Getting to Land's End. Thursday 23rd June 2011

The previous couple of weeks had been spent training and mentally preparing for what was ahead. The great news was that we broke our £5000 fundraising target 4 days before we left which was a massive boost to all of us. Our Chain Spokers Tshirts had also arrived just in time with thanks to our sponsors Babcock and Hunter Property Fund Management.

Thursday began with an 8.15am meet with Grum at Europcar. We had hired a car and a transit van to take us and our bikes to Penzance. Grum lost the toss and had to drive the van! He hired that without a hitch but there was a problem when I tried to hire the car. Long story short, my sister had to take me back to Livingston to grab  as much correspondence as I could that included my name and address and also swing by the bank to pick up more proof of my address. I was pretty stressed at this point thinking how I could get me and the boys down to Penzance. Whilst I was doing this Grum picked up Bruce and Nick and loaded up their bikes and hit the road south. A stress I could have done without.

1 and a half hours later I had managed to hire the car caught up with the boys at the "Bentley" of M6 service stations at Tebay according to Bruce. At this point Nick and Bruce tossed a coin to see who would ride with me in the car. Bruce said "Nick if it's head's you go with Matt" but Nick replied as quick as a flash "NO! I want tails!" Thanks Nick for that (he claims not to have heard what Bruce had proposed)

Back on the road we picked up Fraser at Bristol Parkway station as he had come from Cardiff that morning. 5 Spokers on board... one to go. It was a long, tiring journey to Penzance and we met Andris Apsa there. He was not long back from 7 months in Canada so it was great to see him again. But before we picked him up we took the scenic route around the one-way system in Penzance before we eventually found the entrance to the train station on the 3rd lap!

Grum and I then had an episode trying to pay for the overnight parking at the station where the Europcar office was. Firstly Grum's card wasn't accepted by the ticket machine so I tried to phone to pay via my mobile but that also fails. We then scrape together £5.06 - 4p short of our ticket price!! Grrr. Eventually the machine accepts my card a good 30mins after we parked up the vehicles. The day was bookended by a farce! Grum asked how many graduates it takes to use a pay and display machine...

We made it to Bill and Liz Phillips house at 10.30pm who provided us with a lovely dinner and a beer. A big thanks to Bill and Liz for their hospitality.

It was only a 15 hour day on the road for me and Grum so feeling really tired before we are even on the bikes. Grum had made the journey a bit more bearable due to the £10 worth of Space Invaders and Haribo!

We made it to Penzance and have discovered Nick didn't bring a sleeping bag. Things will get interesting...