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@PhilDAS
Starting this thread as a place to collate planning, advice, ideas etc for what will hopefully be the toughest challenge of my life so far and as a prompt to myself, making it slightly more binding than just a "yeah I'm gonna do it".
My Mum told me the story a few years ago but I didn't think too much about it at the time. I'm not sure what has happened recently but I suddenly feel quite strongly about it.
I asked her again and she dug around in their attic and pulled out some of the pictures.
It starts with this:
A train ticket from Liverpool Lime St to Wick in Scotland on 11 Aug 1983. My Grandad would have turned 50 that year so this was I suppose his mid life crisis.
He was an incredible man, loved by all and skilled at whatever he turned his hand to. What he wasn't though, is a cyclist. Quite why he decided to just go for this remains a bit of a mystery.
Long story short, he never finished the ride. He rode down through Scotland and northern England, his plan being to stop at home in Wirral and continue south from there but he never set off again for the second leg of the journey. My Mum said she remembered him coming home quite different. Quiet, kinder, more loving. This was of course before mobile phones, GPS computers, even decent bike lights and apparently riding alone in the dark across some of the open/exposed rural areas in the North shook him up a bit.
Anyhow, I'm going to try to do it. I don't know his route but I plan to visit the house where he lived and where he finished his ride, then carry on to my Parent's in Shropshire, down the Welsh border and on to Lands End. The plan is for this summer but I'm going to play it by ear and be sensible about my preparedness. At this minute, furthest I've ridden in one go is 200km and not really any overnight or multi day trips.
I'm unsure whether I'll try camping or B&Bs.
I have an extremely rough route planned out which I will need to look at in more detail and tweak for sleeping and food stops but as it stands its 1625km with no more than a few km on A roads.
My Mum has sent me some pictures of pictures, sorry for the bad lighting.