Note: Please do not post in this thread and keep it as a Summary of the Great Event - Thank You!
Lets see if we can come together and raise a bit of money for the Osprey Centre.
I am making an appeal to all of you Osprey lovers. I have read that the LG community is over 600 strong, lets say that there are 150/200 active posters or lurkers.. if everyone donated say £10. I'd imagine that the centre would be able to put £1500/£2000 to very good use.
On the 23rd April I will be setting off from Loch Garten on my bike, just me my gear and my bike no support or following vehicle, and on the Sunday after that is the 29th April I will roll into Rutland Water.(possibly right into Rutland Water..lol). I'm still putting finishing touches to my route and will post it as soon as it is done.
So come on folks, as a well known supermarket would say "every little helps".
Here is the Link to the Just Giving Page I have set up..
Black Jaguars Charity Cycle
Hi everyone..
Here's a wee summary of my route..
Day 1.23/4... Early train from Glasgow Queen Street. 07:06 arriving Aviemore 09:47. Cycle to Loch Garten. I hope to be at LG around 10:30. If, as I hope, some of you manage to be at the start that would be brilliant and a wee chat with you then off at 11:00. Destination, Pitlochry. a distance of around 65 miles.
Day 2.24/4... Pitlochry, via Vane Farm, Loch Leven and The Forth Bridge to Edinburgh approx. 90 miles.
Day 3.25/4... Edinburgh, over the border to Alnwick.. approx 85 miles.
Day 4.26/4... Alnwick, into North Yorkshire to Osmotherly. I think this will be a tough day another 90 miles approx.
Day 5.27/4... Osmotherly to Hull. approx 75 miles.
Day 6.28/4... Hull via The Humber Bridge to Boston, the terrain should be flattening out here so I hope to make good time.. 85 miles approx.
Day 7.29/4... Boston to Rutland Water. 40 miles approx Here the Challenge ends and I can relax. I still have 20 ish miles to Peterborough. Then for fun and to visit relatives and maybe meet up with Sugar, I'm off to Norwich on the Monday 30/4.. approx 80 miles.
3rd of May Train back to Glasgow from Norwich and cycle home.. back to work on the 5th...
All for one and one for all
Just Giving... Charity Cycle Donate here.... please :-)
EJ's Memorial Balgavies Loch Ospreys 2023
SUNDAY 29TH APRIL CONTINUED....
Posted by HBOMB
on 29 Apr 2012 3:50 PM
Well done. Good to know you made it there safely. Great amount of money that you
have raised. Hope the weather gets better soon and we will hear from you when you
are at Norwich. We are all very proud of you. Mum, Avz and H :) xx
glad you are there at last brian I nearly called you B JAG myself love mum x
Posted by black jaguar
on 29 Apr 2012 6:28 PM
Hello every one... h mum & sis... Thank you.
I'm now safely deposited at my hotel thanks to Zara, ChloeB's friend.
Thank you to the staff at Rutland, and the welcoming party for the gifts.
Thank you all.. Every single one of you than has donated.. You have been an insperation to me.
I shall have a shower and post of the events of the past couple of days soon.
on 29 Apr 2012 7:10 PM
Hello folks..
Well you all know of the spooky night in Osmotherly... Seems so long ago now.
I blasted Friday, a dry day with the wind pretty much at my back.. Arrived Hull in good time to have a nice evening, relaxing and chatting.
So up around 8 on Saturday morning.. The arrangement to meet Sunshine on the north side of the Humber bridge.. What a star that fellow is.. Gifts galore, my friend I have made good use of those. Well most of them. Then over the bridge to meet NiteOwl & mr NiteOwl. I've yet to see "black jaguar" the movie but will get back and have a look..
We all spent a bit of time chatting and having breakfast then it was time to be on my way.
Now anyone that says the terrain to the south of the Humber is flat is having you on.. The linconshire wolds... Go up and down like an elevator.. For mile after mile I climbed and dropped.. Until with no warning.. An alien landscape.. Flat for as far as I could see, in any direction.. Downside.. Crazy cross wind.. After miles of flat.. Boston came in sight.. I had booked a B&B in Freiston Shore... This is also an RSPB reserve. Sadly though I never had a chance to go and see it. By the time I got there I was about wiped out.
I've lost count of which part this is... Lol
on 29 Apr 2012 8:06 PM
Hi again folks... Once again I am astounded... SheilaFE.. Thank you so much.. Words fail me...
Ok folks.. The tale of last night and today...
Plumbers Place.. B&B.. Comfortable.. But the free wifi disappeared, Mike called me on their land line, the land lady gave me a walkabout phone and then she too disappeared.. As I knew the weather was going to be bad I asked for an early breakfast, this proved to be difficult.. Would I stay again? Nah.
So on the road at back of nine.. The wind and rain were terrible.. I had to go into it for a short while to reach the main road, even going down the gears I was almost blown to a standstill.. How happy I was to find that it was at my back when I eventually got going.
