The end of the road, and the day after...

Day 14 - Saturday 18/09/2010 - Ronda to Gibraltar - 63 Miles

The day started slightly later than normal for all of us, not because we 'only' had 63 miles to travel, but the hotel did not start breakfast until 8:30, so we packed the van before breakfast to try and make up some time, we needed to be at Gibraltar by 3pm as Andrew had made arrangements for us to be greeted at the border by some Gibraltarian government officials.

Cleaning of the bikes after yesterday's storm

With the bad weather yesterday we first had to clean up our bikes, they were covered in dust / sand and overnight my chain had started to rust!! A wipe down and generous application of chain lubrication later, we set off as a whole group, but did take a quick detour into central Ronda to take in the incredible views of the surrounding area, as the sky was clear and the forecast was sunny.

Views of Ronda

We carried on out of town and almost immediately hit some hills, which turned into mountains, there were some challenging climbs and the sun was already hot, I was in a group with Tim S, Guy and Hannah, occasionally joined by Barnaby, who tended to catch us on climbs and then lose us on descents. The going was quite challenging, in all we climbed 1400 meters over 2 mountain ranges in 30 miles, but the views were amazing as we could see for miles and miles each time we reached a summit and there were massive birds of pray gliding on thermals above us. The descent was great fun, but quite hairy, as we were going quite fast and some of the corners were very tight, especially if there was traffic going the other way.

The final ever rest stop

After the first and last ever rest stop, we had about 2 and a half hours to cover the 30 miles to Gibraltar. Andrew G had left early with Jamie as he did not want to be late, plus he was really suffering from the team cold, as an asthmatic it was affecting him very badly and he'd been off form for the past couple of days. There was a reasonable but not too severe climb and then we were finally out of the mountains and on a long winding and undulating (we so love that term now) descent down towards the coast, not that we could see it. Eventually we got to the low country, we knew this because the humidity had picked up significantly and the vegetation was much more luscious.

Tim S, Guy and I were working as a team to pull Hannah along, two in front and one behind, switching places as the leader needed a rest, although Tim was taking most of the effort. I fond out later he had the same problem I had a few days ago, feeling grumpy for no apparent reason, so he was focusing on working hard to keep the pace up in the hope the mood would pass. Our peloton was working well, we were cruising at between 17 and 24 mph depending on the gradient catching and passing other groups, but then a grasshopper flew into Hannah's top and we had to stop to let it escape. We got going again, picking up Barnaby and Dave P but not once did we see a sign to Gibraltar, even though we knew we were within 10 miles of it.

Finally we crested a ridge and saw the sea, what a sense of elation, we could see the end in sight, although the Garmin told us it was 8 miles to the hotel, we continued on, following the route, which took us alongside lots of oil refinery's and storage depots, not very impressive, and still no signs for Gibraltar, but eventually we hit the coast, we were cycling alongside the beach and we could see the rock!!

We can see the sea !!

First view of the rock

It was now 2:45, we were expected by 3pm and still had 2 miles to go, Tim S, Guy, Hannah and I carried along the coast road and finally saw the border crossing, arriving at 2:55. Tim, Mike and Jamie were waiting, Andrew G was also there talking with officials and then most of the rest turned up. There was lots of hugging and congratulations as we realised we had done it.

Gathering at the Spanish side of the border

After a bit if waiting around, we crossed the border, showing our passports to both the Spanish and British officials, once onto British territory we regrouped with the van, plus a police car and motorcycle. We then followed the motorcycle through Gibraltar, Tim asked that Guy R and I rode a the front with him as we had been the ones (along with Justin) who had started this whole initiative. It was at this time that things got very emotional for me, I patted Tim on the shoulder and said it was amazing, he said he could feel Marey looking down at us with pride and all three of us had goosebumps even though it was really warm. It's hard to put into words how I felt, but it was a combination of pride, satisfaction and awe at what we had achieved in such a short space of time.

The police were waiting for us

Tim on the runway

Following the police motorbike

Behind me

And in front

We got to the reception area where we were met by the Minister of the Interior, plus some ladies from the Gibraltar arm of Cancer Research UK. We were treated to a meal of paella followed by banoffee, with as much liquid refreshment as we wanted. Some of the boys had not had any alcohol for a few weeks and were finally able to let their hair down, although everyone was very well behaved.

