Making New Friends on a Cycle Adventure Through Wales

If you take 45 strangers from across the world with one thing in common: being a subscriber to the same YouTube channel; and you give them a cycling challenge through the balmy Welsh weather, what happens? Honestly I wasn’t sure what was going to happen beyond having some tired muscles, but I never would have guessed we would have created so many connections with this group in such a short amount of time, or that we’d all still be chatting and meeting up a month later.

The Prep

Some of you may be surprised to learn that we didn’t plan to bike across Wales when we set out last December. We had just finished our campervan adventure in Scotland when the specifics for this challenge came out, and it only took us a few weeks to decide that this was something we really wanted to be a part of. So we moved a few flights, signed up for the challenge, and started to figure out some other logistics, such as training, managing our 90 days in the Schengen region of Europe, and getting camping gear.

To help with all of these, we decided to spend 2 weeks in Cardiff, Wales, which is where we would join with the crew on a bus that took most of us to the start of the challenge. It was also a great opportunity to catch up on posts, do some planning, rent bikes for training, do long walks to train for the next adventure, and be outside the Schengen region of Europe. We were also to shop for things on Amazon and pick them up at counters or lockers around the city which made getting our camping gear really easy.

We had a group message going with the 40+ person crew doing the challenge as well as the organizers and one of them from Cardiff was kind enough to give us a nice easy route to get a few miles on a bike. The nice thing is that since we knew the company that was renting us bikes for the event, we were able to rent similar bikes and had some idea of what to expect.

The route started us north to Castle Coch, along a really nice river trail in the trees. The road to the castle was pretty steep and I shifted poorly which basically stopped me in my tracks, so we decided to walk the bikes up.

We followed the same route back until we made it past our B&B we were staying at, which was actually the same last 5 miles or so of the challenge! We continued along the river south until we got to the harbor area where we were stopped at a few locks while a sailboat passed through.

After this there was a really nice causeway with separated bike and walking lanes and in one spot they had a massive inflatable water park! It looked like so much fun! After winding past the Ferris wheel we eventually took a bridge back across the river, past our accommodation and back to the park to drop off the bikes. We refreshed ourselves with burgers and beers at a brewhouse in the park before going back to relax a bit.

On one of our walks we found this cute bakery and had some delicious cookies, mine of course had biscoff biscuites in it, yum! Another time we did a nice big loop of the bay where we had gone with the bikes.

In one of our errand walks we stopped to pick up some welsh cakes, they’re kind of like a cross between a small pancake and a very soft cookie, and tasted really good. We got them a few times while we were there, and are best when freshly cooked, but they were too delicious to remember to take pictures!

We of course had to visit the Castle for a bit and found a cool whitewater kayaking center with a ropes course! We also saw there was a neat inflatable park in the bay when we did the walk down here, the bike path is too far away from this to have seen it the first time we did the bay loop! Most of the two weeks we spent catching up on posts to the point that by the time we set off for the challenge I actually had finished everything from the parents’ and had them scheduled out a few weeks.

The Challenge

Our challenge was to bike from Caernarfon to Cardiff, North to South, 200 miles across Wales in just 4 days, all to raise money for a charity, bigmoose, but more on them in a bit. The ride is fully supported, meaning there were bike mechanics, medics, vans to transport luggage, and even a food truck that followed us along the journey for breakfast, lunch and dinner each day. The cycle tour company and bigmoose had planned campsites for us each night, we just had to set up our own tent.

The route we took is mostly the same as the one that Craig and Aimee of the YouTube channel, Kinging-It, took a few years before for another fundraiser for bigmoose, however that time they did the whole thing pushing a wheelie bin! That is what the UK folk call the garbage cans with wheels you put on your curb on garbage day. That time they were able to raise £62,000 for bigmoose, but this time they have a goal to hit £100,000!

We heard about this challenge from Kinging-It, which is one of our favorite travel vloggers to watch. We only found them a year or so ago, so I still need to go back and watch all their other adventures, but they inspired us to rent the campervan in Scotland earlier this year! I highly recommend checking them out, at least the two biking videos they made about the adventure, links are below!

