First outing on the new bike…

Well, on Saturday I took the new bike out which was quite exciting.

Sam and I took the train to Exmouth and then cycled back to Exeter. We took the cycle path to Lympstone then took the roads to Topsham which was a little scary when we ended up on the main road and nearly got killed by cars! One bus was particularly perilous. There were also quite a lot of hills which was a shock to me as I am used to cycling our usual route along the river which is flat!.

From Topsham we got the river ferry across to the other side to pick up the cycle path back into Exeter. I was impressed with myself as I managed to get up the hill back to the flat – it’s a bit of a killer. The new bike definitely helped.

I’m still getting used to the new bike – really need to master the gears!! Still, it was a pretty good ride all in all. Now I just need to wait until Sam gets his new bike and then he will be leaving me behind again and I will be left choking on the dust kicked up by his back tyres…

I will try to get some photos up next week.

Starting Out…

Welcome to my London to Paris Bike Ride Blog!

I have registered to cycle from London to Paris from 23rd to 27th July 2008 to raise money for Christian Aid. This blog will keep anyone who’s interested (probably about 2 people) up to date with how training and fundraising is going!

So far I have registered, got all the information I need to get started, bought a new bike and got very scared at the amount of training that I need to do. I have also set up a justgiving site where you can sponsor me online. The address is http://www.justgiving.com/charlottepage1. Please consider sponsoring me as Christian Aid is a really worthwhile cause!

One last thing – the picture at the top of the blog has nothing to do with cycling. It’s a picture I took on my Christian Aid trip to Kenya in October 2007 of sunset over Lake Victoria and I just thought it looked cool! The trip was great and I got to see just some of the amazing work that Christian Aid is doing to try to eradicate poverty. Seeing the projects in Kenya and meeting people for whom Christian Aid partners have made a real difference will hopefully spur me on to cycle on wet Febrary evenings in order to get in training for the epic bike ride!

Now back to work…

Watch this space for further news!