0711 hrs - Text Message from Geordie
Well Dave almost! At the finish of a journey of discovery both physically and mentally.... to people we have met on the way who have helped make us so welcome....the Woodlarks spirit lives away from that special place we love ..X

[sniff sniff]

0735 hrs - Text Message from Geordie
Dave can you get the words to He Ain't Heavy onto the website please... will be shedding a few tears today... love you.....x

email from Mike Darkin at 0944 hrs
We are at Fort William Maccy D's having breakfast.  Lynne and Geordie should be here in 5 mins.  Then secure the Bikes and up to the top!  Should summit about 3pm today!  They have done soooooo well! Be in touch when we get to the top!

1013 hrs - Text Message from Lynne
Yippee! No more cycling for a while, my bum thanks me for that! Just the matter of a small hill now! Champagne later! X

1045 hrs - Text Message from Mike Darkin
Starting Ascent now :-)

1459 hrs - Text Message from Mike Darkin
Summit of the Ben now reached. Lynne needs a wee. All healthy and happy!

Text from Lynne at 1840 hrs
The eagle has landed just this minute! Just about to pop bubbly! Will blog you later. Just hope it makes sense! Cheers X

BLOG

So today starts at 0645.  Not what was planned…I distinctly remember a conversation last night where 0730 was the agreed start time for the final day.  Perhaps Geordie was not there?  Oh yes he was…he suggested it! But I guess he forgot…again…7 nights!  7 mornings!  And he still hasn’t got it right!  Geordie seems to have no concept of time and if it is light outside it must be time to get up!  Thanks Geordie!

So we all drag ourselves out of bed and make our weary way down stairs to breakfast.  Glenn rushed out to the car to make some final adjustments to the boot packing sequence and of course to get the breakfast!  Trouble is that necessitated opening the car doors.  You’d think that that would be easy enough…even for Glenn!  But Noooooo, we all had to pop out and see what was taking him so long.  A brand new top of the range Ford Galaxy…on loan from Strathclyde Police…and we break it!  Well to be quite specific in a non-specific kind of way the owners of the ever so useful car fridge that left it plugged in to the vehicles only power source over night were guilty of breaking it this time.  You see the fridge seems to consume the same amount of power as a small housing estate from the East End of London and 12 volts of Ford Galaxy battery is just not up to the job! 

Feeling quite proud of our latest achievement 3 of us decided to just pop back in and have a cup of tea.  The other ran round the car park looking for discarded AAA batteries in an effort to lash them together and at least get the interior lights going!  Meanwhile Admiral Rory had somehow got hold of the news and he dispatched a team of his best Naval buddies from Portsmouth together with a PSNI (that actually means Royal Ulster Constabulary) escort to help us out.  They swooped in with all sorts of leads and wires and cables and spanners and before we knew it the Galaxy had been transformed into something that resembled a clapped out Navel minibus as they drove off down the road waving us goodbye in our borrowed car?  Don’t panic they came back and Glenn was happy as he could now spend another few hours arranging the boot so everything we needed for the day was in the most inaccessible place possible!

We oiled the bikes one last time and loaded them up then it was off down the road one last time to throw Lynne and Geordie out where they had stopped last night.  They had 15 miles left to do.  A walk in the park!  How does that give us enough time for coffee and breakfast?  I know…we’ll drop them 30 miles away…hee hee!

We set them off over a bridge that resembled something that may have been imported from the River Kwai and once we saw that they made it over safely we followed!

We shot on forward the 12 or so miles to Fort William and Whoo Hooo!  There’s a MacDonald’s!  Guess where we ended up!  All breakfasted up we felt a little guilty so we bought the team a little treat and then Glenn popped over to Morrison’s for a few supplies.  Why we needed a cabbage and some frozen clams I will never know but he was happy? 

We caught up with Geordie and Lynne about ½ a mile short of the Ben Nevis visitor centre.  This is where the Public Order Act infringement was witnessed.  All I will say is take a CLOSE look at today’s photos.

They made it to the visitor centre by 1000(ish) and we had a few manly cuddles…oh and the girly one with Lynne too.  Then it was into the bat cave for the final costume change to aid us on our impending ascent.

1057.32 hours and the ascent commenced.  Shortly into it we stopped Mad Mac Mcmuck, a scouser who had arrived on holiday and he kindly took our photograph…and our camera...and our…No not really.  A very nice man and he of course obliged with taking our photograph.  We then set off up the final challenge.  Why?  Why would you want to walk up something that could almost aid in gaining you membership to the mile high club?  Ahh…I see now!

