Boy, 10, ‘relieved’ to reach halfway mark of cycling length of Britain twice

A 10-year-old boy has said it is “relieving and daunting” to reach the halfway mark of his challenge to cycle the length of Britain twice to raise money to help his favourite animal, the hedgehog.

Harry Peksa, from Wokingham, Berkshire, is cycling more than 2,300 miles with his dad Nick, 47, starting from Land’s End in Cornwall on July 9.

The ambitious pair have reached their halfway point at John O’Groats in Scotland, with the challenge expected to last a total of 52 days as the pair average about 50 miles per day.

After touching the signpost at John O’Groats, Mr Peksa told the PA news agency: “What happens is you’re excited about getting to the signpost, and then you touch it, you turn around, and then you realise, ‘oh, I’ve got to do that again’.”

“It was relieving and daunting to reach the halfway mark,” Harry added.

Harry has taken on ambitious challenges before – at age six he cycled around 120 miles from his home to Wales and at age eight he cycled from Land’s End to John O’Groats, and took on the reverse journey the following year.

So far the challenge has been “really nice and fun,” Harry said, adding: “I would say the hillier days are tiring but, sometimes, if it’s a really long day, it is tiring also.”

The pair found the “rain and the cold of Scotland quite difficult”, Mr Peksa said, but they have been determined to stay positive.

A highlight of the challenge was the Highland Games attended by the King, which gave Harry the opportunity to run a race in front of the monarch.

“It was only 85 metres and he was preparing himself for something longer,” Mr Peksa said.

A lover of the outdoors, Harry aimed to visit as many scout troops as possible on the first leg of his journey.

Mr Peksa said: “Harry does a talk about the adventure and the expedition, but also he shows them a pre-recorded video he’s made on hedgehogs.”

The pair communicate to each other during the challenge using Bluetooth-enabled helmets.

“Firstly, it’s great for safety, so you can say there’s a pothole without having to point it out but also, you can just chat, or occasionally listen to a book on the quiet country roads,” Mr Peksa said.

Harry has been raising money for Tiggywinkles Wildlife hospital since 2020, ever since he developed a passion for hedgehogs.

He explained: “The reason I like them so much, A is because they’re cute and B, when I was six, we saw a hedgehog in the garden, and my mum said how they might go extinct one day, so I wanted to do something about that.”

On the inspiration for the pair taking on the ambitious challenges together, Mr Peksa said: “The true inspiration, I think, was when I did a cycle with Harry and I had two people, probably in their 60s, maybe slightly older.

“They saw what I was doing, and they said, ‘I wish my dad did that with me when I was younger’ and I thought, ‘yeah, actually, Harry will only be young once, let’s have daddy adventures’.”

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