Sophie Rooney - Swiftly Scootering from Chepstow to St Just.
As I sat and swirled my second coffee of the morning around an almost empty cup, I chanced a look up and out of the window, hoping that the rain outside was slowing. Huge smears on the window and the occasional flash of colour as a pedestrian ran past told me that the rain was actually getting heavier, not what I wanted to see but also not a big problem for me just yet. I still had an hour of waiting to go and it couldn’t possibly keep raining like this for long.
Me running in Scotland
I returned to the tiny screen in front of me, eager to finish this Facebook post before Claire arrived. I was eight stages through a multi-discipline John O’Groats to Land’s End challenge and I was just uploading details and photos from the previous stage, running from Prestatyn to Sedbury along Offa’s Dyke National Trail. I had finished the trail the previous evening with Nikki Love (the lady who ran 63 marathons in 63 days) and had now been left alone to meet with my new travel companion. A complete stranger who had enthusiastically volunteered herself to join me for part nine of my journey – scooting from Chepstow to St Just in Cornwall on the SayYesMore pair of Swifty Scooters. 230 miles no less, across (what I was about to find out were) some seriously hilly parts of the country.
Claire and I had arranged to meet in this coffee shop and as I had no idea who she was or what she looked like, I figured it was best to sit still and drink lots of coffee whilst I waited. I may have had a humongous slice of cake too, just to be polite.
Around an hour later a smiling lady rushed into the café followed closely by her other half. Somehow, I knew this was them and they recognised me too, though after three weeks of being on the road this was probably less surprising. The smell of my kit was more than likely what gave me away. We had a brief chat (over yet another coffee) and we talked about the fact that our scooter experience was very limited and we had no idea how hard this would be, and then decided it was time to head off, despite the fact that somehow the rain was now stronger than ever. We had an aim to cover around 30 miles a day and it was already approaching lunch time. We couldn’t wait for the rain to stop – it was time to find out just what we had gotten ourselves in for.
With our waterproofs on and our kit safely inside the support car, we each grabbed a scooter and got on our way. Cruising through huge raindrops and knowing that I would be wet through within ten minutes I couldn’t help but feel elated. Here I was riding a beautifully crafted bit of kit (thanks to Swifty Scooters!), in a town I had never visited before, with a lady who had volunteered herself to join me on this unknown journey, after running 185 miles the past seven days and travelling to this point from the northern tip of Scotland, grinning from ear to ear.
Tortoise and Hare - the SayYesMore Swifty Scooters
To most people I must have seemed mad. But to me, I was enjoying that sweet taste of adventure. From this point on and for the next seven days I was to enjoy riding the Swifty on the road, on trails, down grassy footpaths, through overgrown ferns, over moors, along the coast and finally into my final handover town, St Just.
Me and Alan the Labradoodle made it to Land's End
Claire and I scooted together for three days – and I finished off the last five on my own – missing her positivity and that infectious grin. But the biggest grin of all belonged to me when I reached St Just on that final evening having scootered 210 miles over the past week – proving that even if people had told me I couldn’t, sticking to what I believed in (in this instance that scootering 30 miles a day is perfectly possible) paid off in the end.
All I had ahead of me now was a 7-mile dog walk to Land’s End.
Here are the daily distances covered on the Swifty Scooters:
Day One – Chepstow to Bristol (20 Miles)
Day Two – Bristol to Crickham – over the Mendip Hills (20 Miles)
Day Three – Crickham to Thurloxton – over the Quantock Hills (25 Miles)
Day Four – Thurloxton to West Middlewick Farm (Nr Tavistock) (38 Miles)
Day Five – WMF to Lydford – skirting Dartmoor on a beautiful trail (30 Miles)
Day Six – Lydford to Bodmin – with awesome support crew but into Cornwall so SUPER hilly (35 Miles)
Day Seven – Bodmin to Truro – with interesting off-road sections (30 Miles)
Day Eight – Truro to St Just – with RAGING headwind and a coastal soaking (33 Miles)
Keep up to date with Sophie via Facebook or Instagram. If you’ve been inspired to take on your own adventure and would like to borrow the SayYesMore Swifty Scooters or Ice Trikes then click here to find out more!