Flash forward:
Saturday, May 9, 2015
At 11:20am I start cycling south from the most northern place in the United Kingdom.
This would probably be the right time to announce that as I cycle south in the coming weeks that I am raising funds for childhood cancer research through Ben Towne Foundation (BTF). Donations are necessary to continue monumental progress in FDA approved clinical tests that are demonstrating huge success. We are going to need your help!
In 2008, my friends Jeff and Carin Towne lost their son Ben to a cancer called neuroblastoma when he was three years old. Their tragedy became a catalyst because they would not accept that the loss of their boy and the grief could end up being a reality for others, and so BTF began. Today, at Seattle Children's stands the Ben Towne Center for Childhood Cancer Research.
In April 2015, one of several FDA approved trials resulted in complete remission in 20 out of 22 patients. Reality is changing! These results would not have occurred for these patients without the research and movement started through BTF. And 100% of donations go directly to research. You read that right: every penny of every dollar!
My goal, your goal, our goal: $20,000.
“Wow,” you just said.
“Yeah, we can do this,” I just said.
I’ve just started us off with a donation of $100, which is $50 on behalf of each my niece and nephew. I’ve also made an additional pledge for every mile coming. Below are some ideas for donating.
- Donate $25 or $50 for each of your children, grandchildren, nieces, or nephews.
- Donate $5 or $10 for every child whose name you can write down in five minutes.
- Pledge to donate $0.10, $0.25, or $0.50 for each mile I cycle.
- Pledge to donate $5 or $10 for each day I cycle.
- Donate any amount for any reason.
- Go for a double play, and select more than one of the above.
Every dollar you donate counts, because every child counts. Mile for mile, dollar for dollar, let's kick cancer's butt!
You are totally going to help kick this off, right!? You can do so by visiting the Fundraising Page.
To read more about the research, take a trip to the Ben Towne Center for Childhood Cancer Research website.
I’m heading south, with some detours. Let’s see where this journey goes and how many miles are ahead!
And now, the last six days, because you are probably wondering:
Sunday, May 3, 2015
Continued from last post.
… From there I head to the train station and after waiting a short while, board a train.
By train, I travel the same route in reverse that I just took two days ago, ending back in Liverpool at Mairi’s flat.
After dinner, I start feeling a bit strange.
We head out to visit several pubs as part of a music festival. At the first pub, feeling strange transitions to feeling ill and I don’t even want to drink the beer in front of me. We don’t stay at the first location long and by the time we are leaving I feel like I might throw up. Outside the second pub, I decide that the only good idea is to go home and so I take a taxi back.
By the time I am in the flat, I am starting to have the chills. I turn on a heater in the room I am staying in. I take a hot shower and crawl into bed. By 1:00am I still have not managed to fall asleep due to stomach pains and a headache that has come on. At 3:00am my whole body aches and I throw up, which provides some relief. I have been in and out of sleep and at 5:00am my stomach hurts so bad it feels like it could rupture.
I have never had stomach pains like this before and the only other time I have gone so quickly from feeling normal to approaching death is when I had malaria in 2008.
Monday, May 4, 2015
I am in and out of sleep with delirious thoughts all day, not being able to have any accurate guess of how much time has passed from when I thought I might have been awake last. At 7:00pm, I leave my room for the first time today.
I sit in the living room while Mairi’s flat mates watch TV. I eat a small bowl of ice cream. That is it all day.
Tuesday, May 5, 2015
At 9:30am I eat a bowl of cereal. Other than the small amount of ice cream last night, it is all I have eaten since 8:00pm Sunday. And I don’t even feel hungry; I just know I need to eat. I’m not feeling bad any more. What on earth just happened in the last 36 hours!?
At 5:30pm Mairi and I load our bags into her car and our bikes onto a hitch-mounted bike rack on the back. As we are finishing loading the bikes, it begins to rain. We head off driving north.
Mairi works for Guinness as a Team Leader in bottling and packaging. Guinness is owned by Diageo, which is a multinational company that is the largest producer of spirits (hard alcohol) and also a major producer of beer and wine. Her next step is to move into the bottling and packaging of spirits so is studying for an exam only offered once a year. All that said, we are studying during the drive, I reading her notes to her and she reciting the material as well.
During the car ride, my stomach starts hurting again and it isn’t like motion sickness. I don’t feel nauseous like that, just pain in my stomach that is so distracting it becomes debilitating.
At 9:00pm we arrive in Lochmaben, Scotland, 152 miles (245 kilometers) north of Liverpool. This is where Mairi is from and we are staying at her parent’s home tonight. Welcome to Scotland!
