It was an emotional day that I will never forget. The LEJOG for Julia left her home town surrounded by friends, family, well-wishers colleagues, the church, the cycling club, with Stewart leading proceedings being watched by his children, their spouses and his grand-daughter. It really was quite something -and way more than I had imagined when I thought we might undertake this little advernture.
I believe it was as many as 33 cyclists who started out with us from Perth's North Inch, some with smaller kids did as little as 3 or 4 miles, a few stayed with us all the way to Aviemore. All different abilities, all ages, all kinds of bikes - and all there to honour Julia and her memory and to cheer us on in our efforts. The send off on The Inch was amazing - and then we had abourt 90 miles to pedal!
Groups joined and separated, clusters of riders worked together and then joined others - conversations started and ended, and re-started. Many of the cyclists knew each other - many had nothing in common except some connection to Julia and all kinds of people pedalled together!
At Pitclochry I stopped with Graham to get some adjustments to my bike - and then we cycled really hard to catch up with our group; not realsing that they had waited for us in a different part of the town! Our regrouping point was House of Bruar, where my wife, along with many other friends had put on a feast! It had been hard getting going again after cycling all the way from Land's End to my own bed in Perth - so this roadside banquet was well received!
Alan had joined us at Murthly, with a track pump sticking out of the top of his rucksack! But appeared smiling and in good spirits at Bruar - and would continue all the way to Aviemore. Other folks from church and Stewarts family arrived there too, with more food - it was another little party. We couldn't help but notice, as we chatted to some of Julia's collegues, there with us - just how much she would have loved this.
We got into a tight peleton and dashed through Drumochter heading for the Cairngorms, by the time we were in the National Partk the rain had set in, and we dug deep and rode hard. The press had picked up on our fundraising efforts, and were giving us some attention in some local rags - as had Graham Norton on his show too.
We had a great evening together with everyone in Aviemore - and a rest day the next day. We also saw our son who was working for the Summer in the Cairngorms. As usual we recorded our thoughts here:
What a day!
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