A pair of Londoners who are cycling the British coastline via every RNLI lifeboat station in Great Britain are about to undertake the next annual leg of their journey, in a fundraising effort which has already netted more than £30,000 for the charity.
Nick Pleydell-Bouverie and Rad Hart will set off from Oban in late May 2014 on the fifth leg of their 7,000km round-trip of the coastline in support of the lifesaving charity.
By the time the pair finish their seven stage trip, they intend to raise in excess of a whopping £40,000 for the RNLI; a charity which relies on voluntary contributions for its lifesaving work at sea and on the River Thames in London. Nick, who works as a surveyor for property firm Knight Frank, hatched the audacious plan three years ago, when he and friend Rad were thinking about how they could combine their desire to support the RNLI, with a physical challenge never done before.
The energetic duo started their trip in July 2010, when they took ten days off work and cycled from their homes in London, along the Thames Estuary, and around the coasts of Kent, Sussex, Hampshire and Dorset, before coming to an end in Devon. For this first leg - some 1,000km - they stopped in at 30 lifeboat stations and raised over £3,500 through donations along the way, and subsequent fundraising efforts.
In 2011 they continued where they left off, and cycled from Paignton in Devon, around the whole of Cornwall and Devon, and over the Severn Bridge into Wales. "That was another 950km," recalls Nick. "We visited 22 lifeboat stations and managed to raise over £7,500 through donations, fundraising events, and money generously donated by Knight Frank, who agreed to sponsor us for each leg of the tour."
In August 2012 the pair tackled the 1050km mile stretch around the whole of the Welsh coast, cycling from Newport in the south to Chester in the North. The duo battled storms and driving rain, and localised flooding, and managed to push their total funds raised to over £21,500 in the process, thanks in part to a very generous donation by Rackspace Cloud Hosting.
In August 2013 the pair undertook the fourth leg of their expedition, covering approximately 1,150km from Chester to Oban in Scotland via the Hebrides visiting 20 lifeboat stations along the route. This leg took them from the bright lights of Blackpool and Liverpool to the remote and windswept Hebridean Islands of Jura and Isla.
Now on their fifth leg, the pair will head north from Oban, around the north coast of Scotland, and down the east coast to Inverness, taking in the Outer Hebrides and Orkney Islands along the way.
It's not all pretty views and curries with the crews, though. The pair have faced numerous uphill climbs over 25% gradient, taken on the wettest regions during the wettest Summer on record, inadvertently bumped into local criminals, been lost in forests, chased by bees and regularly got their collection buckets out on crowded beaches. The entire tour is unsupported, in that the pair are carrying all their equipment, clothing, bedding, fundraising kit, water, food, tools and spares with them - with no support crew whatsoever.
The cyclists are determined to break the £40,000 target mark and will continue their circumnavigation by bike, with more legs over the next three years before returning to London from where they set off. OnYerBikeSeat has produced a commemorative jersey for the 2014 leg of Nick and Rad's challenge, and the duo are keen to get in touch with anyone who might be able to lend their support. Nick said:
"My employers, Knight Frank, are very kindly donating for each leg we complete. In addition Rackspace Cloud Hosting have also recently donated a substantial sum towards our fundraising efforts. However, we see corporate sponsorship as a principal source of fundraising and would love to see our tops, panniers and bikes branded with another sponsors' logos and messaging. So if there are any companies or organisations out there that are interested in us advertising them on our journey, we'd love to hear from you."
The pair's RNLI Tour Of Britain has its own website which is updated daily during the expeditions, in addition to their Facebook and Twitter pages.
Tony Vlasto, Chairman of the RNLI City of London Committee, said he is immensely proud and pleased with the efforts of Nick and Rad. He said: "My brother works for the RNLI, and both he and I are keen cyclists, so the boys' fundraising attempt is one that is really close to my heart. The entire committee are rooting for them and we are wholeheartedly grateful for their tireless, on-going efforts to support the RNLI charity."
Bianca Fischer, Fundraising and Communications Manager at the RNLI, said: "It is incredibly admirable what these two guys are doing. A challenge of this scale is not often seen in the RNLI and to have two such passionate and enthusiastic individuals fundraising for us is an absolute pleasure. I really look forward to congratulating them on the completion of their event and wish them the best of luck for their next leg of the tour next summer."
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