I am not feeling well enough to eat dinner. I feel like if I put anything into my stomach that it will make it hurt worse.
In the room upstairs that I am staying in, there are several packages from Amazon.co.uk that I sent here. (People, did you really think I wouldn’t have an Amazon account in the UK!) I open each of them and find the items I have ordered for our cycling trip, I am pretty stoked about some new gear. Then it hits me that there is one item that is not here. The legwarmers, which I am dearly going to need for the cold and wind that lies ahead, have not arrived!
Before crawling into bed, I am not feeling so great about the gear situation and that I am feeling ill and have quite the task ahead. I head downstairs and find the leftover dessert from tonight in the fridge: I am now feeling well enough for tiramisu.
Wednesday, May 6, 2015
I’ll admit, my attitude is lacking color this morning.
While I am sitting in the kitchen, there is a knock on the front door at 9:25am. Is it!? My legwarmers arrive! As it is happening, I recognize it is a bit strange, but I am incredibly happy over these cycling legwarmers. Men aren’t supposed to own legwarmers, a fact I know, unless they are for cycling, right? Well I think there are a couple reasons why they are making me unusually happy: the dreadful wind and cold of northern Scotland I have been hearing about (it just isn’t what I had been imagining), I haven’t been feeling so bright and a small item is making a big difference, and it is my birthday today and per the previous two reason this makes a great gift!
If you forgot to send me a gift for my birthday, do not worry about it, as I’d be happy enough if you instead made a donation to Ben Towne Foundation.
Still not feeling physically swell, for breakfast all I have is two cups of tea, which basically is not breakfast at all. In the corner of the kitchen a fire is going in the stove. I am finding that I really enjoy the coal or peat burning stoves happening in the morning.
We are on the road heading north just after 11:00am, just one-and-a-half hours after my legwarmers arrived. On the road we spend more time in review for Mairi’s exam. At 1:15pm we arrive at the testing location in Edinburgh, 74 miles (119 kilometers) north of Lochmaben. Mairi has scheduled her exam here instead of in Liverpool due to our travel plans. I feel like I now know at least half of the material. I head to the cafeteria while Mairi heads to her exam. Wish her luck!
Mairi finishes ahead of the allowed time and just after 3:00pm we are heading to a bike shop for a few items. Then we are on the road north out of Edinburgh. You know it's going to be windy when there are wind turbines in the countryside!! As we drive north, eventually we have a view east out over the North Sea.
Once in Aberdeen, 126 miles (203 kilometers) north of Edinburgh, we make a stop to buy a used trunk-mounted bike rack that is lightweight in comparison to the hitch-mounted rack we are currently using. We bought it through Gumtree, which is the equivalent of Craigslist. After that we meet up with Mairi's friend Kulsum. We have dinner at a pub and I have a meat pie with lamb and mint, which ended up being really good despite my skepticism of the pairing. We head back to Kulsum’s flat for the night.
Thursday, May 7, 2015
As I sit on the couch drinking a cup of tea, I look at the clothing and gear in front of me. The items I need to take another pass through and make final decisions on what is needed, what will be nice, the balance of weight versus necessity, and ultimately what will be going and what will not. What is going has to fit into two panniers that will be on either side of my rear wheel.
I am quite content sitting here, drinking my tea, and not going through this gear. I'd be okay not going. I am in fact nervous. And that doesn't happen often. What lies ahead is uncharted for my experience. And yet I know that how I feel means that ahead there is growth. I know that if I succeed it will be something I will never forget. And I know if I don't succeed, it still will be the same.
This bike will soon be my transportation, suitcase, and my home during the day, rain or shine.
By car, Mairi and I leave Kulsum’s flat at about 1:30pm and head to one more bike shop. Yeah, neither of us have cycled in the weather ahead before and we keep deciding to buy more gear, I buying an extra set of gloves since I now know the pairs I have are going to become wet. Next we head to the ferry terminal and drop off our new, used, lightweight bike rack (with one damaged strap).
Next we park Mairi’s car in the parking lot next to where another one of her friends lives. We walk back to Kulsum’s flat and have one last chance to decide on what we are or are not taking. We leave on our bicycles and arrive at the ferry terminal just after 4:00pm.
At 4:45pm, on the MV Hrossey, we depart Aberdeen, heading north, having left port 15 minutes before the scheduled sailing. I hope we didn’t leave anyone behind! This ferry is huge and nice inside just like the one I took from Belfast to Liverpool, but there are a lot more passenger cabins with beds due to the length of the sailing. I did not see them, but Mairi spotted dolphins swimming!
