I was hoping to blog daily but internet access was limited so I will now tell the story....
My day stated with last minute packing and making sure all the essentials were packed. At 2pm Mum and I departed for Portsmouth, a journey so familiar from when Tim was posted to HMS Illustrious. We arrived at about 3pm to a hive of activity at the Historic Dockyard. Hundreds of cyclists were registering in the boat yard and there was a sense of anticipation in the air.
My first taste of Discover Adventure (DA) was being handed a map (handy going by my track record) and tags to attach to my bike and bags. The main bag then went on the back of a truck not to be seen until Dieppe and the bike stored with hundreds of others in the shadow of HMS Victory.
After a few hours of milling around Portsmouth the riders all congregated for our first mass carb dinner of pasta, pasta, more pasta and bread.
Bryn Parry (founder of Help for Heroes) gave us a motivational speech and we were introduced to the people that would be on hand during the week, the DA staff, our ceremonial team made up of a trumpeter, bugler, piper and two guards who were officially on duty and would play at all the ceremonies. We also were introduced to the Help for Heroes staff and Battlefield guides.
We then went out to HMS Victory and in the shadow of one of the Royal Navy's most famous ships the Band of the Royal Marines played to us and the 2nd Sea Lord gave us a speech, the piper played as we all rode to the 2 miles to the ferry terminal - Portsmouth must have wondered what was going on....
More offical info here http://www.helpforheroes.org.uk/bbbr_2010.html
My day stated with last minute packing and making sure all the essentials were packed. At 2pm Mum and I departed for Portsmouth, a journey so familiar from when Tim was posted to HMS Illustrious. We arrived at about 3pm to a hive of activity at the Historic Dockyard. Hundreds of cyclists were registering in the boat yard and there was a sense of anticipation in the air.
My first taste of Discover Adventure (DA) was being handed a map (handy going by my track record) and tags to attach to my bike and bags. The main bag then went on the back of a truck not to be seen until Dieppe and the bike stored with hundreds of others in the shadow of HMS Victory.
After a few hours of milling around Portsmouth the riders all congregated for our first mass carb dinner of pasta, pasta, more pasta and bread.
Bryn Parry (founder of Help for Heroes) gave us a motivational speech and we were introduced to the people that would be on hand during the week, the DA staff, our ceremonial team made up of a trumpeter, bugler, piper and two guards who were officially on duty and would play at all the ceremonies. We also were introduced to the Help for Heroes staff and Battlefield guides.
We then went out to HMS Victory and in the shadow of one of the Royal Navy's most famous ships the Band of the Royal Marines played to us and the 2nd Sea Lord gave us a speech, the piper played as we all rode to the 2 miles to the ferry terminal - Portsmouth must have wondered what was going on....
More offical info here http://www.helpforheroes.org.uk/bbbr_2010.html
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