The Charity

Craig and Aimee have done a few challenges with bigmoose over the years, and now that I know more about the company I really understand why.

Mental Health may just seem like a hot topic, but the reality is so many people are struggling. People you might know in your every day lives who seem perfectly happy might be struggling, and they’re an expert at hiding it. Once you do get the courage to say something, or if someone notices something the next hurdle is to actually get the right help for what you need. In the US you have to do your own research to find a therapist and hopefully they work with your insurance, have room in their client load, let alone be the right fit for you. In the UK I think if you were to go the private route, it’s similar to the US, but if you try to use the National Health Service (NHS) you could be on the wait list for months! If you are already struggling and considering suicide, you do not have the capacity to research your own therapist, and you certainty should not wait months to get help.

The beauty of bigmoose is all you need to do is send them an email, and within 24 hours they will send you a response. Within a week, they will have found you a therapist and you will be experiencing your first session with them. You have the option to pay for the full or half fee of your therapy but if you are unable, then that is what this fundraiser is all about! They really want to make mental health care affordable and accessible for those who need it, and their work is literally saving lives. While they are based in Wales, UK, they are equipped to help people from outside the UK as well. If you would like to support the cause, we are trying to raise $2500 for our contribution to the event.

The Crew

The night before we were to take the bus from Cardiff to the start point, several of the team went out for beers to get to know each other a little bit. We planned to just be there for an hour or two but had so much fun we stayed until the brewery kicked us out at 11pm.

The next morning, most of the cyclists had joined us on the bus, and it was about a 5 hour ride up to Caenarfeon. Thanks to the group chat, we had already broke the ice with chats about “bum cream”, aka the Chamois cream that you use to prevent chafing on long bike rides. The stuff is magic and glad I had already packed some since it works well against chafing on hikes in hot weather too!

Before heading to the campsite, we stopped at the castle quick to get a few pictures and meet up with Craig and Aimee for the first time as well as those that drove themselves to the start. Then it was only a few miles to the campsite and true to Welsh weather, just as we pulled up in the bus, it absolutely started pouring! Most of us took shelter in the reception for a few minutes until it stopped. Meanwhile we all were introduced to our bikes and helmets for those renting to make sure we knew how to work it and get the heights adjusted.

We all attempted to find dry spots to set up our tents and soon it was time for our first meal. The food truck following us is called Flower Power, and they serve only vegan food. They are from Germany and I didn’t realize until the last night that they were also followers of Kinging-It and had messaged to ask to be a part of the challenge and provide food for us all.

The food was always delicious and some things I would never guess was vegan, although I do wish they would have bumped up the portion sizes for biking, you burn a lot of calories cycling across a country!

That night we had an intro with the full support crew from European Cycling Tours and how the logistics would work each day and the schedule for breakfast, packing up, and leaving in the morning. We also got a bit more background on bigmoose from the founders and a welcome from our hosts, Craig and Aimee.

We all went back to the area by the tents because our campsite hosts provided wood and a pit for a fire so we all gathered around and got to know each other more before turning in for some sleep.

The First Day

Day 1: Caernarfon to Dolgellau, 47.0 miles, 3,579ft elevation climbed

The next morning we woke up early, got into our biking attire and started to take down and pack up the tent. Unfortunately our sleep wasn’t great as it was SO COLD. Thanks to our Minnesotan ego we thought we could survive the weekend with just sleeping bag liners but I ended up using my rain coat as an extra blanket and it was still not enough. Another important character on the Kinging-It channel is their friend, Gary from Barry! He has a business customizing camper vans and has helped them a ton with their own converted bus they live in. He and his wife, Faye (and their adorable puppy) brought their van, Patricia, and were available to help Craig & Aimee and just any of the riders with whatever was needed. We had heard he was going to pick up some items for people so we asked them to find us a blanket, or sleeping bag, whatever was inexpensive.

