Cathryn Miller and Dawn Wilson completed a gruelling three day bike ride from London to Paris in aid of Framework. Cathryn shares her experience…
Cathryn and Dawn arrive at The Eiffel Tower
Getting there: What can I say? Three hours to get from Kings Cross station to the Clarendon Hotel at Blackheath Common, with huge luggage and a bike which was a challenge in itself and we arrived looking like drowned rats. We hesitated walking through the door to check in because we knew there was no turning back. We got into our rooms and could not even be bothered to walk down for lunch, so we used our last bit of energy to order room service. Lights out at 9pm as we had an early start.
Day 1:
Wake up call at 5am; breakfast then outside for 6.30am to register and set off at 7.15am. Here started our four day journey of cycling more than 300 miles from London to Paris.
First task – get to Dover for 4.30pm or we would miss the ferry. After a steady start of being held up at every red light possible, we eventually hit those hills they had warned us about. We had not prepared for the afternoon to come. These hills just went on… and on… and on, round the corner… and more hills. We finally got to Dover with an hour to spare and were all so relieved to have completed Day 1, until I remembered we also had to cycle to our hotel once we got to Calais.
After a very cold wait for a delayed ferry and a rough journey across to Calais it was great to cycle in convoy at night with 100+ bike lights flashing in the dark. We finally got to the hotel and in bed for 11.45pm… a very long day.
Day 2:
Wake up call at 6am. No lie in for us. Another 80+ miles cycle to Arras. More Hills. Windy. Legs feeling a bit stiff and our first puncture of the cycle. We finally got to the hotel after trying to locate it by asking people who couldn’t speak a word of English and our French being very limited. I did manage to use ‘bonjour’ often throughout the day whilst passing through small villages. After dinner we walked into the ‘Square’ in Arras which had lovely buildings. One drink and I was in bed by 11pm.
Day 3:
Wake up call at 6am! I’ve never had so little sleep. I also felt pretty rough this morning. My legs were feeling good though considering… maybe I could get into this cycling business. Someone had told me last night it was going to be sunny today but there was no sign of sun and just more rain, the weather was not being kind to us. We were on the bike for 7.15am and heading off towards Compiegne. There were some hills but it was a much flatter terrain with some good down hill rides where we could just cruise and relax the legs a little. I was well impressed that I hit 30 mph down hill. A good day but we were very wet and dirty by the end. All I kept thinking about in the afternoon is that I couldn’t wait to get back and have a hot chocolate… of all things?!
Day 4:
Wake up call 6.30am……..whoop whoop, half hour extra sleep! Last day.
I could not believe we had cycled more than 250 miles and were still able to walk, never mind cycle. Three days had gone so fast. Steady cycle in the morning, stopping off at a café with a small group for a coffee (and toilet stop). It was lovely weather, although a little bit too hot by the time we got to Paris (29 degrees, phew!).
It was absolute bedlam coming into Paris, with crazy drivers pulling out from everywhere, hooting their horns at everything and anything. We were constantly stopping and starting at traffic lights, with sweat dripping and dehydrating from the heat. We finally got to the park where we re-grouped and treated myself to a well earned ice-cream whilst we waited for the others to join us.
At 3.15pm all 106 of the cyclists set off together and cycled through Paris to finish under the Eiffel Tower. What a great moment to have completed the challenge; we achieved what we set out to do and cycle into Paris in such a large group.
People were taking photos, clapping and cheering. These were people we didn’t even know and it was such a great atmosphere! Then to top it off, we were greeted by our family and friends at the Eiffel Tower. They were so impressed at what we had achieved and had made the journey at their own expense to be there to celebrate. It was absolutely brilliant. We enjoyed a celebratory dinner with everyone and a few deserved drinks at night.
I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I would definitely do something like this again. In fact I’ve already been looking into the next challenge…! Ha!
If Cathryn’s story has inspired you why not do something different this year and join Framework on a challenge event in support of local homeless and vulnerable people. Mount Kilimanjaro Trek? Or a Mongolian Horse Trek in the footsteps of Genghis Khan? These are just some of over 30 open challenges that give you a fun and challenging way of raising vital funds for Framework. For more information and a link to all the available open challenges in 2011 and 2012 please click here.
Next week Michelle Cupit from Dawn and Cathryn’s support team tells us what it was like seeing them arrive in Paris.
