| Day Two, October 9
61 Miles
Woke to a fine sunny morning and perfect
cycling weather! Rode along the picturesque coastal route to St
Ives. Dotted with old tin mines and small stone Cornish hamlets, and
mercifully virtually traffic free.
Followed the coastal route to Treyarnon
Bay Youth Hostel that sits overlooking a sandy bay surrounded by rocky
coastline.
St Ives this morning was everything
we had expected - a pleasant seaside resort with a small harbour
and perfect sandy beach. The route from St Ives got progressively
hillier the further we went on, or it seemed that way.
This was great training for the rest of
the trip. One of the highlights of a trip like this will be the
opportunity to sample local specialities, so on the menu today was
Cornish Pasty. The kind people from the Filling Station (a delightful
cafe despite the name) in Perranporth saw us on our way with two freshly
baked local pasties...superb. Roll on Devon Cream Teas, Somerset
Cider, Chorley Cakes in Lancashire, Game Pie in Cumbria and Deep Fried
Mars Bars in Scotland!
Tomorrow Okehampton after an early
start to shave our legs. Foot note for wives and mistresses....no
mobile phone coverage here and the payphone is broken.
Day Three, October 10, 66miles
Out of Cornwall into Devon. We have now left the windswept
drystoned Cornish Lanes for the rolling hedgerowed countryside of Devon.
Today started with the Padstow Ferry across the picturesque Camel Estuary (And yes Graeme it is on the official route).
After passing through NW Cornwall towards Launceston we started our search for a pub lunch. Could we find one? Eventually we persuaded the landlord of the Post and Pint to let us picnic in his beer garden.
During the afternoon we took the scenic route through steep (very) narrow lanes. There was plenty of evidence of
dairy farming in operation ... in fact we cycled through large quantities of it.
Staying tonight at the Copper Key in North Tawnton close to the Cheese factory. Beers at last!
Day Four, October 11
Now in Cheddar after 77 miles cycling. Total distance now covered 210 miles.
The day started with the realisation that we had already exceeded the time taken by Ms. Lyn Taylor (no relation) of 2 days + to complete the
LEJOG.
It was a grey morning yet Devon still looked glorious with the richness of its farms and small villages. Even came across a village called Black Dog with a pub called Black Dog and yes you have guessed it the landlord had a black dog. Tough going though....those hills had not gone away. We have started to grade the hills anything you can climb at 7+ miles an hour are not really hills but 3 mile an hour ones are killers and we saw our fair share of the latter. Big incident this afternoon we thought Andrew had a slow puncture ... however we discovered it was the gas escaping from his water bottle that we had filled with Ginger Beer. Close shave. The Quantocks proved a tough afternoon challenge and after a hard climb the rain arrived and we completed the day's riding in the dark soaked to the skin. Thank you to Cheddar YHA for keeping our supper for us.
Day Five, October 12, Cheddar to Welsh
Bicknor, 66 miles
Weather forecasters! They predict
impending doom so we dressed accordingly, especially after our soaking
yesterday evening. We then spent the rest of the morning removing
waterproofs only to dig them out again at the first hint of rain. It
didn't rain and we had a speedy morning (for two old blokes) averaging
12.5 mph to the Severn Bridge on mainly flat roads. Through N
Somerset, South Gloucester across to Monmouthshire and now in
Herefordshire. We really feel we are making progress now. Tonight we are
staying at another YH and looking forward to meeting up with old Jersey
colleague Russell Bird tomorrow night for a pint or two.
Day Six, October 13, Welsh
Bicknall to Church Stretton (Shropshire) 68 miles
Many of you who have been reading this
each day will be longingly waiting for the next installment. Well let's
cut the xxxx (Paul won't allow dubious language) Who
wants to know that we went through Mordiford or Marlbrook on the B4361?
Nobody.
Suffice it to say, we cycled. What you really want to know is what's it
like? How do you feel? Have you got a sore xxxx?
The answer: we feel good. The reality has
set in that we are doing the End to End not just a short cycle ride. And
we have no sore bits!
Bring on tomorrow.