They had us all get up pretty early and have things packed by the time we started breakfast at 7:30am. We all had a tasty yogurt bowl and then got to check out our bikes to get everything set up. I did get a phone mount so I could easily take pictures or even a video or two while we were biking. Finally it was time to take a few group photos and soon we were off!

For navigation, they had sent out gpx files for the route that we downloaded. Mr. Wander was able to load them onto a Garmin App he has for our InReach device, and my plan was to download them to my watch. I didn’t realize it would require such a good internet reception to load it onto the watch and had forgotten to transfer it before we left our hotel the night before! So for the first few days we just used his backup option until we had a campsite with really good internet.

They had us go out in several groups a few minutes apart so we wouldn’t be a massive group on the road for safety. We started out slow to get our legs working, but it really wasn’t too long before we came into our first comfort stop, where we could get coffee, tea, and snacks or use the bathroom. I was able to get a tasty hot chocolate full of marshmallows for a bit of sugar for the next stage. The last few bikers came in just as we decided to head out. We knew we weren’t the fastest but could stay up in the middle by keeping our breaks short. Just a mile down the road we came up on a bit of a scary sign on a bike, 20% grade!

We started a bit on the bike but decided not to blow our legs out as we still had plenty of miles to go, and started pushing the bikes up. It was a very narrow one lane road, and eventually did meet a few cars on our way. A few more people had joined us for a break near the first flat spot on the hill and as a group we ended up stopping every few flat sections together but it was good as some people needed bike adjustments and other very prepared bikers were able to help them out.

We got a little break with some downhill but it wasn’t long before we caught up to someone that had stopped, wondering if those ahead of her had turned when they weren’t supposed to. Mr. Wander checked his GPS and they had so he and I continued to enjoy the downhill section and one person followed us. We got to the bottom of the hill at an intersection so I stopped so we could check the map again and unfortunately, his Garmin had been behind in updating and we should have taken that turn! When no one else came down the hill we realized we definitely made a mistake. We stopped another biker coming on that road that we thought looked local and he said we could get there but we’d still have a really steep hill towards the end, so we decided to backtrack and take that correct turn so people could at least find us on the route. Since we got to fly downhill the wrong way, we had to work our way back up and eventually made it back on the right spot.

What we didn’t realize was that this was the main giant hill we had to complete that day. It was huge! We had actually gotten behind the back marker from the Euro group and eventually only the medic was behind us. The silver lining here was getting to meet Beth, and found out we were in the same stage of life in a way. Her and her husband, Dallas, also had decided to quit their jobs at the end of last year, bought a camper in France this spring, and have been touring around Europe ever since. They share their adventures on YouTube (find them here), and are two of the most genuine and fun people to hang around with, I’m hoping we can catch up again before we leave Europe this year!

We were able to finally get our bikes pushed to the very top of the hill when we could enjoy coasting down for the next 3 miles, and managed to catch a turn that could have been easily missed. We were doing pretty well and thought we were really close to the lunch spot, but the medic told us to take this right turn that ended up taking us up hill again! I was in such need of calories by this point that seeing this hill was NOT what I needed. Mr. Wander’s Garmin started saying we had missed the lunch turn so we stopped and before we turned around Dallas called Beth because he had her location. They told us to stay where we were at and had one of the support vehicles bring us lunch, water, and some electrolytes courtesy of Dallas. By the time we were finished eating and ready to go, we were right in the thick of the pack again.

The rest of the afternoon was pretty easy, a little bit of sand to navigate as we got close to the coast, and we had to pay the troll. Thankfully they had a QR code so one of the group of seven that we had now accumulated paid for us all (thanks Angie!) and we continued our way onto the bridge. It was probably the bumpiest bridge I’ve ever been on! We also found ourselves by the beach and had to walk the bikes through a few sections of the boardwalk thick with sand.

