In a great show of support for their fellow colleagues, the Leeds team passed on their slightly sweaty Kier Foundation tshirts to the Manchester team to make them look the part!
“The Bear arrived in a somewhat befuddled state having just completed the gruelling Trans-Pennine leg and after some well-deserved refreshments he began to look for his next mode of transport which would convey him to the thriving metropolis that is Bolton.
Given the distances involved Keith explored a few options, fancying a change of pace he experimented with tortoise travel. After undertaking a detailed familiarisation course he strapped himself onto 6yr old Gordon, a trusty and experienced stead, this worked well but after some basic calculations he realised that at this pace he wouldn’t make Bolton until late September!
So to plan B, Keith needed something with a little more zip, bring on Phantom the 17 hand thoroughbred, so suitably attired with all of the relevant PPE the pair put on a dazzling display of rider and mount in perfect harmony, the plan was set.
Then disaster Phantom blew his front near side shoe, what now?, surely this wouldn’t mean a return to the indignity of being cable tied to the front of a bike? - and sadly yes this was Keith’s only option now and so it came to pass.
With bicycles and riders assembled Keith was strapped onto probably the worst maintained bike in the pack before being whisked along a series of cycle tracks, the journey was finally underway.
The team: Back row left to right: Alun Tweedale, Helen Muscat, Neil Knoczak, Paul Cassells, Dan Smith, David McCulloch, Paul Wilson, Rick Llewellyn Crouching in Carl Dearden and Matthew Hall (holding Bear).
In a slight twist this was only one means of transportation involved as owing to archaic bylaws in Bolton it is forbidden to transport livestock using a bicycle on a Wednesday!
This meant that an alternative means would be required, something which would spare our plucky volunteers jail time, so Keith was cut free from his temporary shackles and passed to a team of runners who transported Keith in a rugby(esk) fashion to his destination.
Keith and the support team were given something of a hero’s welcome by the Bolton team having successfully negotiated the mean streets relatively unscathed before handing Keith over to Chris Scarr at our Bolton Site.”
