Out of the Ruins of The Great Escape.

It all started out as a great plan, to escape the banal hype surrounding European Football championships, offered much excitement, adventure and challenge, in equal measure; a triple whammy. So the Scotland end-to-end route was duly plotted - to cycle as close to the Watershed as possible, for a man of my vintage. Dates for the venture were set, and food stocks gradually built-up in usual tabulated Pete style. All seemed set for departure in mid-June, just in time to, well, `escape`.

But that F word was suddenly replaced with the C word: from football to Covid. Disaster! The best laid schemes, of mice and men, were going very much agley.

Out of the ruins however, a new Plan started to take shape in my mind, that would combine, a sense of adventure at least, an imagined journey, a wee bit effort on my part, and a very worthy fundraising purpose. So the original Plan was not abandoned altogether, the route would remain unchanged, the dates brought forward, and reality would give way to the virtual experience. To all of this, was added, the fundraising banner of `Pete`s Pedal for Maasai Girls Education`. And so, the re-jigged plans started to roll into place, rapidly.

As founding secretary to the Joseph Thomson Maasai Trust, it was easy to pick-up on the main purpose and focus of activity of this charity, so named after my own ancestor Joseph Thomson, African Explorer. The importance of enabling Maasai girls to receive an education will unfold within the narrative of this 23 day, 1000 Km venture. The stature of Joseph Thomson and his inspirational legacy will become much clearer, as we `journey` from one end of Scotland to the other. And the reality of a pedal on two wheels, will give way to the highly effective Covid-restriction compromise of using an exercise bike in my back garden.