The last bit was pretty flat although really windy, first time it felt that the wind really slowed us down. Finally we were cruising along some rolling hills with a nice big downhill into the finish for the first day! We dropped off our bikes in the trailer, grabbed our luggage and found a spot to set up our tent! It wasn’t the most flat but it was pretty dry so for that we can be thankful. While others were still setting up we went to check out the shower, which had lovely hot water, excellent reward at the end of a hard day of cycling. We checked in with Gary and not only had they found us a duvet (uncovered) for 9 pounds, but they also had picked up beers and were selling them at cost for any that wanted a little treat. So we bought a couple of those too from them and enjoyed a few snacks and beers as we relaxed in the tent.

One thing for camping we didn’t have were chairs! I was hoping they’d have picnic tables since so many camp sites we went to with a camper van had them, but there really wasn’t anything to sit on except the ground. That evening they had vegan sloppy joes and macaroni and cheese. It tasted pretty good but I probably could have had two plates! Thankfully the tarps they used for our bags made perfect dry spots to sit so several of us sat around to eat together. After dinner we had our first presentation from a bigmoose graduate.

It was a very powerful story he shared, after considering suicide a coworker noticed something was wrong and got him to start talking with their company counselor. Several months later he tried to get a therapist through the NHS but was put on an 18 month waiting list! It was around this time that Kinging-It had done their wheelie bin challenge and he went to see them on the route. He opened up to Craig & Aimee, who messaged the folks at bigmoose and by the time he had gotten back home he had an email from bigmoose! They had a session scheduled for later that week after just 4 sessions he said he felt like a new person. It is such a powerful story about how important it is to ask for help when you need it, and also how important it is to have the right kind of help available and accessible. After the presentation, we decided to turn in early to catch on some sleep now that we had a nice warm duvet to snuggle under.

The Crash

Day 2: Dolgellau to Llanidloes, 32.3 miles, 4,413ft elevation climbed

The next morning we got to sleep in a little but we were all still up pretty early with our bags packed and ready for breakfast. It was a hard start to the morning since we had a decent hill on the campground driveway, so we were pushing pretty early.

Finally we get into some trails between cows, a few sheep that cheered us on, and so many cattle grates! These were already pretty scary since they had pretty large spaces between the metal, but in some places we were more covered by trees and the ground was slightly damp and mossy.

Bikes + Cattle grates + slippery =dangerous combination. We had gotten off by ourselves a bit, and had been riding across several grates. The trick to these is to having enough speed your front wheel doesn’t try to turn on your and sneak in between the gaps, but not go so fast because they’re metal and extra slippery. There was a bit of a downhill on a turn, then a cattle grate, a little jog to the right, and then what looked like a stream crossing the trail. When Mr. Wander was coming down the hill, he didn’t see the narrow bridge on the left and tried to slow down before going through the water, but the bike slipped just after the grate. I was coming over the hill a little too fast and I saw him fall, then put on my brakes but locked the tires. The bike went into a slide with me still on it!

After the initial shock I wasn’t feeling too bad so we continued on, and I just had to get my chains back on the rear cogs. We eventually made it down to the road where the medic was already patching up someone that had fallen near the same area we did, but she hit a rock with her elbow pretty severely. We stayed there a bit to get our wounds looked at by the medic because at this point I had a pretty good gash that was running down my leg and I worried that without at least a band-aid it would just keep pumping out as I pedaled. He ended up checking out both of our knees and we got well patched up. The other biker that hit her elbow got taken to the hospital for stitches and to check for any possible fractures or chipped bone.

They kindly helped us jump ahead to the comfort stop so we could catch up with everyone after waiting for the medic. While we waited for others to arrive we got ourselves some coffee, hot chocolate, and a tasty treat. When Beth arrived we learned she was also bleeding from the knee from those slippery cattle grates, and at least one other fell in that area, but thankfully no other major injuries.

We had another big hill to climb today before lunch. It was very deceptive, as it kept winding back and forth and you thought you were at the top but there was more! Finally we got to a bit of a flatter section so we decided to get back on the bike which allowed for momentum to carry us to the top.