Day Seven, October 14
Church
Stretton to Northwich, 67 miles
A good
start to the day with clear heads despite our first vintage port
of the trip. All in honour of our first visitor Russell Bird ex RBS
Jersey and now Herefordshire and Shropshire property tycoon.
Once out of Church Stretton an easy day
with very few hills. However a few technical and mechanical problems.
Firstly Andrew's hand bag holder (self designed) fell apart and then
surprisingly Paul needed new brakes.
Finally late in the day Andrew had the
honour of suffering the trip's first puncture. Fortunately whilst Paul
went in search of a pub phone Andrew managed to repair things.
Editor's note : Andrew wishes it to be
known that the handbag has a nice transparant cover into which can be
slipped a map
Day eight, October 15,
Paul's Homecoming to Lancashire - Northwich to Lancaster 72 miles.
It must
have been the thought of returning to a sunny and hot Lancashire,
the place where he was born and raised, that gave Paul a second
wind today. Andrew just had wind. Paul was a man possessed as he rode
through the places that he knew.
An 8.30
start began with the arrival of local cycling star Tim Taylor of
Macclesfield Wheelers who had agreed to ride the morning stage with the
two old men.
The
evening before cycle racing's amateur dietician Ray Parker had ensured
that both riders had a large fluid and carbohydrate intake by
insisting they had a Chinese with their Saturday pints. Andrew had
changed onto a non puncturing rear slick tyre (courtesy of
Tim) before setting out from Northwich.
Benign
weather saw the plucky duo burn up the miles with only a short
stop outside the Pie Shop in Wigan. As they pressed on they were not
helped by infantile calls from QPR fans pointing out that they had
gone 1 up against Preston North End. Steve O'Regan you know who
you are.
Shortly
before 5 o'clock Andrew picked up his now regular puncture after riding
in a cycling lane. A piece of wire went straight through the non
puncturable tyre. It was very fortuitous that not an hour before we
had visited a cycling shop to replace the split tube from the previous
day's puncture.
Day nine October 16th-Lancaster
to Threlkeld -52 miles.Total
distance 535 miles so far.
Sublime
conditions more worthy of late summer gave us our best day yet,
coupled with magnificent scenery of the
Lake District and convivial company of
the 3 Peters.(Hodson, Maguire and Stanfield) who were cycling with us
for the day. Andrew is getting through more inner tubes than socks and
has now had three
punctures
within the last 48 hours.
Notwithstanding
this good progress has been made through what we had expected
would be a difficult section but in fact seemed easy. Perhaps we are
just getting fitter!
Day
10, October 17, Threlkeld to Dumfries 62 miles Total 598 miles
Leaving
The Horse and Farrier Inn at Threkeld (recommended) with Peter Maguire
staying on for another day, he saved us from taking a wrong turn and
heading back to Cornwall.
We
have now passed into Scotland with an increased sense of enjoyment and
satisfaction.
The
weather has been unseasonably dry so far with only 4 hours rain during
9 days of cycling through England. We are sure that Scotland will not
treat us so kindly!
Thanks
to Peter for accompanying us for the last 2 days (114 miles) and to
his wife Alison for driving North to collect him.
Day 11, October 18, Dumfries to Ayr, 61
miles. Total distance 659 miles
Andrew's by now excellent map reading
skills found a way through the Southern Uplands that was a pleasure to
ride and hardly tested muscles and bikes.
It was colder today with more autumnal
weather than recently but thankfully dry. Paul would like to thank all
his customers for their calls to his mobile and e-mails which he can
pick up on his Blackberry but would they kindly note that if he
doesn't reply immediately it is probably because he is roaring down a
hill upwards of 30mph and it would be life threatening to do so. Calls
will be taken as soon as it is safe to do so (signal permitting as we
are entering the more remote parts of Scotland).
On arrival in Ayr we felt a calling to
visit the West Kirk (a Wetherspoon's Church conversion) to sample some
of the ales within. A full list of real ales consumed so far on the
trip will be published shortlly as requested by John Chinn in Jersey)
Day
12, October 19, Ayr
to Lochranza 48 miles Total Distance 707 miles
Woke
up to pouring rain and a doom and gloom forecast. No sooner had we
stepped outside than the rains ceased. On
our journey to the Arran ferry we found ourselves travelling through a
town called Loans. Try as we did we couldn't find RBS Loans. Next we
passed through the Green Desert that is Troon.
