Return Celebration

LEG 7 - DAY 7: THE FINAL DAY from Rad Hart-George on Vimeo.

 

The final part of the ride took us over Putney bridge and along the edge of the Thames, past the boat houses:

 

 

 

 

As we rode into Putney on Sunday we were greeted by family, friends and the Chiswick Lifeboat on the river, outside Thames Rowing Club. An amazing gathering which we were both very touched by.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This marked the end of our seven year expedition to cycle around all the lifeboat stations in Britain, and it’s fair to say that it was a moment of mixed emotions for us both- relief that we had returned in one piece without major incident, sadness that our trip had come to an end, and elation to be greeted by nearest and dearest including our respective wives and children. Quite a moment…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Inside the club house, our celebrations continued – a great opportunity to catch up with so many friends, family and RNLI crew.

 

 

 

 

 

Particular thanks to:

 

·        Our two main sponsors- Knight Frank and Rackspace Cloud Hosting

·        All those who have donated so generously to us over the years

·        Flickie P-B- Our chief fundraiser!

·        Tony Vlasto- Chairman of the City of London RNLI- a phenomenal support

·        Will Holland,  the Peloton and support team

·        Thames Rowing Club for the use of their fantastic club house

·        Chiswick RNLI

Paignton- Torbay- Dartmouth- West-Portlemouth

Last night we stayed with Queenie and Kate, who we met on couchsurfer.com and were the most amazing hosts. They greeted us at 10:30pm, having got the train down from London, with smiles and an amazing seafood pasta dish. We chatted until midnight and really couldn't have asked for better hosts. 

Predictably, we awoke to torrential rain which stayed with us all the way to Torbay Lifeboat Station. After a brief stop for a photo we were back on the bikes and cycling towards Dartmouth about 15km away. 

Getting rather wet at Torbay Lifeboat Station, Brixham, August 2011

Dartmouth is beautiful- helped by the fact that the weather was clearing. It is an estuary surrounded by lush green hills and as we descended into the town we saw that the whole town had turned out for The Dart Regatta, which had just started. Market stalls flanked fancy dress supermarket trolley races. All very entertaining. One stall was selling nothing but cheap captain's hats- I had to get one.

 

We started to get an idea of the hills ahead of us as we pedalled our way out of Dartmouth... very slowly... getting rather strange looks from locals who thought we were mad to take the hilly coastal road. Fortunately we were cycling past incredible beaches like Blackpool and Slapton Sands. 

Blackpool Sands (photo courtesy of Google Images)

An hour or so later we were pulling into Mill Bay, East Portlemouth where my girlfriend's family own a beautiful beach house. After a bite to eat the three Willis daughters (Hannah, Beth and Lucy) took Nick and I out of the estuary on their fishing boat to see if we could catch a mackerel or two for supper. The trip proved successful- returning to base with 14 fish. We filleted them and stuffed them with salsa verde - delicious. 

Post supper games followed and despite trying my best to avoid this situation, I was becoming anti-socially competitive- no change there then! Plenty of laughter preceded bedtime, the morning would take us to Salcombe and beyond. 

Lucy sporting the Captain's hat

Preparing the mackerel stuffed with salsa verde. August, 2011