The Long Way Round

It was a lovely, peaceful day, the sun was shining, the birds were tweeting, there was hardly any wind. This was the 30th of June and this was the day the chalk family decided to have a day at Bedgebury. This was the day that two members of the chalk family would take the long way round.

I was helping my dad get the bikes ready for our day at Bedgebury.  It was the thirtieth of June and my dad and I were preparing for a long bike ride to Bedgebury. I helped both my mum and my dad prepare food to eat and repair our bikes. Finally, a little later than we had first anticipated, we were ready to go.

After loading my two siblings into the car and strapping my mum's bike to the boot, my brother's trike to the roof and stuffing my sister's bike in the back of the car they were ready to go. 

My dad did last-minute checks on both our bikes and then we waved goodbye to the other three before beginning our journey.

The first place our route took us was down an incredibly steep hill and through Alexandra Park. We ended up cycling up a rather small but (what felt like a) VERY steep hill. 

Soon we got our breath back and headed up the hill in front of us, passing my friend's house before cycling up a slight incline. I felt determined.

On the other side on the hill, however, I was not sure I could go on much longer. We stopped and had a little break.

Feeling refreshed and once more determined, we continued our long ride. We turned right at a junction and began to cycle with cars by our side.

I began to tire and struggled to hold my bike in a straight line. That was when my dad decided that I stick to the yellow line. I followed the yellow line for several kilometres until it ran out. I started wobbling again. My dad told me to imagine the yellow line and I did. The going got easier and I stopped wobbling and started concentrating more on my imaginary double yellow line.

With cars constantly over-taking me it became a noisy place. Images of me or my dad being run over flashed through my mind. A while had passed since I had last heard my dad. I called to him. No reply. I called again. Still no reply. I yelled as loudly as possible. Thank goodness! He heard me and replied.

We were approaching a hill. I cycled up it with my gears at 1 2. I soon switched down to 1 1. The hill seemed to go on forever but I managed to get up it in the end. I switched my gears up to 2 3. In the past fifteen minutes our journey had gone from seeming easy to seemingly IMPOSSIBLE!

The next hour or so was spent tackling hills and conquering slopes. Some of the hills we went over were steep, some were VERY steep and others were INCREDIBLY steep - we hadn't even gotten to the worst ones yet! About fifteen minutes later I received the shock of my life - I'll never look at a slope in the same way...

After fighting my way up a steep hill I realised that I was willing the slope to come faster. We reached the top and I flew down it with my gears set at 3 4. A car came past us but it was driven by a nice person who gave us the space we needed. A few minutes later the road was clear and I sped up so my gears were on 3 5. Another few cars came past us but I paid them no notice; I was fine and they were fine - that was all I needed to know. But then, when the road was clear, disaster struck. I switched my gears up to their highest: 3 6 and sped away from my dad. But because I was going so fast I couldn't control my bike! It began, slowly at first, then faster and faster, edging it's way into the middle of the road. I was terrified in case a car might come hurtling round a corner, too fast to stop... I acted from instinct, turning my gears down as low as possible, pedaling like crazy to the side before switching my gears up again to 2 3.

A whole hour-and-a-half later and I felt ready to collapse. We began cycling up a huge hill but turned off into a side-bit one-third up. We sat down on some benches and ate a ham roll each. We were at the Sedlescombe Village Green... finally!

Soon we began our tiring journey - not even halfway there! It took forever, but eventually we conquered that hill too. We had to get off our bikes and walk for half of it! We had a break at the top before beginning again. We cycled all the way along the road on the left. That was where a lot of the people in cars decided they would ignore us and drive past us as if we weren't there. On several occasions we had to swerve to avoid being hit. We cycled up ANOTHER hill and started a steep descent. I was more careful this time and instead of racing ahead at 3 6 like last time I stuck to 2 3 and braked every time I felt I was going too fast. At the bottom my mum rang, trying to find out how we were doing. My dad replied fine and I watched, wishing he would ask her to pick us up.

We had a break and my dad told me we were almost there - about ten miles or so to go. I sighed with both relief and disappointment; what I'd have given to be at home on my computer at that moment. Feeling like I'd never make it, we began to cycle again.

Another hour passed and, after a call from my mum, we had a short break then continued. We rode up a small hill and I practically screamed in frustration - another hill! But this one was the worst one. It was a small hill, then a steep hill, then another small hill then ANOTHER STEEP HILL!!!

It took us about half-an-hour but finally we made it. I begged for a break and my dad immediately agreed. We began again, a little slower this time. That was when my dad gave me some good news: we were about five miles away!