We had a surprise little party at the top with Gary from Barry’s van, serving up tea, sausage rolls, and another subscriber of Kinging-it dropped off some very delicious brownies. After a quick snack and chat with another couple I hadn’t met yet, we decided to head out and enjoy some downhill on the way to the lunch stop! We had smashed avocado and chickpea sandwiches with nice and salty potato chips that really hit the spot. Just as we were leaving we saw our friend who had hit her elbow, she told us she needed 5 stitches!

The afternoon was much easier riding, we got to go through a lovely pine forest for a bit, and just afterwards we caught up with our friend from Mexico, who’s front wheel was bent from a close call with a car that turned into a crash into the bush. The road we were on was barely large enough for a car with tall hedges either side, and it was right at a 90 degree corner where a bunch of gravel on the pavement caused his wheels to slip when he tried to brake. We helped him get his bike to the mechanic just down the road and called the medic to our location to tend to his injuries. What a bad day for scrapes!

As he was in good hands we decided to head out to finish the day. We had quite a bit more up to end the day, on a gravel road but as we pushed bikes we were able to get to know another couple from the US that were both engineers too but taking extended leaves as well. Finally, we came into the last town for the day with some downhill and we heard the cowbells welcoming us to a pub. It was such a relief to get there, I think the adrenaline from the fall had finally worn off and I was ready for a beer. I popped into the bar to order us drinks and behind the bar I found one of our crew with no shirt and just his bike shorts taking orders! Apparently the bar donated money for the charity and so he decided to donate the equivalent time of work and help them fill orders.

We finally had some time to get to know Dallas, Beth’s husband for a bit while we were all hanging at the pub. They told us that there was an issue with the original campsite, since they hadn’t planned anything to accommodate 50 people with bathrooms and showers but the amazing organizers at bigmoose found another campsite just a few miles away that accepted a large group last minute, and even donated some of the fees from our tents towards the charity. We also had the option to not bike to this new campsite so we got in Dallas and Beth’s camper who offered to take us to the campsite.

Once there, it was difficult finding a spot to set up the tent, despite it being on a hill it was pretty “squidgy”. We found a footprint slightly larger than our tent that didn’t make any squish sounds, set up the tent and promptly took a shower. There wasn’t a program tonight so we had our curry and rice bowl from our food truck, and went to bed after the announcements.

The Unexpected Rest Day

Day 3: Llanidloes to Brecon, 4.4 miles, 597ft elevation climbed

Today started out pretty fun, to help boost morale on the longest day they planned a “fancy dress” day, where some people had some pretty entertaining costumes. We found these jerseys from a local vintage shop in Cardiff before we left, so we went pretty simple, but as you can see from the group photo some people had some pretty extravagant outfits!

They did another wave start but this time we ended up in a very small last group, there were only 6 of us. This campsite had zero service for us and wasn’t on the route Mr. Wander had downloaded so we were relying on one person in our group that managed to get their phone GPS to work. We were supposed to go to the pub from the night before but they went a different route than how we came in so I couldn’t even rely on memory, and unfortunately they were some of the faster riders. Before long they sped ahead of us up the hill and we were left on our own. We thankfully could catch a few glimpses of some people from the 3rd group so we were able to see one of the turns, but once we got out onto a main road we just had to guess. I was getting pretty frustrated and by the time we got close to the pub I was pretty distraught. We saw several from the 3rd group leaving the pub when we were arriving and the two that were supposed to be navigating with us were already long gone. I was so frustrated, just felt like we got left behind. I felt bad as one person in our group was behind us and the entire ride I was worried about leaving her but not being able to at least see the few from group 3, but at least I could let people know she was there, and she came in 5 minutes after us just as frustrated. I think the combination of not enough food (and salt as we later figured out), still behind on sleep from that first night, and a body trying to heal from the previous day’s injuries all kind hit at once. At first we took the advice of the biking tour folk to take it easy and get a ride to the comfort stop, get some coffee and cake and see how we felt, so that’s what the three of us did.

