Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

I suspect you have been inundated recently with requests to give to charity, but if you wanted to see me grimace with pain and battle for 12 long days from the south western  tip of England to the very North Eastern point of Scotland, well now is your chance!  I have finally summoned up the courage to ride a bike fully some 950 miles from Land’s End to John O’Groats, starting  on 24 June .   I hope to complete the ride in 12 days and will be undertaking the task with four  of my friends. 

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Day 1:  Finally the time has come, we're here.  Thankfully the rain has stopped and after 77 miles of rolling hills make it to Liskeard in time for the match.  High point of the day:  getting to Lands End after all the training.  Low point of the day:  England losing to Italy!  Generally legs feel OK, all set for tomorrow.

Day 2:  Day 2 done, 65 miles of hills, nice dry day, weary legs tonight though! From Liskeard to Cullompton via Tavistock and Exeter, through Dartmoor, nice Devon tea, was needed given all the hills!!!!  Highlights views of Dartmouth and speedy descent hitting 40mph and dinner at the Italian, low point Brian taking us up one last hill at the very end!

Day 3:  92 miles from Cullompton to Chepstow in Wales. Generally flat but a couple of big hills in the approach to Bristol. cycled through four counties in one day.   First puncture for the group.  Dry start, lots of rain in the middle but thankfully  dry as we crossed the old Severn Bridge. Were we tired, oh yes! we all ordered two main courses each for dinner.  Highlight of the day:  getting to Bristol over Brunel's  Clifton Suspension Bridge.  Low point: getting drenched en route to Cheddar as Brian, the support driver decided to take our waterproofs with him...

Day 4 - 77.5 miles of hilly terrain all the way from Chepstow to Bridgnorth in Shropshire. Great weather today, managed to top up my tan! Highlight of the day:  stunning views of the Wye Valley and Waseems Sat Nav, sorry head down cycling position resulted in him adding an extra 8 miles to his day! Low point: ending up in the Bridgnorth Balti for dinner, tomorrow will be a multi-stop day!

Day 5:  Made it to the North West, all the team staying at their own homes tonight (in laws in my case...) 97 miles of flat terrain through the Cheshire plains, albeit the first hour out of Bridgnorth was slow going in thunder and lightening. Visited Ironbridge (you know what that's famous for) and Market Drayton (home of gingerbread men) before finally getting to Prestwich.  Highlight of the day:  no after effects of the Indian.  Low point:  the torrential rain we had to crawl through first thing in the morning.

 

 Day 6: Made it to Sedbergh and the half way point after 67 miles of hills through Whalley and Clitheroe and into North Yorkshire.  Some stunning scenery .  Weather ok except for an early downpour up the first hill.  Highlight of the day were all the fellow cyclists we met including a solo woman carrying all her stuff, and the very welcoming yorkshire folk.  Low light of the day, just the torrential downpour on leaving Prestwich leaving us damp for the rest of the day. 

 

Day 7: Cycled the 74 miles from Sedbergh through Cumbria and across the Border into Scotland at Necastleton. Dougie, one of Aky's friends joined us for most of the day, good to have the company and be given a tube changing tutorial twice over. We also came across a cyclist who was on hois way from Darwen but was involved in an accident so Aky played the doctor and Brian the nurse to get him back to Penrith.  Highlight of the day was the outdoor hot tub waiting for us at North Lodge in Canonbie.  Low point were the hail stones greeting some weary legs as we crossed the border into sunny Scotland. Counting the days down  now...

 

Day 8:  90 miles to just north of Edinburgh and over the Forth Bridge to Inverkeithing. Over 8 hours in the saddle, longest riding time so far. First 20 miles out of Newcastleton on newly laid tarmac and hardly a car in sight en route to Hawick, the home of lambswool and cashmere knitwear!  Highlight of the day, riding up the Royal Mile to Edinburgh Castle.  Low point today was the length of time in the saddle, ouch!



Day 9: Inverkeithing to Braemar 80 miles, in driving rain early morning en route to Perth.  Thankfully thereafter the rain subdued as we headed into the Cairngorms and Scotland's highest road at 2200ft, from Glenshee up through the Cairnwell Pass.  Some truly magnificent views on the way up and on the 10 miles down to Braemar.  Nearly got hit by a deer as I was motoring down at 30mph. High point of the day Cairnwell pass and seeing Aky out of his saddle crossing the summit!  Low point of the day, being charged for 2 slices of extra bread at the Braemar Lodge, where we had a full dinner for 5 !

 

Only 3 days to go... 

 

 

Day 10, Braemar to Inverness, 83 miles. What a day! First 10 miles a flat ride to go and see the Queen at Balmoral, unfortunately she didn't make it in time for us! Then 3 climbs in the Cairngorms, one of which was 0.75 miles at a gradient of 20%, up to the ski resort at Lecht. High points today included the majestic views of the Cairngorms with the sun shining and the fact we made it up the big hill without stopping and hit over 44mph later in the day!  Low point of the day was having done 3 big climbs we still had 58 miles to go to Inverness!

 

...Only 2 days to go

 

 Day 11, Inverness to Altnaharra .  We ended up cycling 87 miles and stopped beyond Altnaharra.  Very foggy in the morning but lovely sunshine in the afternoon as we went through Lairg , by the Falls of Shin and Loch Shin.  Staying at the Crask Inn tonight, never again! Looking forward to an early start for the last day and we will skip breakfast and dinner given the quality of the accomodation. However, at one point this evening we thought we would test the rigidity of our bikes being chucked out of the van, thankfully they passed the test!

 

High point today, seeing salmon leaping upstream at the Falls of Shin.  Low point, the not so well appointed accommodation at the very crass inn.

  

The 12th and final day; The Crask Inn recovers some lost ground with a lovely home cooked breakfast and a very warm and friendly discussion with the owner.

 

62 miles of undulations by the coast all the way to John O Groats.  At times hard work given the easterly headwind we had today, but thankfully we had glorious sunshine.  High point for the day, arriving at John O Groats together having toiled away for 12 days and 950 miles! Low point for the day was the early morning reception of midges as we were departing Crask,  bites galore!

 

Has been a great journey and we all made it in one piece, with no major mishaps and only 3 punctures between us. 

 

A big thank you from the whole team to Caroline, Linda and Alison for booking the accommodation and making sure the logistics worked.

 

Also a huge thank you to Matthieu for the route planning, the maps really worked well!

Finally, some lasting memories to take away from effectively a tour of Britain;

 

The amazing generosity and support from all of you and all the different people we met along the way, from the Station Master at Dingwall to the walkers at the Spittal of Glenshee.

 

The varied and beautiful geography and infrastructure  of Britain, from Dartmoor in Devon to the majestic Cairngorms, fast flowing rivers and Lakes in Scotland.  A reminder of some British Architectural milestones, the  historic Clifton Suspension Bridge built by Brunel, the first ever Iron Bridge and the relatively new Severn Bridge

 

One more notable memory is that of a war memorial in each of the towns and villages we went through, for all the people who gave their lives in wars ranging from the First World War to the Korean. 

 

Finally, a huge thank you to all those who have supported us in this fundraising, you have been fantastic and the charities are extremely grateful for your generosity, so a big THANK YOU.