Blasted along the A16 Spalding. Stopped at McDs to post and the looks on the customers faces was priceless.. You would have thought a spaceman had walked in.. Lol
I said ETA Lyndon reserve 14:00/30..
Back on the road, market deeping, and Stamford, then on to Rutland water.. Rolled down the hill to Lyndon at 14:10.
Soaking wet, my waterproofs have given up.. But the welcome party was brilliant.. Tim and his staff were fantastic and to meet the famous Tiger, ChloeB, her friend Zara, and Mr & Mrs Ruthie was just great.. We adjourned to the horse & Jockey for a chat and a few drinks.. Zara gave me a lift to the hotel..thank you so much, and that was it.. All over..
Well not quite..
I have just one more thing to say...
Every single one of you.. THANK YOU.. I have enjoyed this adventure, more than any other to date.. You have all been amazing, Mary& Tom at Loch Leven.. Sunshine and his signs and bottles and other gifts, the niteowls, making "Black Jaguar the movie" the welcome at Rutland.. AND all others that have posted, read and followed, worried, laughed and cried with and at me.. THANK YOU...
You have all inspired me..
Brian. Black Jaguar
on 29 Apr 2012 8:18 PM
Tonight my friend... I am in the Queensgate Hotel in Peterborough.. The reception has strict instructions to let only those that can massage dodgy knees to get to my room... Lol
A wee bonus Slide Show from NiteOwl - Thank you so much its lovely.
Well a bit belated I would like to give an account of Jag's arrival at Rutland yesterday.
ChloeB, a long standing friend and myself arrived at the Lyndon Centre, Rutland Water at around 11.30am. It was pouring with rain and the osprey incubating in the nest (Mrs 5R I think), on the screen in the centre, looked a bit uncomforfortable.
Rutland have a nice selection of osprey cards and poscards. I think it would be good if Loch Garten produced similar for their birds.
The word was that we could not expect Jag to arrive until about 1.30pm and this later slipped to 2 pm.
We decided to retire to the Horse and Jockey for Lunch. That was very pleasant.
We got back to the Centre about 1.30 pm and looked around to see if there were any other posters waiting. We found a pair of likely suspects the Ruties.
It is always nice to meet fellow posters.
We stood around chatting at about various things. by now the estimated time of arrival for Jag had slipped to about 2.30 pm.
Then at 2.05 pm a real surprise, Jag walked through the door. It was so unexpected that people did not seem to react immediately. Then everyone realised that the great moment had arrived and Jag had safely finished his marathon cycle ride from Loch Garten to Rutland Water.
Jag was congratulated by everyone Rutland Staff and supporters alike.
Rutland staff then presented Jag with a Rutland Water T-shirt which he put on and then had a group photograph.
At about 3 pm we all decamped to The Horse and Jockey where we all had a drink. I discovered that Jag is a cider drinker just like me.
We sat around discussing a variety of topics but feeling very pleased to be part of such an historic moment.
Our friend offered to take Jag and his bike to Peterborough. That meant that ChloeB and myself were left behind to wait for our friend's return to take us back to Peterborough too.
A truly wonderful event.
The is one of Ruthie's photo's she took at Rutland Water showing the live screen behind Brian and the set up. So kind of the Rutland Team to give him such a nice welcome, and a Rutland shirt also....
MaryGK - unfortunately the photos I took didn't turn out very well but there is one that I will post. It's not too bad and does show the centre up quite well with the live stream of the nest behind BJ. You can also see his footprints which I think shows just how wet he was! I'm glad the RW staff photos were good so you have them at least.
I shall have to have some lessons in photography from Brian!
Hi all... I'm tucked up in bed and thought I'd catch up with all that has been going on since yesterday...
Firstly... Once again and I will never ever apologise for or tire of saying this... Thank you.. One and all.. We burst £2K... Every time I think of that I get a wee bit emotional.
ShielaFE.. You deserve a little special mention.. And a special Black Jag X.
Now as to the money... I am going to email Mr Richard.. I want a little chat with him about what his intentions are... I think he owes us all at least that. I know that before a wheel was turned John Ingham posted on the Blog that the money was to be used for ongoing cost of data down loading..... Not good enough for me now.. Had we raised say £500 then ok.. But all of you great people have given LOCH GARTEN a fantastic windfall.. So with your permission I would like to see a more tangible outcome.
Jag
Sorry only just posting but I didn't get time to come online much while I was away in P/borough. Drove back home yesterday afternoon and after unpacking, having a few cuppas and something to eat felt a bit tired. Thought I would have a couple of hours and ended up sleeping right through to this morning :) LOL and I hadn't done a charity bike ride!
It was really fantastic being there to meet Jag with Tiger and Zara and great to meet Ruthie and her husband. Sorry there are no pics of me, Tiger or Zara but we have always preferred to maintain anonymity on the net.
Jag's face was wet with more than the rain that had bucketed down on him all morning. Being the humble and emotional man that he is, was very touched by the whole thing.