We made it to the comfort stop and ordered some snacks while we waited for everyone to arrive. We enjoyed a delicious homemade jaffa cake, a flat white and hot chocolate. By the time the first riders were headed out, we were still feeling run down, and started to think about the fact we had another two weeks of physical adventures starting just a few days after the bike. We decided to take the rest of the day off to rest and heal and so they took us to the lunch door. While waiting for the bikers to arrive, we were able to chat with Dallas and Beth, who was also taking a rest day after yesterday’s spill. It was also fun chatting with our German caterers, and found out one of them has family living back in Minnesota!

Eventually the riders came in and we started to learn that we were extra grateful for taking off this day. The ride was full of rocks and dirt and mud and it was almost like a mountain bike course, which I don’t have much experience with and would be harder when you’re exhausted! We ended up riding the rest of the way with Dallas and Beth to our campsite for the night. We helped the crew set up the main tents and unload all the bags from the van, then we set up our tent just as it was starting to sprinkle. I helped a few others set theirs up, especially the one in a sling from her elbow injury. It was amazing how good she was at setting it up one handed though!

Finally it was time to start cheering on everyone as they came into the campsite, up a pretty steep hill. We purchased a few of the ciders brought by Gary, and finally dug into these “surprisingly salty” salt and vinegar chips i bought from the pub the day before. They were so salty my tongue was a bit raw by the end of just my half of the small bag, but wow was that what we both needed! I suddenly felt like a new person and finally realized what I had been missing. I should have known as that was what made me start feeling normal after a touch of heat exhaustion at the end of RAGBRAI 2023. I didn’t think about it because it wasn’t nearly as hot, but our diet of healthy vegan food this time likely contained much less salt than all the greasy food truck options during RAGBRAI.

The dinner was a delicious bowl of spaghetti that really filled me up, but as it was time for the presentation, the rain really started to come down. There were a few teepee tents with beds inside that we all managed to fit into to listen to another powerful story of a bigmoose graduate. He started off his talk with “I was such a failure, I couldn’t even manage to kill myself”, after telling about the night he was the closest to attempting. After the death of his father by a freak accident on a family trip when he was just 16, he had a rough life for many years until he was introduced to bigmoose. Now, as a graduate, he is fully sober, and is also helping plan and participate in challenges for bigmoose fundraising and awareness.

This story was so touching and at this point in the weekend our group had really grown together. During the Q&A after his story, three others in the group ended up sharing their own struggles with everyone. There was such an amazing feeling of support and love towards these three fellow cyclists after each of them spoke up. It was a really special moment and that I will remember for a long time. Our hosts ended the evening with a bit of guided meditation from an app and then we all ventured back out into the rain to get to our tents for some sleep.

The Finish

Day 4: Brecon to Cardiff, 47.2 miles, 4,154ft elevation climbed

The day started with our first farewell to our food truck buddies, they had to skip the lunch stop (although they prepared and sent sandwiches for us all) and drive to catch a ferry to Germany for work the next day. They were so much fun it was sad to see them go so early.

This time when we went out in groups they had the slowest people go first just so we could all end really close together. Since we had struggled in the last group the day before we made sure to leave in the first group. We had some fun winding through this town, almost took a few wrong turns but we were mostly pushing our bikes up the steep hills so plenty of time to correct this time. We got to a highway that was several switchbacks to get ourselves to the top. It was fun because we were most of the way up before the faster folks got ahead of us. Finally we got to a point we could bike a bit to get some momentum, then it wasn’t too much farther to get up the last push of the hill.

The comfort stop was provided by Gary and Faye with some lovely hot tea, into which I put a bunch of sugar into for calories. It was an off and on rainy/misty day so this really hit the spot. After a few chats and quick picture we headed off before the faster folks started out again. We had some nice downhill on good roads and then eventually we were following a bike route that was fairly well signed. The interesting part about today is that instead of cattle grates, they had a ton of narrow gates that a road bike could ride through, but most of our gravel bikes had such wide handlebars that I had to lift the bike every time on its backwheel so the handlebars could go through the wider part at the top. Plenty of getting on and off the bike at a lot of the road crossings made progress a bit slow.

