We love to see visitors arrive by bike. But Nicola Melville and her Mum, Katharine, deserved an even warmer than usual Bempton Cliffs’ welcome after pedalling 190 miles across the country to get to us.
They started out from our reserve at Leighton Moss five days ago and headed for the Way of the Roses cycle route on an epic bike ride to raise funds to support our work.
Nicola, who was once part of the RSPB Futurescape project team in Northern England, now lives in Stirling, Scotland. Before tackling the journey, she did plenty of training around Loch Venachar to make sure she could stay the distance:
‘It was tough at times but we just kept on pedalling’, she said. ‘We only had to get off and push once – the hill out of Settle beat us into submission’.
Other than facing massive inclines, getting on your bike is a way of fundraising that comes highly recommended by Nicola:
‘It slowed life right down giving us the chance to see all the amazing wildlife along the way. We had time to admire orchids and watch barn owls. We spotted curlews and lapwings while passing through the Yorkshire Dales and the seabirds once we arrived at the cliffs were spectacular’.
And while there are tired legs and slightly sore bottoms to contend with, a few aches and pains are a small price to pay. The RSPB is £400 pounds richer for their efforts. So a big thank you from us all.
If you’d like to add to the current total, you can via Nicola’s Just Giving page.
https://www.justgiving.com/Nicola-Melville1/