I am very pleased to report that in the first half of July we had two events towards our coastline challenge. These were the “Ride round the Wirral” and the “East Sussex Coast Walk”. Here are brief reports for both and for more information you can look at our blog.

Ride Round the Wirral
The 25-mile ride started in glorious sunshine and everyone safely negotiated the busy A41 through to the docks at Woodside and Seacombe Ferries. The ‘Ferry Across the Mersey’ brought our youngest rider, Saira and her mum Amanda, from Liverpool to join the other riders at Seacombe.

The group of 11 started the coastal section of the ride, still in glorious sunshine but now they had to deal with force 9 gales blowing in from the Irish Sea. Bravely they struggled along the Wirral coastline to Hoylake, making full use of the drinking stations we’d set up along the way. Sadly after 7 miles, Saira had had enough and the Afasic balloon tied to her bike had burst, which for her was the last straw.

Saira and Amanda left us at Moreton, but the other riders continued and entered the more sheltered Wirral Way, a disused railway track that now serves as a lovely walkway and cycle path around the western side of the Wirral peninsula. By that time, with no more wind to deal with, they’d started to forgive me for persuading them to do the bike ride in the first place. On they went through Caldy, to Lower Heswall, and finally coming off the Wirral Way at Parkgate.

The picnic at the end, still in glorious sunshine, was the chance for everyone to unwind and enjoy a cool beer and, for the ladies, a nice glass of champagne. All in all, despite the gale force winds, everyone had an enjoyable day and even talked about doing it all again next year!!

Many thanks to our Trustee, Anne Rannard for organising this event and getting people to take part as riders or the support team – Thanks Anne!

East Sussex Coast Walk
Nevil Hutchinson and Abbey Gersten supported the Afasic Coastline Challenge by walking the East Sussex coast over the weekend of 10th/11th July, a distance of about 60 miles.

Many thanks to everyone who has given money – they and we have been overwhelmed by everyone’s generosity. Thank you all!

They did the walk over a Friday evening and then all day Saturday and Sunday – 8 miles Friday evening after work as far as Seaford; Saturday was Seaford to Bexhill-on-Sea – 26 miles; Sunday Bexhill to the border beyond Camber Sands – another 26 miles; finishing at 9pm on Sunday.

Abbey got two blisters. Nevil got none. They both had incredibly achy feet and legs at the end of the two long days; and didn’t think they would be able to finish it on the Sunday by the time they arrived in Bexhill on Saturday evening! But they did it – so many congratulations to both for a mammoth achievement. As Nevil said “It’s a lovely coast!” Thanks Abbey and Nevil.

Join in our challenge to walk / cycle / run the UK coastline – we still need people to join in with this challenge and help us to cover the whole of the UK coastline by April next year. In particular we need people to walk, ride or run in Cornwall, Cumbria, Devon, Hampshire, Lancashire, Lincolnshire, Scotland, Somerset, Wales and Yorkshire. Please do join in with this challenge, have a bit of fun and help us to raise some much needed money and awareness. As long as you do at least a mile it will count!

It would be great if we could cover the southernmost point of the UK (the Lizard in Cornwall) and the northernmost (Dunnet Head near John O’Groats in Scotland). So come on, what are you waiting for?

News Category: Events, Fundraising