Eventually we found the lunch stop and enjoyed some tasty sandwiches full of sprouts and greens that I really loved. We didn’t stay too long, waited for one group to leave ahead of us and headed out ourselves. We joined up with these first three for several miles through some areas with cool trees that felt like a tunnel. Along the way we saw Dallas coming from the finish line. He didn’t get to bike much as he was taking the camper between towns but on the last day he parked at the finish and then worked backwards to find us! He caught up to us about 16 miles from the finish.

After several of the faster ones passed us we ended up in this town that was a bit confusing and we all got separated. Mr. Wander and I were just getting past this castle when we heard people cheering for us up the hill to find the fast folks had already made it to a pub and ordered a few beers. We joined them and managed to get most everyone else to stop. Some got drinks but our champion campaigner, the one who worked as a bartender back on day 2 worked his magic and got a bunch of donations around the pub. Apparently he had been doing this at pubs along the route every day! This last bit of trail was mostly along the river so there wasn’t as many road crossings or gates and it was fairly flat and smooth. I enjoyed getting to where we only had about miles left because I recognized the route from our training ride!

The plan was to all catch up to each other about 1 mile out but I saw some people going the wrong way and went past the finish line on the back side! I caught up to them and it turns out they were navigating to the wrong spot and would have gone an extra 4 miles. We got back to the rest of the crew and it was time for us all to go in together. We followed Craig and Aimee, and for the last little bit on the road one of the support cars lead us in with horns blaring to the finish line!

After we all parked our bikes we got in a huddle and for some reason started jumping, despite our tired legs. We all worked our way through the group, giving hugs, taking pictures, and sharing around a bottle of champagne, and it was such a cool moment with everyone.

While people were catching up with their family and fans, we went to the pizza food truck and got ourselves a snack. Then we all gathered at the arch for pictures and a farewell from Craig and Aimee and hearing the progress of our fundraising efforts. At the end of the event we had just under £50,000 between all of us, and now the number is up to almost £85,000.

You have heard the stories, and the amazing work bigmoose is doing. If it has moved you, please consider donating, any amount helps. The donate link will be available for another few weeks:

If you want to see more about the cycling event from Craig and Aimee’s point of view you should check out their videos, and maybe play some Where’s Waldo and see if you can spot us. The first video for days 1 and 2 can be found here, and the second video for days 3 and 4 can be found here.

The Celebration

After the announcements finished we grabbed our stuff and made our way to the hotel. We immediately took a shower and tried washing a few things and setting out our tent and stuff to dry. It was a rainy last 24 hours so everything needed to be dried and aired out! The group had made plans to meet up at the brewhouse where several of us met the night before the bus so we headed out. It was nice to get a really big meal and some beers. We were only going to stay for an hour or so but ended up hanging out until they kicked us out, closing down the bar once again. We decided to go back to bed but a few people went out for pizza and dancing.

The next morning we had another planned meetup of a late breakfast at the bigmoose coffee shop, where we said goodbye to everyone. That afternoon we tried drying the last of the camping gear because we had to go to the post office and send our stuff home.

It was at this point I was wishing we had just rented the tent and gear but it did give us the opportunity to send more things back (like my bike shorts and our new bigmoose gear) so we didn’t have to carry it on our next adventure. We relaxed the rest of the evening and ordered in some food so we didn’t have to walk too far.

Recap

This event was so special, not only is it cycling which is something we do enjoy, but we met such a special group of people that we are still chatting with nearly every day, and have done a few video chats as the YouTube videos have come out (links above). Sounds like we might make it a regular thing which I am looking forward to, but we might also try and catch up with a few of them before we leave Europe this year.

Next Time

Some of you might already know what this next adventure is that I’ve been talking about, but after just one day of rest in the hotel we had a long travel day full of busses and flights to get ourselves to Oviedo, Spain to start walking the Camino Primativo! Yes, it is a little crazy to plan this so close to our other adventure but like I said, the bike wasn’t originally in our plan but I am so grateful we did it anyway. I’ll go more into detail on what the Camino actually is next time so stay tuned! Cheers!