Pam, Norm, Ian, Steven, Roger and Derek turned up a bit later, they also got a police escort, arriving just as David L phoned Ian to see where they were. Ian decided to have a little fun and said they were still 20 miles out, only for the group to walk through the door 1 minute later!!

Last in was Caroline, she is the slowest rider in the group, but has carried on without complaint and in many ways has been an inspiration to the rest of us. However, she was not wearing her Inspired Living cycle shirt, the only reception she got at the boarder was from a gruff officer telling her to get out of the way and to wait in another queue!! Somehow she managed to find her way to the reception area, more by luck than anything else as we had not known where it would be, but she spotted David L outside as she was passing by. As she walked into the reception hall there was a great cheer from everyone and she was overwhelmed with hugs and kisses from all corners.

Caroline arrives, explaining why she's not wearing the IL shirt

After the meal, I sent a number of texts out to friends and family, getting some very nice replies, it was all slowly sinking in that we had completed the challenge, after 2 weeks of eat, cycle, sleep, now it was a case of getting ready to go home to our families and back to work. I had some quiet time to myself slowly trying to absorb what we had done, relax and unwind.

We then left for the hotel, this time we did not need the Garmins as some of the CRUK ladies took us on a short cut to the hotel, we had to walk the bikes up steps and along footpaths but it was not too far. As soon as we got there, we emptied everything out of the van, ready to reload it with the bikes. We had to take the pedals off and rotate the handlebars so they wrapped around the frame and were as narrow as possible. As usual, Mike was the load master and things went pretty smoothly, although a number of us rookies had to get assistance from experts such as Pete on which way to turn the spanners to loosen the pedals.

Packing the bikes into the van

Bikes all packed, I checked into my room and went for a quick swim in the cold (thanks for not warning me Scott) hotel pool, I then met up with Tim F, Scott, Barnaby, Norm, David L and Pam for a taxi tour to the top of the rock. The views were impressive, as was the fact that you could see Africa, this whole experience has made the world seem a much smaller place for me.

Barbary apes

Africa away to the left

I'm sure I'll have many more reflections later, it has been an amazing experience for me whether it is life changing only time will tell, but for now I have to say this has been an awesome two weeks. As a group, we are very diverse set of people, but we have all got on incredibly well, no one has had a bad word to say about anyone else, I am not aware of anyone loosing their temper (other than with some idiot drivers). We have gelled together, are almost always in good humour, have looked after each other both on and off the road. The only down side was the cold we all seemed to suffer from, but there's no way we could have prevented that.

David (centre) about to drive back to the UK

Final view of the rock

The planning and preparation we have been doing for well over a year has really paid off, in combination with the support from our sponsors in providing the van and supplies, we only needed to ride, eat and sleep. Not that this was a simple task, but we are so proud that apart from a few scratches and bruises, no one got hurt and barring Tim's off road excursion down a gully which broke his seat post bracket (but that's why we had a spare bike), we only had to cope with punctures and other minor mechanical issues.

Mike did some quick calculations, including the Winos and Glory Hunters, we had cycled around 50,000 km and on current estimates had raised £1 for every kilometre, this is the sort of sum that can really make a difference for CRUK and is something we can be very proud of.

As far as I'm concerned, my bike has been brilliant, the only thing I've had to do is spray some lubrication on the chain, no punctures, no new brake pads, nothing. It was serviced by Mark and the team at Peter Hansfords a month before the ride, he told me nothing should go wrong and how right he was.

The Garmin has paid for itself many times over, any mistakes were down to us misreading things and not only did it make navigation easy, most especially though busy towns, it gave you the confidence to focus on your riding. Those without such devices very quickly made sure they knew who had Garmins so they did not get lost.

In many ways it's a shame this is coming to an end, for the past two weeks we have rolled into various towns, taken over hotels and been a tight group, in Gibraltar we are very small fish in a big pond and we are about to go our own separate ways, but we have accomplished what we set out to achieve, something I was not at all sure about two week ago.

I've just got home to a lovely reception, I was given a lift home by the Rafferty family, we turned up to see my house decorated with bunting and signs welcoming me home, what a great way to end this journey.

Friends and family waiting for me, plus Guy and Hannah

It's great to be home

Many thanks to all of you who have read this, I hope you found it informative and entertaining at least to some degree. I may post other entries, but right now I don't know when that will be (:O).