The Picos Ride for Cancer Support: The end of the world

Last of the Picos Riders - to Rome Alone!

Our first two charity rides were a huge success - raising over £20,000 for the South East Cancer Help Centre.

The Centre does a fantastic job of supporting patients and carers at the most difficult times of their lives. They make a real difference and you could help them in their work by contributing to our fundraising. Donations can be made via JustGiving.comhttps://www.justgiving.com/Tom-Vaz/ or directly into the Centre. For more details of the Centre and their work see their website at http://www.sechc.org.uk/

After 3 years of rest it seemed time to dust off the old muscles, bones and sinews and do one more spectacular ride in aid of this fabulous charity.

This time I will travel alone for 25 days, mainly following the ancient pilgrimage route to Rome, the Via Francigene, covering a distance of around 1,400 miles.

The route travels through Newhaven - Dieppe - Paris before I eventually reach the Via Francigene in Eastern France. From then on it is pretty simple apart from having to cross the Alps without an elephant!

Monday 30 July 2012

The end of the world

A day of r&r is not an easy choice so instead we spent 6 hours on a coach going to Fisterra (the end of the world) and back. This is traditionally where pilgrims burn their clothes before restarting their life without sin. As we don't have spare clothes we decided to resume our sinful lives! The map shows that this is the furthermost part of our journey but it is not the end of the road for us at all.
My bruises are healing and I feel very lucky to have survived let alone get back on my bike so soon!