Epiblog

With the team now back in a gloriously gloomy England and struggling to re-adapt to 'normal' life after spending far too long in each other’s company, it seems about time for an final entry on the blog summing up the last 6 weeks. If what follows appears a bit clichéd etc. (it will) then please accept my apologies...

I think I speak for all of us when I say the trip was an incredible experience on a number of levels and something I hope I’ll never forget. The ride was a year in the planning and four weeks in the riding, and at every stage we had an enormous amount of fun and faced a series of unfamiliar challenges which make the entire process seem more than worthwhile. For me the highlight was undoubtedly the Morocco leg of the journey, particularly the day we cycled 95 miles in temperatures that reached the mid 40s. The low point was obviously losing Nat to a broken collar bone, and we were all gutted that fate denied him the chance to finish the ride. Overall though I’m really proud of what we achieved, to get a team of guys who had never done any cycling before 1700 miles across Europe in midsummer to Africa was a stupid idea...

It pains me to repeat what Doble said in the previous blog but I feel I must; we were hugely lucky to be given the opportunity to take on this challenge, and we would have been unable to do so without the help of a great number of people and organisations...

Firstly thanks to all our corporate sponsors; Marshall's Motor Group, Orwell Truck and Van, Pemberton Greenish and Anspear, who between them paid for our camping equipment and ‘sat nav’ system and also boosted the amount we raised for The Sick Children's Trust. Ben Hayward cycles also deserve another mention for providing not only all of our kit at a very generous rate but also several hours of invaluable advice (had we known any less about bikes when we left there is no way we would have got to Portsmouth let alone Casablanca).

Lots of other individuals have helped us in various ways in planning for the trip, of which I’m sure I will fail to mention some, but particular thanks to Pimpers for doing the website, Sarah for doing the artwork, Adam Hart-Davis for being our ‘honorary patron’, Nick for printing the shirts at the last minute, the Pembertons and Gimsons for accommodating us on the ‘Tour de East Anglia’, the Gimsons / Stanfords for providing maps, everyone’s immediate family for general advice / support / hosting team meetings etc... and everyone who had to endure the six of us talking about the best route through Spain or the most efficient way to load bikes and other equally tedious things for much of the last year...

Thanks also to those who helped us whilst we were away, Rhoda and Peter for accommodating us on night one, Rory's godfather Steven and his family for giving us a wonderful rest day in Hossegor, Xanti our friend in the Basque country, Steve in Broxborough (the best mechanic in England)... and above all others Jeremy Davidson, who stands out as the man who made most difference to us, in his own words he 'lived every kilometre' as he took a month’s leave from work (at least I hope he did...) to calculate out the best possible route south, find the location of every campsite and bike shop on the way and hand out regular pearls of ‘Jeremy’s wisdom’, though we never did actually sleep under a bridge...

The main purpose of the ride was obviously to raise money and awareness for the Sick Children's Trust. So far I’m delighted to say our total stands at over £7,000, £2,000 more than our original target. For all those who have donated, we would like to say a huge thank you on behalf of both ourselves and The Sick Children's Trust. We’ve tried to be conscious throughout that people can get inundated with requests for sponsorship so we’ve tried to be sensitive to that, but have been overwhelmed by how many people have come forward with generous donations. Having said that... if anyone was waiting to see if we managed to complete the ride before they donated, the justgiving page is open until December at http://www.justgiving.com/cambridgetocasablanca... To show how much it means I’ve included an extract from an email from  Stephen Masters, a trustee of Acorn House, The Sick Children's Trust home at Addenbrooke's:

"Your justgiving total of nearly £7,000 will make a real difference, as I mentioned to you when we met on June 9th it costs about £25 per room per night. So £7,000 is 280 nights. That is enough to cover the cost of one room for over 9 months!"

Finally... thanks to the five idiots who came with me. When I first had the idea I thought I'd struggle to find anyone to come with me, let alone enough to form a team... and everyone contributed to the organisation and planning and the work whilst on the road, all in all it was an absolute pleasure. Hopefully I never have the need to say anything so nice to them again.

The good news is that I can now renounce my status as a 'blogger' and hopefully never write one again... that is until we start preparing for Cambridge to Calcutta 2020... 


Hope you have enjoyed reading about the trip everyone (Alice).

Over and out,

GD

P.S. If anyone comes across this blog and is thinking about doing something similar, or if anyone wants us for any other reason please send us an email at cambridgetocasablanca@googlemail.com