Karen Evans’ coast to coast cycle ride had its ups and its downs, but ended in triumph with £2,500 raised for charity.
Over three days, she and friend Judith Nickols rode from Whitehaven to Tynemouth in weather conditions ranging from bright sunshine to heavy rain and with the occasional hailstorm along the hilly route.
Karen told the Stray Ferret:
“The first day’s weather was gorgeous and we thought it was a breeze, but the second and third days were very challenging and I’m just pleased that we got through it because of the training we had put in.”
In addition to the hilly terrain, road closures and diversions added 17 miles to a journey that should have been 137 miles.
Home and dry – Karen Evans
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There were other mishaps – as Karen pointed out:
“Judith and I had planned to have lunch at the top of the Hartside Pass but when we got there we discovered that the cafe we were planning to go to had burnt down.
“However, our spirits were lifted when we discovered that friends from All Saints, John and Jane Buckley and Joy and Nevill Rice, had waited there for hours in the pouring rain to cheer us on and give us a slice of cake.”
Karen, who lives near Fountains Abbey, announced her charity challenge after the Ripley Scarecrow Pigfest, which she has organised for 20 years, had to be cancelled.
The annual August Bank Holiday festival has, in previous years, raised money for the All Saints Ripley fabric fund and she was determined that the loss of the fundraiser would not prevent a donation being made this year.
In addition to the money raised for the village church where she worships, a donation will also be made to the Sir Robert Ogden Macmillan Centre at Harrogate District Hospital.
For Karen and Judith, there was a little help on the steeper sections of their fundraising journey, as they had electrically-powered bicycles, though on occasions the batteries were perilously close to running out of charge.