Mike took the lead as Geordie and Lynne were traveling at the speed of a striking snail.  Ok they had an excuse.  The only trouble is last time Mike took the lead we ended up in a near death experience clinging to the Mountain Rescue hut on the top of Scafell Pike!  It’ll be ok…what could go wrong.  The first people we met and subjected Geordie to were a couple of South Africans Phil and Nicky.  They were nice...we moved on.  Next came Mark, Nicky and ooffie (a brown sprocker)  Mark and Nicky were on their Honeymoon and aiming to join the mile high club…we did not have the heart to tell them they’d be 300metres too low!  Or is that 6 inches?  Nicky was having a little trouble with the high heels and dress but Mark and ooffee were on a mission!

We carried on past and up.  I tell you what…Scafell Pike is a walk in the park compared to this baby!  We got to the half way point as planned, half way through our walk.  A pleasant lake…well maybe it would be pleasant if the sun was shining without a wind that Michael Fish would perhaps describe as “moderate” and the accompanying hail.  Or should I say ice cubes that some cloud dwelling imp was firing directly at us from a black widow catapult!  Suffice to say the weather was…different!  Still Geordie entered into his usual wager with Mike…hoping for the 360 degree view from the top.  The trouble is this time that the wind was that fierce you would have had to have had a knowledge of the present weather in Florida to have been able to accurately predict what would be happening at the top in 2 hours time?

We continued up with Mike at the helm and then we came across the first hint that we may be on the wrong path.  You would not believe this but we ran into Hilary and Tensing themselves.  No really we did…check out the photo’s with Seb.  We sent Seb in to ask for directions.  Something tells me we may have taken a wrong turn?  But we were ok…they were on holiday and had popped up to feed the ducks so we pushed on!

After 2 more hours of “I’m Henry the eighth I am” from you know who and the top was in sight.  Finally…we could see it.  And you wouldn’t guess this but we had a clear 360 degree view!  Damn!  Now I’ll have to buy him a drink.  We all hobbled to the trig point for the final picture and then entered into our final challenge…finding someone who spoke English to ask for the group photo!  We had Czech’s, Welsh, Aussies, Cockney’s, Scottish and finally someone that could help…the Japanese!  We got our pictures and then off for lunch at the café!

Oh I forgot….Round about now Lynne declared her unrelenting desire to test her thigh muscles just one more time!  She disappeared behind a group of boulders and all we were left to see was the rising steam?  (work it out!)

That was it…we were done!  Oh no…we have to get back down!  That to be honest was rather uneventful.  We just put our heads down and walked…past Nicky and Phil, Nicky, Mark and ooffie, Dominic…Geordie's new friend from the Czech Republic and a few other strays.  And before you knew it we were off the summit.  My god this hill is big!  We walked for 1 hour and had not got half way down!  We carried on and the fatigue started to cut in.  Come on they had cycled nearly 500 miles to get here!

At 1838 hours (Precisely…thank you Lynne!) we got to the bridge…it was officially over.  We made it to the car and recovered the champagne.  Then all that was left to do was celebrate!  Oh and shower!

We are now all clean and fed and Geordie is on his 4th pint of the night!  Glenn and Lynne are stuck to their phones texting everyone they know and I am having to complete this blog. 

In short...we are all a little tired.  Some more than others!  Very happy to have completed the challenge and Lynne and Geordie are now planning the next one!  Any one have any husky’s they can borrow?

We would all like to thank our readers, our followers, our sponsors, the kind folk of the UK, The Navy, The Police, The Fire Service, The web master (Dave) and Donald and his extended family!  Oh lets face it we want to thank everyone who has had any part to play in this little adventure.  Without the support and goodwill it could not have happened.  Now PAY UP!

Till tomorrow…maybe?

Today’s stat’s:
Top cycling speed = 24 miles per hour
Average Speed = 13.653
Miles cycled today= 15.6
Total miles cycled = 484
Traffic law infringements = 0
Public Order Infringements = 1 (see the photo’s)
Eddies Spotted = 0
Near death experiences = 0
Cars Broken = 1

Quote of the day:
“So my furry cup is not good enough for you then?”  (Geordie will explain!)

Word(s) of the Day
Hakuna Matata