#TeamHonkRelay – The Bournemouth Leg

As soon as heard about Team Honk’s ambitious plan to get bloggers to pass a relay baton around the country from Lands End to John O’Groats I wanted to be part of it.

If I am honest the date came round extremely quickly and caught me a little by surprise.  I had initially volunteered to Kayak through Poole Harbour but the recent storms and flooding put pay to that idea.  I also made enquiries about taking the baton by boat, but unfortunately this didn’t get off the ground either, as did the ambitious idea to do the baton handover aboard the Bournemouth Balloon thanks to the weather.

When I ask anyone what they know about Bournemouth, the gorgeous sandy beaches is almost always the first thing that springs to mind, so that was my plan – to travel along the beaches, but in style.

After tweeting my plan, the lovely team at Microscooter sent me the Micro Floral White scooter to use which came fully assembled much to hubby’s relief and my team of scooter experts put me through my paces.

#TeamHonkRelay
Scooter Training Session

The weekend before the relay I took my children to a birthday party where I was introduced to the Didicar for the first time.  I was bowled over by how much fun they were and that adults could ride them too which gave me the idea of riding one between Bournemouth and Boscombe Pier.

Didicar
Didicar Training

I followed the route of the baton as it set off from Cornwall and headed East through Devon and onto Dorset where it was collected by Sonya from RocknRollMum and Lynn from LemonsCake, before being handed to Kirsty and Clara from MyTwoMums and then onto Joanne from CharlieMoos before it got to me.

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And we’re off!

The journey to Sandbanks where I was to start off can only be described as wet.  The hail was hammering against the car and I was starting to worry about what I had let myself in for.  We parked up to a bit of sun poking through the clouds, but there was a dirty black cloud heading our way so I donned my penguin onesie and got a move on, hoping to out run it.  As I scooted up to the prom there were numerous diggers and tractors at work putting the sand back on the beach after the recent storms, so I had to scoot the long way around on Shore Road before rejoining the promenade further down.

#TeamHonkRelay
#TeamHonkRelay Bournemouth

I have to admit that scooting was more challenging than I thought it would be as my legs began to ache almost immediately.  The sand on the prom was a challenge too and although it was mostly passable I did hit some deeper patches which almost flung me off the scooter.

#TeamHonkRelay
#TeamHonkRelay Bournemouth

I wasn’t planning on a stop but my support team, the lovely Tracy and Paul from Traciebears had Eliza and Sebastian and he was demanding a milk stop, so I grabbed a quick coffee whilst he filled up before setting off again.

 

TeamHonkRelay
#TeamHonkRelay

Our brief stop also saw the worst of the rain and hail pass over and we got a few glimpses of blue sky and even some sun on the next part of the journey.

#TeamHonkRelay
#TeamHonkRelay

It didn’t take me long to get to the pier where I took the scooter to the end and tried to get a photo of just how stormy the weather was.  I also had a short 5 minute break whilst waiting for my second mode of transport.

#TeamHonkRelay
#TeamHonkRelay

If I am completely honest I really didn’t think the Didicar through.  It is brilliant on smooth floors, not so much on a promenade covered in sand and this side of the pier was much worse than where I had just scooted.

Didicar
#TeamHonkRelay

It started off well as there was a slight gradient and I got up a bit of speed before it all went wrong.

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Didicar along Bournemouth Prom

There was just too much sand.  By this time Joanne had joined me so I did get a much needed helping hand.  At one point we did toy with the idea of seeing if the Didicar would float and I paddle to Boscombe Pier but it sank in the sand and I ended up falling off the back of it.

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Didicar in the sand

We did make it to the pier eventually and I did get some speed up whilst travelling along the wood as it was lovely and smooth.  In fact the wind carried me all the way from the top of the Pier back down again.

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Didicar on Boscombe Pier

The lovely Joanne made this rather embarrassing video of our efforts:

Exhausted, damp and very windswept we headed home proud of what we had achieved.  I have to admit I slept very well that night and was raring to go again the next morning, which saw Sebastian do three laps of the pool at his swimming lesson with Turtle Tots and then a very beautiful Princess take the baton to meet Mammasaurus and the MiniSaurus’ in Hythe, which is just outside Southampton.

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Little Honkers!

You can donate to our Bournemouth Team Honk page here or Text HONK to 70005 and follow everyone else’s journey on the Team Honk Facebook page.

 

39 thoughts on “#TeamHonkRelay – The Bournemouth Leg”

  1. Wow! It looks exhausting and great fun. The Didicar looks almost impossible! I keep thinking that merely running with the baton is really boring – I can’t even run in fancy dress. But I guess not everyone can run 10 miles and I’m really looking forward to the baton making its way to us in Gloucestershire.

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  2. Ah just amazing! I really appreciate it all even more now I’ve seen the photos of how yucky the weather was – looks like quite the epic journey. Although you do made a foxy penguin 😉
    Bless little Sebastian and his swimming – the youngest honker surely?!

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  3. Oh my goodness Kara! Was going to say hats off for doing it on Didicar but then I saw the penguin onesie! Must have been seriously hard work, looks like it was in your video although that is quite funny at times! You must be so chuffed though lovely – a superb effort. Well done! Thank you for sharing with #whatsthestory

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