Grimsby and Cleethorpes District Scouts raise money for the Sweedish Jamboree 2011!

I along with four other scouts have been chosen to represent Grimsby & Cleethorpes District Scouts at the 2011 Scout Jamboree in Sweden. This event takes place every four years in a different country, a bit like the Olympics. Over 4000 scouts will be attending from the UK and a total of 34,000 scouts will meet up in Kristianstad Sweden in July 2011, to take part in what will be a life changing experience.

As part of team building for the event we each have to raise £2000 to attend, not a small amount by any means, and I and my friends have come up with different ideas to help us achieve the £8,000 required. We have over the last 4 months taken part in Car washes, Bag packs, village fetes to name but a few, but I had always wanted to do a long distance cycle ride and decided very early in this fundraising that I would attempt the Trans Pennine Trail.

When I first mentioned this to my family they where very supportive and as a family decided we would do the ride this year. I started riding longer distances every weekend with my mum Angela, until we could easily manage 35 miles. At this point my friends decided that they would like to attempt this ride with us and they started to train to. My parents soon realised that this would take quite a lot of organising to get us all from one side of the country to the other. Several meetings took place to decide how we could arrange for support vehicles to meet us at points along the route and where we could all stay in the evenings. So with everything sorted we set off for Southport Saturday 23rd October. Unfortunately on the first night we had a major disaster. My mums new cycle was stolen from the roof of the car. Problem being no bike, no mum, no bike ride. Luckily as part of our advanced planning we had brought a spare bike, so the ride was still on.

Day 1
Southport – Sale

0900 Sunday 24th October we all met at the start in Southport, all kitted out ready to go, except my mums spare bike had a puncture, what else could go wrong? 0930 we set off on the trail to applause from our support crews, that’s are mums and dads and my brother. The support crews met us at around 10 – 15 mile intervals, and on the first day we cycled around 55 miles to Sale in Manchester. At Sale the trail has been updated and brought us out at our destination the Premier Inn at sale a bonus for us, not so for the support crew who were waiting down the road. Only mishap this day was a detour to the major road junction of the A561& A562 scarey! The signs were missing at the end of the Liverpool Loop Line as it crosses the road and heads off for Halewood and the village of Hale. Luckily mum steered us on to the right course and we didn’t do any extra mileage.

Day 2
Sale – Penistone

After a good nights sleep and a hearty breakfast we set off from Sale for what we knew would be probably the hardest day the climb over the Pennines. Setting off at 0900 we maintained a steady pace. This was certainly the hardest and slowest day but all that pre-training paid off. The last 10 miles over the Woodhead pass were by far the hardest cycling of the whole trail. Our support crews again worked very hard and met us every 10 – 15 miles with extra fluids, energy bars, and bananas. It was on this day that we met Peter Brocklehurst a volunteer on the Trans Pennine Trail, he spent time with our parents explaining the work that goes in to keeping the trail open. The last 10 mile really did take it out of us, the bonus was the down hill section into Dunford bridge a nice end to the day. We covered 40 miles on day 2.

Day 3
Penistone – Selby

We awoke to find as predicted the heavens had opened. Kitted up in our wet gear, we set off on what was going to be a very wet morning. Todays cycling was much easier predominantly downhill only problem being as the morning went on our brakes became less and less effective to a point where my mum just could not stop on a large downhill section and had a fall. A phone call to my dad was made asking for new brake blocks for all. Within an hour my dad met us and started to put new brake blocks on all the bikes. The rain had stopped by now and after a change of clothes we made our way to Selby total distance 60 miles.

Day 4
Selby – Hornsea

We woke up to a sunny but blustery morning, all rested and dry we set off on our final leg to the finish in Hornsea. By now we where recognising place names so we knew we where nearly home, we took it easy at the start as we knew we had a long way to ride, but as the Humber Bridge came in to sight I knew we would make it. We stopped by the bridge for a drink and banana and set off through Hull and on to Hornsea. We arrived in Hornsea at around 1600 to be met by our family and friends and a very sticky jam doughnut. It felt really great to think we had just cycled from one side of England to the other in Four days. I felt really proud of myself and my friends for completing it. Day four had been over 65 miles but I felt like I could do it all again.

I have added up my sponsor forms and we think we will have raised in total around £1500 towards out total. If anyone would like to donate anything to our cause, please send cheques made payable to “Grimsby & Cleethorpes District Scouts” to;

Moy House
2 Wisteria Drive
Healing
North East Lincolnshire
DN41 7JB

Thanks to all our supporters and sponsors especially our family and friends who’ve given up many hours to help us achieve our goal.

Callum Allen.