Three miles later and we encountered the route that would take us the other two miles. We were so close. I felt new strength flood through my arms and legs; a little bit further!

There it was; three-and-a-half hours cycling had brought us to Bedgebury. We had gotten off of our bikes and we were wheeling them along the pavement when another catastrophe occurred: we were walking downhill and I struggled to keep hold of my bike. We started walking along a flat pavement but it wasn't completely flat. It was slanted side-ways - I struggled to keep my bike from dragging me into the road. Then I tripped over my back-wheel and my left pedal took a chunk out of my ankle. I had already been patched up that day because my brake-cable had been cut off, leaving a little stump of sharp wire which had cut my legs several times.

I was patched up and we continued; me sobbing quietly all the way there. Then we mounted our bikes, for the last time that day, and set off again. Heading towards the car park. Through the trees, up a hill, up another hill, down a slope and then...

THANK GOD!!! The car-park. What a sight for sore eyes. We cycled past the bike racks, past the rocks and HEY PRESTO! We sat down, ate some crisps and our doughnuts and waited... and waited... and waited some more...

AH! Finally! They're here! My mum, my brother and my sister too! Uh oh! My mum didn't look very pleased. So while I bought my dad and myself ice-creams my mum told my dad all about her bad day with my siblings. While I licked my ice-cream, I texted all my friends and boasted (a little tiny bit) about the fact that I had just cycled TWENTY MILES!!!

Time to go. We all piled into the car, my mum took a photo of my dad and I, after the bikes were securely fixed onto the car - all five this time - then off we went, home.

And that was what happened.

(Sorry if I got some of the details wrong, I can't remember it that well!)

Prudential RideLondon FreeCycle

Next Saturday (3rd August) an estimated 70,000 cyclists of all ages and abilities are descending on London for a day of cycling around the capital. An eight-mile traffic-free course loops around some of the most famous landmarks in the world, and offers a host of bike-related events and activities for everyone to enjoy. We will be joining the fun as a family and supporting our son, James, to cycle the whole course to raise money for CDH UK, a charity that helps support people suffering from CDH (Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia), a condition that affects 1 in 2,500 children at birth.

James was born with CDH, which in his case meant that a hole in his diaphragm had allowed his kidney to grow larger than normal and to move up into his chest, preventing his left lung from inflating. While the hernia was corrected by surgery at Great Ormond Street hospital when he was just 18 days old, James continues to experience a wide variety of issues commonly found in CDH survivors. One in particular, dyspraxia, means that James finds it difficult to peddle, steer and balance a bike, something that greatly upset him as he watched Chloe, his older sister, make the transition from trike to bike with stabilisers, to riding unassisted - a feat he was never able to match. Caroline and I, both keen cyclists, started investigating what options existed to allow James to experience the freedom that cycling offers, but found that the only suggestions were ungainly three-wheelers that looked more like bath-chairs than bicycles! Eventually we stumbled across a small company in Portsmouth, KMX Karts, that made cool-looking recumbent trikes (a recumbent is a bike where you sit very low down with the pedals out in front, rather than below you). Last year we were heading off to the Isle of Wight for a camping holiday and as we were sailing from Portsmouth it seemed the perfect opportunity to try James out on a KMX trike. I rang the company and explained the situation and they couldn't have been more understanding or helpful, and so it was that a few days later we found ourselves at an industrial unit on the outskirts of Portsmouth with an array of KMX karts for James (and Chloe, and even me!) to try out.

As you can probably guess from the picture above, James took to a KMX trike like a duck to water, even managing to topple one over and bash himself up a bit - at precisely the time Yvonne from KMX was telling us how safe a recumbent trike was! That incident to one side, and several lessons in how not to turn it over but perform wicked skids instead, James was sold and so were we. Sadly a full car meant we couldn't take away a trike there and then, despite James' eagerness to do so, but when we got back from holiday one arrived promptly and after some quick assembly, James was up and running on his own trike.

While this story has a happy ending, sadly it's not as clear cut as one would hope. Although James enjoys riding his trike, and the cool factor makes up for it being different, he still experiences problems commonly found in CDHers, which makes a lot of things just that bit more difficult for him than for either of his two sisters, and it is these problems and the need to understand them better that has led us to try and raise some money for CDH UK, to help fund research into both the causes of CDH and the many related conditions that affect those born with it.

If after reading this you would like to help support our cause, you can do so by donating at My Charity Page.

Thank you.