CYCLING the Devon Coast to Coast trail is a tricky enough feat as it is, but imagine embarking on the journey with a pig strapped to your body.

That is exactly the challenge author and comedian Tony Hawks undertook last week, during yet another wild bet.

Tony, who recently moved from London to Devon, will be well-known for his bizarre antics of hitch-hiking around Ireland with a fridge and playing the entire Moldovan national football team at tennis, both of which were turned into best selling books and films.

But last week, Tony cycled nearly 100 miles in three days, from Ilfracombe to Plymouth, stopping off in Okehampton and Tavistock, with a micropig named Titch. The stunt was to raise funds for the Tony Hawks Centre for children with cerebral palsy in Chisinau, Moldova.

Relaying how the idea for the challenge came about, Tony said: 'Somebody bet me that I wouldn't walk around Devon with their pig Dave. It was a full size pig so it would have been quite difficult. But I was wandering around Pennywell Farm and saw a micropig and thought that would do.'

Tony said cycling the coast to coast was something that he had wanted to do anyway so he thought he would combine the two. While cycling, Tony had Titch in a sling strapped to his body.

'She was quite happy in there, she's very cuddly. The only difficult thing was if she wanted to go to the loo — she wriggled like mad and tried to get out. I was cycling down a big hill at 20mph and she was trying to get out because she needed to go. I was pleased to get in that night all in one piece!'

Tony stopped for lunch in Okehampton on day two, and stayed the night at the Bedford Hotel in Tavistock before setting off for the final leg to Plymouth.

'The Bedford Hotel has been so kind to put me up for the night. I managed to have a wander round and it's really nice here — I'm going to come back with my wife.'

After spending three days attached to each other, Tony said he had grown quite attached to Titch: 'We have bonded on this journey. I even slept with her one night — I put her on the bed and I laid down and she came and laid beside me.'

General manager at the Bedford Hotel Simon Rowe said: 'We had a random email asking us to help a charity event. We were quite curious and it seemed like a unique event so we put Tony up with a room for the night and breakfast to help him on his adventure.'

Tony's target for his challenge was to raise £5,000 to finish the building work at the centre and by the time he reached Tavistock he had already raised 95% of the money.

To sponsor Tony visit http://www.justgiving.com/Tony-Hawks">www.justgiving.com/Tony-Hawks and to find out more about the Tony Hawks Centre for children with cerebral palsy visit http://www.chcmoldova.md/en">www.chcmoldova.md/en