Charity
Here at Mayflower, we always like to think about how we can help the local community and to come up with new ways in which we can support good causes.
St Luke's Partner Programme
We have aligned ourselves with one of our customers, St. Luke's Hospice, who are based in Basildon, Essex.
St. Luke's Hospice provides palliative care for the terminally ill and serves the Basildon and Thurrock local authority districts with a population in excess of 289,000. This includes the centres of Billericay, Grays, Stanford-le-Hope, Wickford, Basildon and the surrounding districts.
2006 Events
Iceland Bike Challenge
Mike Allison has completed his sponsored charity cycle ride, in Reykjavik, Iceland. The Iceland Bike Challenge lasted five days and participants had to cover 250km over some of the most exciting terrain imaginable.
It is not too late to sponsor Mike, you can either drop him an e-mail at mike@mayflowerplc.com or telephone on 0800 804 8822. Alternatively you can visit www.justgiving.com/mikeallison.
For those who have kindly sponsored him, thank you for your support, and please see the below for details of his trip.
Mike's trip also featured in the September edition of Comms Dealer Magazine. Click below to view a PDF of the article.
Click here to download Mike's Reykjavik Bike Ride Article
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The Land of The Midnight Sun
When it was first suggested to me that I take part in a sponsored bike ride in Iceland, it seemed like a good idea.
Like most things in life that seem like a good idea at the time, this adventure turned into something quite different! After having said that, if it wasn't for my fellow bike riders and support team, I don't think I could have got through the toughest five days of my life!
Special thanks go out to:
- The lovely Lisa (Thank you for all your advice and support)
- Chocolate Tina (Thank you for all the sweeties you gave me, with the exception of the white chocolate bar!)
- Mike (Mad man) Whittingham who led the way!
- Tony for introducing me to Ofer (Bambi)
- Ofer (You play your French horn in the hills forever!)
- Allison and Kiri (What a great team!) We love you
- Janice (Thank you for your spiritual guidance!)
- Michelle (For being a friend)
- Roger (For the safety lesson!)
- Keith and Vic (For keeping us awake!)
- Vic (For laughing at my jokes!)
- Craig (Big boy) for listening!
- The whole support team, especially Pascal and the doc.
Plus everybody else who shared our wonderful experience.
Here is a brief overview of our adventure:
day one:
Our journey started at Heathrow Airport at 1pm on 27th July 2006. The three hour flight was a relaxing one. As soon as we arrived, we were transferred by an ‘off-road' bus with our luggage and guides to the outskirts of Akureyri to a guesthouse called Traflastadir.
There were some wonderful views on the six hour journey, which included the most beautiful sunset I have ever seen, see picture below, mountain lakes, traditional communities and Icelandic houses. This landscape is very typical of coastal mountains with shale and lava remnants. Most of the landscape is from the last Ice age tens of thousands of years ago.
It doesn't really get dark at any time during the summer in Iceland, and the three hours that do are just dusk and then it gets bright again.
day two
We drove back through Akureuri (the 2nd largest town in Iceland with a population of 16,000). The drive took us through little communities (where the churches have grass for roofs!). The bike ride started at a place called Langafell at an altitude of 250m with wild horses and sheep all around.
The first day we covered 42km over pretty hilly terrain, and we had a number of rivers to cross, which we had to do by foot. We cycled up to the top of a plateau which was at a 900 metres elevation, where we were rewarded by beautiful views of the glacier.
Today's hut is the smallest, the whole group sleeping together in one room. No showers, but we all took advantage of the natural heated pool outside.
day three
Today is a windy, stormy and rainy day; the first 10-15kms were undulating but achievable. There were 2 main rivers to cross and there were great views of the 3rd largest glacier in the world. At 15kms we cycled towards snow capped mountains and more glaciers (the terrain reminded me a great deal of Mount Kilimanjaro). We broke for lunch at 24kms but there was no shelter from the elements.
The end of the day's journey saw a few hills but good dirt roads heading towards the glaciers. We headed to the south west side of the mountain where the hut was situated. The landscape turned lush and green but the last stretch was extremely punishing.
day four
Today we left camp and cycled on flat terrain. It reminded me of a lunar landscape but the road was a good dirt track. At 24 kms we saw a great lookout point where the road split.
At 30 km we had a fantastic view of a big glacier lake. It was a great view. As we descended, towards the end of the day's cycling we had brilliant views of snow capped mountains. The terrain undulated on sandy tracks and we crossed a bridge to finish by a mountain hut.
From here we transferred onto the buses for our drive to the mountain hut (approximately 30 km), we passed many glacier lakes and man made dams and great views of the Masifs.
The mountain hut we stayed in tonight was the best one so far on the trip. There were showers inside, triple bunks and fantastic views of Iceland's most active volcano – Helka, which has erupted 7 times in the last century.
day five
This was the 2nd part of the challenge and more of a Lord of the Rings adventure! We transferred for 30 minutes and then started cycling on flat good dirt roads heading to Helka. We started to ascend and when we reach the top at an altitude of 689 metres the views of Helka were amazing.
We stopped for lunch at 21km and headed off between 2 craters. The terrain started to undulate and we cycled through the lips of the crater. At 25km we crossed some snow and a field full of lava.
After a rest stop at 37km we headed downhill and had amazing views of a lake (where the local people fish). We cross a river where we had to push or carry our bikes across.
The last part of the journey is uphill with great views of the lush mountains and we crossed over the most famous trekking path in Iceland.
The huts that night had outdoor toilets and showers. – luxury! We were joined for dinner that evening by a young Israeli man called Ofer who was trekking alone through the mountainside. He is a member of the Berlin opera and plays the French horne! Later that evening he kept us entertained with his melodic music.
day six
Today we left the camp on flat terrain with views of the glacier to the front. We crossed a river which had a footbridge so we pushed our bikes over. The first 17kms was flat downhill with bumpy terrain until we reached a bridge. We rested and then descended to the finish line and lunch at Bolstaar.
After lunch the transfer to Reykjavik took approximately 3 hours. The guesthouses were in the heart of the old town and shops etc were in walking distance.
That night we had a Gala dinner in a local restaurant.
day seven
The entire group had breakfast together in one guesthouse. Most of us went on a whale watching excursion. This was a great experience to see these wonderful creatures in their natural habitat. (However whilst the Hump Back and Blue Whales eluded us, we did catch a glimpse of Minkie Whales and Porposes
Our trip was over and we flew home from Reykjavik Airport, leaving behind a wonderful country and taking with us a fantastic experience.