds for the work of UNICEF and Sustrans; and what follows are my answers about why I’m choosing to do this.

Do you have a more precise idea of the departure date than April now? How long do you think it’s going to take you?

My birthday is on the 3rd of April, and I’m leaving on the 2nd. Being somewhere new for my birthday has been unintentional the last two years but now it’s become something of a tradition, so I’m making a conscious effort to go somewhere because it’s interesting to have an unknown birthday (I don’t know who I’ll be celebrating with, if anyone). I’m setting aside two weeks for the journey and if I break the distance down it is about 50 miles every day, disasters not included.

Are you riding on your own or are other people going to join you?

I’m fully prepared to go alone, but I think for different sections of the journey others might join me. Covering the 355 mile Pennine Cycleway was an idea my brother Luke had some years ago, and it has stuck with me as an obsession with ‘conquering’ the mountains there. I hope he’ll join me for this, the Pennines are the spine of England and there’s a certain glory in thinking I could clear the mountains with my brother by my side. But then that’s the romantic side to adventure, something I easily follow in reality, it’s probably just vanity.

Why did you choose these specific charities what makes them important to you?

I chose Sustrans because I’ve covered some incredible cycling trails which wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for them. The Bristol-Bath route takes you from city centre to city centre without you realising you are in urban areas at all, along disused railways surrounded by beautiful plants and trees. Ln Las Cymru covers the length of Wales from Cardiff or Chepstow to Holyhead, a trail I followed in August last year. Sustrans enables many people to experience the outdoors through promoting healthy living and a traffic-free cycle network which covers approximately 12,600 miles which are equally open to walkers, families and anybody who wants to enjoy them.

UNICEF on the other hand provides necessary help for children suffering from poverty in over 190 countries worldwide. In Mongolia they provide shelter for homeless infants, they are taking steps to ensure all children are born HIV-free by 2015, and even in the UK four million children are beneath the poverty line, a shocking fact considering the general wealth of the country. UNICEF is part of a coalition created to end child poverty in the UK by 2020.

Both charities are striving to improve the state of things and I feel they should be supported, but based on what I consider to be more essential I am hoping to raise more for UNICEF than Sustrans, breaking all donations I receive into an 80%-20% split.

How did the idea come to you? Have you ever done something similar?

The idea for this journey came about purely because I have done something similar having cycled across England and Wales before, I feel I could, and should do it again for the benefit of others. And flying down the steep hills that Wales offers is a tremendous feeling.

Do you have a specific route planned for the trip? How do you plan to raise awareness and sponsorship?

The plan is to cover two long-distance routes almost the whole of Ln Las Cymru (Route 8) from Cardiff to Bangor, and the Pennine Cycleway (Route 68) from Derby to Berwick-upon-Tweed. Whilst I am travelling on LLC, I’m taking a detour to the peak of Snowdon, and between Bangor and Derby I’m travelling on a couple of separate trails. From Bangor I can cycle to Runcorn on Route 5, and if I head over the River Mersey I can follow the Trans-Pennine Trail (Route 62) to Hadfield, which crosses over with the Pennine Cycleway, so from here I can backtrack to Derby to begin the entire Pennine Cycleway to conclude the trip at Berwick-upon-Tweed on the Scottish-English border. To help promote the trip I’m using online sources such as justgiving, tumblr and Facebook. Sustrans are promoting my event via their website, but mostly I am collecting funds in person from people I work with, and classmates in a college I study at part-time.

If anyone would like to learn more, here are the links to just-giving pages I’ve created for both UNICEF and Sustrans

Info Sport & Leisure Outdoor Sports Cycling