After dinner, we head to our respective cabins for the night, four-berth cabins shared with others, because it was the lowest rate. I awake at 3:15am during a change in seas causing motion for the ship.
Friday, May 8, 2015
At 6:30am I awake and take a shower, 7:05am I am eating breakfast, and at 7:35am depart the ferry with Mairi. The overnight ferry journey has taken us 193 nautical miles north. Mairi’s friend Mark meets us at the ferry terminal to pick up the bike rack, which we purchased for his car. Mairi and I cycle from the ferry terminal to Mark’s flat, which is just more than one mile. Welcome to Lerwick in the Shetland Islands!
After having a cup of tea at Mark’s flat, we put the bike rack on his car, adding a sponge for padding, and some bungee cords to really make sure the bikes aren’t going anywhere. It is a little windy and I can’t believe how cold my hands become. With Mark driving, we head north 28 miles (45 kilometers) and take the Toft-Ulsta ferry from Mainland Shetland to the Island of Yell. It is the smallest ferry I have ever been on, capable of holding 10 to 12 cars depending on their lengths. After the 20-minute ferry crossing taking us 2.8 miles, we continue driving north.
Crossing from Mainland Shetland to the Island of Yell on a small ferry.
After driving the 18 miles (29 kilometers) of Yell, we arrive at the Gutcher-Belmont ferry terminal. While we are waiting for the ferry to arrive, I walk back up the road and look at some Highland Cattle, which have a lot of hair and you wonder how they can even see. The ferry is the same size as the previous one. After the 10-minute ferry crossing taking us 1.1 miles, we are on the Island of Unst and continue driving north. Unst has a population of 700 people.
A Highland Cattle struggling to see through all his hair.
Once on Unst, we spot Shetland Ponies. The Shetland Pony is small and hairy because that is what naturally could survive in the harsh, cold winters when there was also little to eat. They are still known to eat seaweed along the shore. Archaeological discoveries suggest they were used domestically as far back as the Bronze Age. To some people, they are a cute novelty due to their small size and the reality is that they are that way because that is what was nature’s finest.
The Shetland Pony: small, cute and the Shetland Islands’ finest.
We visit the ruins of Muness Castle, climbing the stairs and checking out all the upper rooms and lower rooms as well. The castle was built starting in 1598 by a petty tyrant who abused his position. In 1577, Laurence Bruce was found guilty of replacing elected officials with his own men and extracting excessive taxes. He was relieved of his post and ordered to withdraw south and never to cross certain boundaries. Well, he did, and in 1598 started to build this castle.
Muness Castle.
From the castle we go on a hike that starts through sheep pastures, which is the actual route, with a step system to go over the fences that can not be used by sheep. We reach a beach with remarkably clear water. From there we continue along the coast, spotting a few seals, and then coming into view of another beach before heading back to the car.
Did not expect water this beautiful and clear in Scotland!
From there we went to a viewpoint and parked the car to have lunch. As it was a bit windy with nowhere to sit outside either, we had lunch in the car, passing food items between the back and front seat.
We see the ruins of a broch from 2,000 years ago, the ruins now simply being a mound completely grown over with grass. A broch was a round structure built of stone and what they were used for is debated. They may have been used as a defensive structure or homes for more important people in the society.
Not far from the mound that had once been a building, we visit the remains of a Viking Longhouse from the 11th century, also not much to see with just the outline of the building at ground level still evident. Although there is not much remaining to see, it is still pretty cool that there is anything and that it tells of such a long ago story.
Next we visit St Olaf’s Kirk (church) from the 12th century and the surrounding graveyard. There are in fact graves within the walls remaining from the church.
St Olaf’s Kirk.
From the church, we walk down to the beach and see some more seals. On the drive back up the hill we had come down to the church, we see more ponies. And after that we stop to see a standing stone.
A standing stone!
At the end of the afternoon, we head to the Hermaness Wildlife Reserve on the north side of the island and go on a hike. There are birds and rabbits as we cross the slightly rolling marsh area, on a boardwalk at times. We eventually leave the last boardwalk and end up at some extremely high, nearly vertical cliffs dropping down into the ocean. We couldn’t figure out why, with all the grass a sheep could ever want being above on the flats, that there would be sheep on the extremely steep cliffs just eating away as if the terrain was no different to them than the nice flat areas above. We hike along the coast heading north. There are hundreds and hundreds of birds out on some of the rocks. We continue along and soon see a lighthouse out on one of the rocks: Muckle Flugga. We are now at the most northern point in the UK, the furthest north I have ever been as we stand at 60.85 degrees north.