As Tiger and Ruthie have already said, the RW team made us all very welcome with mugs of tea and coffee all round. They gave Jag a lovely RW T-shirt and it would have been so nice to be able to say that RSPB did the same....but where were you RSPB? Where were you along the route? Where were you at the end?
Jag, you cycled all that way in atrocious weather for the main part, raising a real chunk of money for LG. I couldn't agree more that you should have a say in how the cash is spent. I am certainly behind you as I am sure is everyone on this board.
Hi to Jag's Mum and family, you are rightly proud of him and so are we! :)
Hi folks.. HBOMB.. Lol that is brilliant. I will pss on that message to your wee brother.
NOW FOLKS I HAVE HAD An EMAIL FORM RSPB HQ SCOTLAND.
I have copied it and pasted it to here for every one to see along with my reply.
Hello Katherine...
Thank you for your message. I'm feeling great and I enjoyed every minute of the cycle...
There was some terrible weather as you may have seen, Yorkshire in particular had an unprecedented amount of rain just as I was going through.
I don't know if you read the RSPB community blogs or threads, however, may I direct you to the Loch Garten community blogs.. Here you will find a summary thread, started by MaryGk, which has all of my posts, maps that have been put on, pictures and even a video with a little question and answer session at the Humber bridge..
Now... Here is a wee grumble.. I feel that the RSPB have not really embraced this little venture, perhaps it is too small, perhaps it seems insignificant in the big scheme of RSPB funds.. But.. Over 100 donations have taken the funds given to LOCH GARTEN.. Way over £2000.. That IS amazing. My finishing point was at Rutland Water.. Not too far really from RSPB.. HQ. I arrived at RUTLAND to a fantastic welcome, from fellow osprey lovers, I MIGHT ADD THAT THESE GREAT PEOPLE HAVE NEVER MET ME AND CAME OUT TO WELCOME ME IN, IN ATROCIOUS WEATHER CONDITIONS and from RUTLAND STAFF. Instantly I was given a RUTLAND OSPREYS shirt to put on and within an hour or so they had pictures on their blog. Could the RSPB have sent or asked someone to come along and represent the organisation?
Now a grumble about Loch Garten.. In particular the manager Richard Thaxton..
I visited LG, three weeks to the day, before I set off. I had a little chat then with Mr Thaxton.. At best is reaction was lukewarm. It stayed that way.. I called at least twice to have a chat with him about how any funds raised could be used.. Eventually he called me back, by this time I had, had posters asking about how their money was going to be spent. I asked Mr Thaxton if he would post on the RSPB LOCH GARTEN BLOG, or on the SPONSORED CYCLE THREAD, what may be done with £500 or if we managed to raise £1000, or more then what use could that be put to. Mr Thaxton agreed to do this. Well, the next thing I knew, John Ingham had posted that any money would be going to the ongoing costs of tracking data downloading... This is and was a big surprise and disappointment to me and to some others.. Now that the sum has gone into £2K plus I feel that something more tangible, and with some imagination could in turn generate more money, could be done.
Feel free to look at the blogs posts and summary thread.. There is a wealth of information there.
If you would like to chat about the contents of this reply..
Please call me
07841261411.
Your assistance in getting the just giving page set up is greatly appreciated.
Thank you once again,
Brian (Black Jaguar)
P.S. Having chatted with a few of the donators/sponsors.. I know some are seriously thinking of giving up their membership of the RSPB.
On 1 May 2012, at 12:12, "Sellar, Katherine" <Katherine.Sellar@rspb.org.uk> wrote:
Hi Brian,
How did your incredible bike ride go? Hope you are not feeling too sore and that you managed to enjoy yourself. It is absolutely amazing what you have done and fantastic that your challenge raised over £2,000 for the RSPB – CONGRATULATIONS! I know Loch Garten will want to get in touch and thank you directly but I just wanted to send a wee note to say thanks too. We want to put something up on our facebook and twitter in the next couple of days to say thank you – do you have any pictures you would be happy for us to use?
Thank you again for your massive effort and the fundraising you have done for the RSPB,
Katherine
Katherine Sellar
Community Fundraising Manager
RSPB Scotland Headquarters
2 Lochside View
Edinburgh Park
Edinburgh
EH12 9DH
Tel: 0131 317 4178
Mob: 07958 073049
Fax: 01767 685 008
Here folks is the reply from Katherine Sellar..
Once again confirming that LG will benefit directly from your wonderful donations....
Thank you for your email – I am so glad that you enjoyed the cycle despite the weather!
We really appreciate you taking on such an immense challenge to raise money for the RSPB – it is an absolutely fantastic amount of money to have been raised and it will make a difference at Loch Garten. Richard is on leave this week and I think it would be best if he spoke to you directly about your concerns – sorry I can’t be of more help at the moment but I will pass on your concerns to Richard when he returns from leave.
Thanks again for your support,
A big well done and huge thank you to black jaguar! Well cycled Sir.
All: thanks for flagging up your concerns, we have forwarded this thread to Richard and hope to have a response once he has returned from his leave. Thanks for your patience in the meantime.
Claire