It’s been an amaze balls few months for members of the Team Honk Relay – and I’m mighty proud to call myself a team member, covering just over 200 miles of the relay journey with my partner in madness Helen and as part of team Birmingham. A small but significant part of the incredible journey made by UK bloggers from Lands end to John O’Groats since January.
You can read about the whole amazing adventure here, but this is my little part – one that didn’t feel so little when I cycled ten miles. (Six of which were agony as I’d not realised my seat was so low it was like trying to ride a kids bike! One of Helen’s lovely friends spotted my error and giggling away we changed the seat – what a difference!)
So my part began driving to Cannock (after filling up my car, Daisy Juke looking very silly) to pick up the Baton from the lovely Emma with Helen, who cracked us all up with her tash and afro wig.
We stood in the rain, in a pub car park laughing and not talking much. Helen and I were in onesies – goodness knows what passers by thought! The funniest thing that’ll stick in my mind was watching Emma drive away – wig and tash STILL on, even though she’d done her part in the relay. So funny!
That evening saw Helen raise more funds for Sport Relief in the local pub selling her awesome cakes. I’d missed it last minute as had to rush to hospital with Oz. Despite getting home late with him – I was up early and ready to honk my way round 10 miles of hilly country lanes with some rather lovely folk from Hixon.
Who said cycling was easy? They lied. My bum hurt, my legs hurt, and my gosh, if 10 miles makes your ahem-ya-know hurt, well, poor Davina must have been in agony!
We cycled to Stafford Fire station, where I’d managed to get the lovely Staffordshire fire and Rescue to agree to let us slide down the fire pole. A real Bridget jones moment – it was terrifying but so much fun! The Fire service lovelies were incredibly lovely, and let us pose for pics with their shiny engine. oooh err.
As we cycled off they got a call out – driving passed us they honked in true Team honk style, and we nearly fell off our bikes!
I’d asked a lovely Zumba friend (Sarah) if she could gather her Zumbabes for a Zumba flashmob to greet us at the station which she did! It was so much fun and ended up on YouTube after being filmed by several folks passing by!
The lovely Fiona at Virgin trains gave us permission to sell more cakes at the station and on the train too, she even provided us with first class tickets as part of our journey. What a star!
First class meant we managed to sell cakes to the director of liverpool football club! We didn’t know at the time it was him – but the (very) tipsy LFC fans let us know as we made our way through the carriages! (My husband is a huge fan and was gutted I’d not taken a pic!) The Liverpool fans were amazing – they donated so much, even when we’d ran out of cakes they still put their money into our collection bucket. Truly lovely.
We arrived at Nuneaton for more cake selling (I’d got us a letter of permission to sell cakes there AND another ticket to travel which was fab only we’d ran out of cakes!) The London midland staff were gutted as were waiting for cakes and had followed our journey on Twitter!
We had time for a quick pint and a little sunbathe, before heading on the Cross country train to Peterborough.
We’d not got travel tickets for this part of our journey, despite lots of emails and tweets, but the ticket inspector let us ride for free. (The return journey guard wasn’t so friendly, so we had to pay, but my husbands company Stone Junction offered to pay the fare! hoe lovely is that?)
We arrived in Peterborough to an awesome welcome! It was really emotional, and we were ready for a rest and a drink so we headed to Nando’s for chatting, food and beer!
After lunch and saying goodbye, we had to repeat the whole journey home – we were really tired but it didn’t stop us giggling away (yes Helen has got a banana down her pants) and feeling proud of the amount we had raised online, on the day and through shouting at passers by to text donate to team Honk.
I feel incredibly proud to have been a part of an amazing journey, to have travelled so far with lovely bloggers and friends, and to have contributed to the totally amazing total that today, the day before the official Sports relief day, stands at a staggering £24,621! That’s almost £5,000 over our original target!
So tomoorow, when you are watching Sport Relief, and all the amazing work involved, and all the amazing things ordinary people have done, why not pop a pound or two into our fund? We’d love to reach £25,000 by the end of tomorrow!
To donate to Team Honk and help us reach our new target, you can do so here. I’d really appreciate it – even a quidling will help!
Thank you to all who sponsored us, donated money, cakes, and travel tickets, but most of all, thank you to the Team honk ladies for letting us be a part of something amaze balls.
Honk honk!
March 20, 2014
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