The Travelling Willberrys for Hannah's Willberry Wonder Pony Charity

15/07/2024

Yesterday was a very special day as Matt led the team over the finish line at Southfield House, Nunney, home of the Hannah Francis One Day Event.

In Hannah's memory we've completed the epic cycle challenge of taking Willberry on tour over 2 weeks, cycling an incredible distance from Badminton Estate (home of the Badminton Horse Trials) to Atholl Estates and Blair Castle (home of the Defender Blair Castle International Horse Trials), Burghley House (home of the Defender Burghley Horse Trials) and Blenheim Palace (home of the Blenheim Palace International Horse Trials) finishing at the Hannah Francis ODE, Nunney.

We faced challenging weather and some interesting cycle paths with various blockages, obstacles and even a couple that unexpectedly terminated next to busy dual carriageways forcing unplanned diversions.

It felt fantastic to be on the home straight to Nunney despite the route being anything other than straight, with some serious hills!

Matt showed incredible determination as he powered his bike with strength from one leg, following his osteosarcoma treatment which has left him with a prosthetic and limited mobility in his left leg.

We're so grateful for the fantastic welcome when we reached the Hannah Francis One Day Event, we were even greeted by sunshine!

It felt strange travelling by car to get home yesterday, with heightened hazard perception. We've learnt new vocabulary and might be calling out 'pothole', 'crater', 'car back , 'car front', 'tree', 'duck' in our sleep for a while!

The aim of this journey was to raise funds and awareness for Hannah's Willberry Wonder Pony charity which funds massively needed research into bone cancer to help make treatment more palatable and improve survival rates. The charity also grants wonderful Willberry Wishes to provide equestrian experiences for seriously ill people.
The fundraising link to support this fantastic charity is

https://www.justgiving.com/page/matthew-clark-travellingwillberrys

Thank you so much to everyone for your support on this journey! 🐴❤️

Love,

The Travelling Willberrys

14/07/2024

😍🚴🐴❤️

Guess who’s made it to the Hannah Francis One Day Event?!

An UNBELIEVABLE effort from Matt and The Travelling Willberrys for Hannah's Willberry Wonder Pony Charity to complete their epic adventure.

We will bring you a full round up soon, but for now it’s big congratulations to the team 👏🏻

We are so proud and humbled that you have cycled all those miles Han and with your help we will continue 💕

Support them here: https://bit.ly/3LldKT7

14/07/2024

The final stretch here we come🚴🚵‍♂️🚴

Some behind the scenes photos just for fun!

13/07/2024

The penultimate day and we were still pedalling hard on an undulating route.

We arrived at Blenheim Palace, home of Blenheim Palace International Horse Trials.

Another very special eventing venue.

A great day cycling with another 80+ miles on the clock, what a difference fair weather makes!

We had a good sprint on the final stretch to Swindon, warming up for the home straight tomorrow.

Thank you so much to everyone for your support.

It's not too late to make a donation to the amazing Hannah's Willberry Wonder Pony charity. Here is the fundraising link:

https://www.justgiving.com/page/matthew-clark-travellingwillberrys

🐴❤️





Photos at Blenheim by very kind permission of Blenheim Palace.

12/07/2024

Friday

Today we cycled from Grantham to Northampton stopping off at the beautiful Burghley House, home of Defender Burghley Horse Trials. Such a special place where Willberry and friends felt at home.

Even with the weather throwing everything at us with head wind, side winds, gusts and relentless rain, we've now cycled just shy of 900 miles with 39,000 ft. of elevation gain (for context Mount Everest is c.29,000 ft.).

1.5 days to go before Matt, Willberry and team are due to cross the finish line at the Hannah Francis One Day Event held at Southfield House, Nunney.

Photos at Burghley by kind permission of Burghley.

https://www.justgiving.com/page/matthew-clark-travellingwillberrys

Thank you so much to everyone for your support!

12/07/2024

A rare 5 minutes of sunshine!

Meanwhile, some of us are still pedalling hard 🚴🚴🚴

12/07/2024

Friday feeling...

Whizzing along this morning, avoiding the rain so far!

Had to make sure Martin got his coffee stop at the lovely Bythams Community Shop ! ☕☕

On our way to another special place 🐴

11/07/2024

Matt's Thursday video update below ⬇️

Unfortunately the weather took another turn for the worse this afternoon. More rain 😩🌧️🦆

The Travelling Willberrys for Hannah's Willberry Wonder Pony Charity have completed another full day cycling including extra miles for a detour to avoid the busy A1 🙈🚴🚴

Willberry is excited for tomorrow 😍 where are we heading?

11/07/2024

Oh no....cleats are worn out! 🚴🚴

10/07/2024

Wednesday

Matt and team were in good form, legs feeling fresher after the enforced break from cycling yesterday afternoon due to the torrential rain.🦆🌧️

Back on track with 80 miles completed today, from Darlington, through York finishing at Goole💪

Of course, with the occasional heavy rain shower but we're pretty used to that now. It was much warmer than yesterday's arctic temperatures 🥶 and whilst a bit humid it meant we could dry out on the move.

Photo of Willberry and team sheltering at a welcoming Parklands Cafe this morning.

In good spirits now 3/4 of the way on our epic journey!

Tomorrow on to Grantham (another 80 miles)...

For any new followers, here is the fundraising link:

https://www.justgiving.com/page/matthew-clark-travellingwillberrys

🚴🚴🚴🚴

Thank you so much for everyone's support which means a lot 🐴❤️

10/07/2024

Tuesday

The rain did not stop.

The team endured 100% constant downpours and determinedly persevered until by 2pm, with 36 miles on the clock, the cycling mission was aborted.

With every piece of waterproof clothing saturated, pools of water in our shoes, Matt and team were drenched and cold.

The cycle lanes and roads were flooded.
Whilst disappointed not to get the full miles in, safety had to come first.

An afternoon to chill then? Sadly not.

Next was the 'race across the world' style challenge with the team splitting up to take various means of alternative transport to get us to our overnight stop at Darlington. Thanks to Tony for stepping in to help transport our luggage!

Half the team stuck in traffic whilst others had a head start on the train, only to then to give the Uber driver the wrong hotel address. A close race but all arrived within minutes of one another!

It really made us realise how far we have been cycling each day as the journey still took a couple of hours by car & train.

The evening's entertainment included washing and drying in the local launderette then sharing stories from the trip with friends who have come to join us for the next stint.

The weather doesn't look too sure about what it's doing today with a mixed forecast ahead. Our waterproofs have been drying in an overnight drying room at the laundrette but let's hope it's a bit kinder than yesterday.

09/07/2024

Today.