Challenged to make a difference

Posted by Tom & Bruno 03.11.2009

Summer interns

Diary

We left More London Place at 05:00 on Saturday morning, around about the same time the majority of people who were still up were heading home after the night before. Things were going brilliantly until we reached Bank tube station where it proved surprisingly difficult to find the A1. Nonetheless, the tactic of ‘let’s just head north’ prevailed and soon we were on the A1000 heading to St. Albans.



Two hours and 26 miles after setting off, we stopped for breakfast in St. Albans. We then powered through another 40 miles to Wellingborough where we stopped for a healthy McDonalds lunch to try and replace some energy.

Saturday afternoon was by far the hardest part of the journey. This was partly down to the 2 packs of Haribo, 10 Mars Bars and 4 Lucozades, which I got through during the course of the day giving extreme sugar highs and lows, but mainly due to a strong northerly wind and unrelenting, undulating hills which steadily got steeper the further north we went. Down one of the larger hills we managed to reach a top speed of 45 mph, momentarily breaking the speed limit however the excitement was soon lost to the realisation that whatever we go down we inevitably must cycle back up again. We eventually arrived in Nottingham at 20:00, had a curry and went to bed.

We were expecting Sunday to be much worse, however once we got past the initial aches and pains, the rest of the day was relatively easy. The wind had changed direction and although it did threaten to rain a few times, it was over before we had time to stop and put on jackets. This allowed us to relax and admire some of the gems of the north – Mansfield, Rotherham, Barnsley and Sheffield. We reached Leeds after a total of 20 hours cycling and a night’s stop-off in Nottingham at 18:00 and made our way to the Crypt which was unfortunately up yet another hill. After being greeted with a cup of tea and a warm meal, which was of surprisingly good quality, we spoke to several of the Crypt’s clients. What struck both of us was how happy and friendly they all were and they were extremely grateful for the kindness and charity provided by everyone at Hewitt.

So thank you again to everyone for your generous donations. We have raised nearly £2000 for the Crypt, double what we were aiming for.

Thanks again for your support,
Tom & Bruno (On behalf of the summer intern team, ‘Impact’) 

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