I’d have given anything to share the views with Mum

Plucking two unfulfilled items from his late mother’s bucket list, Oliver Smith discovers that cycling the length of the Pyrenees is good for his soul

My mother passed away seven years ago, aged just 51. Going through her belongings, my siblings and I found a list of things she had wanted to do before she died, compiled soon after her rather dismal prognosis. The items ranged from the comically ambitious (“Learn a martial art” and “Master a foreign language”) to the downright confusing (“Keep chickens” and “Go down the Thames and under London Bridge in an amphibious car”). Some made me laugh (“Be towed by a banana boat”), some pained me to read (“See my granddaughter grow up”). Sadly, she wasn’t given enough time to make much of a dent in her “bucket list” so her children each picked a couple of items to tick off on her behalf.

I chose “Get fit” and – because it seemed a suitable partner – “Cycle from Land’s End to John O’Groats” (how this found its way on to the list I have no idea – my mother never cycled further than the corner shop). I completed task one in the six months after her funeral, transforming myself from a portly 15st to a comparatively svelte 12st, but due to various commitments the second had eluded me. So when I was finally presented with an empty diary last summer, it seemed only sensible to fulfil my promise.

Then I did some thinking. Land’s End to John O’Groats is certainly the most famous challenge for British cyclists – but all those A-roads and