A TRIO of pensioners with a combined age of 210 will be taking on a gruelling 1,000-mile cycle from Alicante in southern Spain to Calais in northern France.
Tom Wood, 68, left his home in Bradwell, near Braintree, during the early hours of Monday morning, flying out to Alicante to begin the trek.
Once there he will be met by Bill Parry, also 68, who flew from Alberta in Canada to take part in the ride.
Jim MacTaggart, 74, of Sycamore Grove, Braintree, who has cycled in places as far-flung as Australia, America, the Swedish Arctic Circle and Scotland, will be meeting the pair on the French side of the Pyrenees to accompany them to Calais.
"It depends if our knees stand up to the Pyrenees, but we hope to complete the trek in eight weeks," said Mr Wood.
"Bill found this advert on a website called www.crazyguyonabike.com asking if anyone wanted to join him on the ride, so we accepted.
"I've always wanted to do this, but I had problems with my leg and had to see a specialist, but now I'm raring to go and have been getting lots of riding practice in so we aim to do about 50 miles a day.
The "Crazy Old Khaki" group as they have dubbed themselves, will be riding for four different armed services charities, and will split the money raised evenly between Help For Heroes, SSAFA, The Royal British Legion and the Royal Hospital Chelsea.
"I was in the armed forces myself, but I was in Northern Ireland so the worst thing that happened to me was when some kids spat at me," said Mr Wood.
"Nowadays these guys are getting awful injuries, like legs blown off, and I think the Government are not doing a good job at looking after them.
"I was going to do the ride anyway and thought, why not try and raise some money at the same time and help some servicemen and their families while I'm there?"
If you would like to contribute to their efforts visit http://uk.virginmoneygiv ing.com/team/CrazyOldKhaki to donate.