The
ferry to Arran took an hour and was a comfortable, good sized ferry.
Interestingly the return fare was eight pound 45 including a charge of
one pound for the bike. Somewhat cheaper than some ferries!
Tonight
we are in the only pub in the town and they have run out of beer and
can only offer us soup. No football on the Sky tv instead it is tuned
to a country and western channel. Will look out for wicker men on the
way back.
Finally
to mark our arrival we will be having a small scotch in Dave's memory
Day
13, October 20, onwards from Lochranza
An early start was required to catch
the.8.15am ferry (on which we were the only 2 passengers) back to
Claonaig on the mainland. Our expectations of a cafe breakfast in
Claonaig were dashed when we discovered that this was no more than a
concrete ramp for the car ferry. Breakfast then in Tarbert, a bit of
cycling, followed by lunch at the Kilmartin Hotel (a deliightful
hostelry en route) where the bar staff assured us that there weren't
many hills between there and Oban.!!
We have devised a good handicapping
system to prevent Andrew from being in the lead. Paul leads allowing
Andrew to be held by the red lights every time there are road works
which is frequently. There he is held for half an hour on red or until
the traffic gets fed up with waiting and goes anyway. Andrew
eventually catches Paul and the whole process can start again at the
next lights.
That said we both enjoyed the day
tremendously - one of the most memorable and scenic so far.
Day 14, October 21, Oban to
Loch Lochy, 67 miles. Total mileage 837
We had been told that the West Coast of
Scotland was the most scenic and with today's blue skys and autumnal
colours it looked its best. Lochs Linnhe and Lochy were resplendent
and even Ben Nevis was in full view.
Andrew has been suffering 'SLS'
withdrawal symptoms but by way of consolation the A828 was very quiet.
'SLS' is Small Lane Syndrome on which we had overdosed in Devon and
Cornwall but with the geography of Scotland it is difficult to
indulge.
Tomorrow we are off in search of Nessy
and suspect the roads will be busier.
Day 15 Loch Lochy to Evanston
59 miles
Total Distance 896 miles
Our luck ran out
and it rained! You may find it hard to believe but we arrived in mid
Scotland having only had 5 hours of rain (when cycling) out of 14
days.
We cycled up the west side of Loch Ness
(no sign of Nessie). After a couple of hours the rain cleared and
after meeting Andrew's sister Joanna and nephew Oscar for a late lunch
break in Beauly, the sun came out and we finished in Evanston, north
of Inverness.
Later we found ourselves in an
impromptu ceiligh in a pub in Evanston - everyone brings an instrument
and joins in! Great atmosphere but no real ale, not even any wine, but
the port flowed! Day 16, Evanston to Lybster 70 miles Total Mileage 966
At 5.31 this afternoon we saw our first of the winter. On the A9 close to Helmsdale,a gritter flew past us showering us as it went. Whilst we again struck lucky with the weather we did pay a price for the cloudless sky namely a temperature that hardly rose above 8 all day.
Oil and whisky are the big earners here and it has taken considerable self discipline not to have visited any of the many distilleries en route includding Glenmorangie. The oil industry is prominent with many rigs both offshore and some at anchor in Cromarty Firth.
Heavy rain is forecast tomorrow with a biting wind coming off the sea. No early morning visit to Cafe Nero for us just more endless miles of cold wet tarmac! Oh and may be the odd inn.
Lybster to JOG! 37 miles Total 1001 miles
A blustery start to the day which made the going very tough and probably the most difficult conditions of the trip. We were mindful that the previous night's forecast had carried a Heavy Rain warning and this was due to arrive with us early afternoon.
In the event we arrived at 1.45pm and have encountered less rain in Scotland than we did in England (no more than 4 hours) so well done Scotland!
Mission accomplished, job done we adjourned to the bar at the Sea View Hotel for many celebrations!
Finally a thank you to the late Peter Ward of RBSI who first sowed the seed of a LEJOG bike ride
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