The cliffs and water below on the north side of the Island of Unst.
Hermaness Wildlife Reserve and Muckle Flugga Lighthouse Photo Gallery
We hike back across the reserve and as we are approaching the car, it begins to rain and a rainbow appears. We head to our accommodation for the night at Saxa Vord Resort, which was originally domestic housing for the military base previously located here.
The rain brought with it a rainbow.
Saturday, May 9, 2015
We wake at 7:30am, have breakfast at 8:00am, it starts to hail at 8:45am, and at 9:10am we leave in Mark’s car. We drive to the highest point in Saxa Vord which still has an operational radar, controlled remotely, from the previous military base. From here we can again see out to the Muckle Flugga lighthouse, although we are much further away than yesterday.
Just a side note: be careful how fast you say ‘Muckle Flugga,’ apparently when spoken quickly it can sound like something else.
From the highest point, we head to Norwick Beach, on the way seeing more Shetland Ponies. The beach has something quite significant, as here you can see two of earth’s crusts where they collided, their different rock types being visible side-by-side where they extend above the sandy beach. The oceanic crust collided with the continental crust and pushed up and over it, bringing what was once below the ocean to be the land above. It isn’t just a small area on the beach either, but a huge portion of the Island of Unst is originally oceanic crust. This is estimated to have occurred 420 million years ago, a little bit older than some of the ruins we saw yesterday.
Visible on Norwick Beach is where the oceanic crust meets the continental crust.
At 11:20am I start cycling south from the most northern place in the United Kingdom. Mairi was going to join me starting today but has decided to head back to Lerwick with Mark.
I have never ridden more than two days in a row, I’ve never ridden with more than my own weight on a bike, but now have everything I will need in the coming weeks in pannier bags. I have not actually trained for this and haven’t ridden more than a mile in weeks, the last ride being in Zimbabwe a month ago.
My strategy is going to have to be to ride slow even when I can ride fast, because my muscles have to last for the following day. I’ll have to coast down hills rather than pedal, so I can rest. And the beginning will have to suffice as the training for what comes after.
Besides the weight, are the panniers also going to add wind drag?
Minutes after starting, it starts raining. I stop and put on my rain pants, rain jacket, and waterproof shoe covers. After 11.0 miles, I arrive at the Gutcher-Belmont ferry terminal, having ridden an average of 7.77 mph (12.50 km/h). I wait an hour for the next ferry, but fortunately there is a room to sit in to be out of the wind and rain, although it is not heated and still quite cold.
Once on the ferry, I go into the passenger area below deck, which is heated. I’ve barely begun my cycling journey and I’m cold! There are radiators so I put my gloves on one to heat them up and my bandana on another to dry it of the sweat it already has in it. There is no one else in the passenger area as they have stayed in their cars for the short crossing, so I even take off my socks and shoes and put them on other radiators to warm them up!
After departing the ferry, I cycle south 8.7 miles to Mid Yell at a pace of 7.07 mph (11.38 km/h). Yes, you’d be safe to assume that Mid Yell stands for ‘middle of Yell.’ I find that the most northern pub in Scotland is not open for business, and it is a Saturday. I head to the only shop in town that sells groceries. Yell has a population of 900 people.
The cycling route on the Island of Yell.
Since I normally only cycle one day at a time, I would normally ride hard and fast because I don't need to think ahead for the next day and about sore muscles and being tired. I normally go for the best workout I can have and ride aggressively. I can't do that now, as I won't last. My new program: high cadence, no burn.
I leave Mid Yell and head south, cycling 4.6 miles at a pace of 6.40 mph (10.30 km/h) to my accommodation for the night at a B&B. The sky is still not dark when I go to bed at 11:20pm.
Shetland Islands: Cycling Days 1 & 2 Photo Gallery
Daily cycling stats:
Distance: 24.3 miles (39.11 km)
Moving average: 7.26 mph (11.68 km/h)
Since you may be curious, I bought the bike new in Northern Ireland and brought it across on the ferry to Liverpool. On the way from Tandragee to Belfast: “…After a stop to pick up an item…” I never committed to telling you all the details as they happen!
Map of the route from Liverpool to the Most Northern Place in the United Kingdom:
“Let me win. But if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt.” – Eunice Mary Kennedy Shriver
Founder of the Special Olympics, Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient. July 10, 1921 – August 11, 2009.