From the 2nd – 9th September, I undertook a sponsored bike ride in memory of my beautiful Granddaughter Liana. I was raising money for CRY to help their research into heart problems in young people. The Black Forest is a beautiful area, but I had never seen such steep mountains. It was, by far, the hardest week’s cycling that I have ever undertaken.
The first part of the week, we stayed high up in the mountains, so the outward run in the morning was all downhill into the valley, but we knew we had to face this climb back to the hotel at the end of the day. For the second half of the week, we moved to a hotel on the edge of Lake Constance. Of course, around the lake the land was pleasantly more level, but once turning inland, there were the steep mountains again. All rather daunting, but I felt Liana spurring me on.
All went well until the third day when I had a ‘run in’ with a railway crossing barrier. Fortunately I was tossed away from the line, as shortly after falling, the train came rushing through! I think they call it German precision, as in the UK you can wait several minutes before the train appears.
The next couple of days, being slightly battered and bruised, I didn’t manage the full mileage, so am in the process of making up the lost mileage here at home. In all, we covered around 400 miles. My brother Mike, from America, who is holding the T shirt, hadn’t told me that all his friends and work colleagues are semi professionals, so it was a case of the hare and the tortoise. I will leave it to you to guess who was the tortoise! All in all, it was a great experience.
The following week was my 70th birthday, and family and friends were again very generous is giving donations to CRY. I know Liana would be delighted that we are, hopefully, helping to prevent other families from facing such a tragedy, and I am delighted to say that, due to everyone’s generosity, I am able to forward a cheque to CRY for just over £1,400.
Janet Wastall