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Major Mark Hood, Private Dalvinder Gill, Lance
Corporal Paul Wheeler, Lance Corporal Joe Pond,
Lance Corporal Jon Hill, Corporal Gerald Lewis
Making sure the mail gets delivered has always been the proud boast of Posties everywhere.
Now a team of Army postal workers have couriered themselves by bike to eight different post offices in Germany and delivered a whooping £2,000 for charity.
The soldiers who serve with 30 Postal and Courier Squadron, Royal Logistic Corps, pedalled between the Forces Post Offices on various British Forces bases in Germany covering 467 kilometres over four-days.
Only two of the team Major Mark Hood and Corporal Gerald “Taff” Lewis who straddled regular bikes completed the whole journey. Other members shared legs and some rode mountain bikes which proved much harder.
"It was awesome, what an achievement." declared Major Hood as he lent on his bike at the end of the quest at the Bielefeld Forces Post Office, where the Squadron's HQ is based. "I have mixed emotions of exhaustion and elation in equal measure. It was much more about stamina and endurance than normal fitness. The fit runners struggled more than the rest of us," he recalled.
The idea had been developed by Major Hood who lives at nearby Gutersloh and bikes in to Bielefeld every day. During this time in the saddle he came up with this idea to boost a charity. They chose the Army Benevolent Fund (ABF).
"We wanted to do it for the ABF because they give away about £4 million a year. So we decided we wanted to put something back. I didn’t really do much training and I must say when we got back to Bielefeld (which was also the start-point) I was feeling a bit shaky, and my knees were rather sore."
Gerald Lewis
The tour of The Post Offices also took in Herford, Fallingbostel, Hohne, Hameln, Padderborn and Sennelager.
There were five punctures, three minor crashes (falling off) and Major Hood calorie calculator says he used up 15,500 calories along the way. They travelled between 70 – 80 kilometres a day averaging 22kph.
And the team are convinced that copious amounts of bananas en route were a key factor in their success.
