LANDS END

The day started with a big breakfast, and we ended up leaving at 1030 by the time everything was packed up. It seemed to take ages to get to Truro, but was actually fairly good pace given the hills. We had a quick snack at 'playing place' which kept us going til lunch at Ashton. Then, at 1700, after a killer last few miles, we crossed the finish line and somehow forgot the pain! Our entrance was announced on the tannoy and we were applauded and mobbed with donations, which was nice! We had our photo taken at the sign, surrounded by people asking about our trip. One lady thought it was outrageous we had to pay £10 for our photo and so she paid for us! The occasion was toasted with some champagne Rich had bought us, nice touch Rich, and then we had to cycle the 10 miles back to the hostel at Penzance. We did it guys, thanks for your support and sponsorship, we'll get a finish line pic on here as soon as possible... Now for a relaxing holiday NOT cycling!

Golant

... We were getting tired and still hungry so Rich went off ahead to explore and search for more food. Dave and I went for another cycle (how glad will we be when we can do other exciting things, like... walk, or sit on something comfortable, just generally not cycle!). We took a pretty hilly B road, to avoid a different hilly road, everywhere is pretty hilly. We had a few hairy birkinhead-style moments going up a long hill in a narrow contraflow, but other than that it was just exhaustion that started to slow us. We met up with Rich 7 miles from the end for more food and drink, and then eventually reached YHA Golant, at the end of a 1mile driveway! By the time we'd showered the hostel had stopped serving food. We asked Rich what else he'd bought, we should have guessed - CAKE, and for pudding, MORE CAKE! So here's us enjoying our cakey tea... Tomorrow LANDS END.

Golant

Navigating our way out of Exeter was almost as hairy as navigating our way in yesterday! We started off on the A30, fully laden as usual, but then at about 12 our secret weapon arrived... RICH JONES!... to carry all our stuff (not as pictured, though that would be amusing, but in his car!). Suddenly our bikes felt more like superbikes and less like super-tankers! Cycling in the hard shoulder debris resulted in a puncture, and then another soon after. I had ran out of tubes and none were worth repairing so i put in a quick call to our mobile support crew... Rich... gave him our GPS coordinates, and he went off to a bike shop and found us again within half an hour, sorted! The problems did delay us a bit, and we didn't get to our lunch stop until 1530. We had done in excess of 50 miles but not as quickly as we'd hoped...

Exeter

Dave skipped off to the bike shop early to get some new front brake pads, while i planned the route for today. We eventually got away about 1030, but made strong progress against the wind, having passed bridgewater by about 1210 and carrying on all the way to Cullompton, where we had lunch at about 1500. We left at about 1540, and arrived at the Exeter hostel by about 1715. Thankfully it stayed dry again, and we had no real issues all day! The only eventful section was navigating the Exeter ring road, more bitty cycle paths and lots of traffic. We even had to cart our bikes over a road bridge! 2 more days, we're hoping our secret weapon is going to arrive tomorrow!

Cheddar

Just another quick note to thank everyone who has been sponsoring us online and offline, and to all those who are posting encouraging comments. It's nice to know people are thinking of us, and that it's worthwhile keeping the blog updates!

Cheddar

We had a nice lay in this morning, Pete did us a cooked breakfast and continued the Turner family hospitality! We set off and crossed the first bridge, catching up with some other end-to-enders due to arrive at LE on Friday as well. They also had a support car!! Most people seem to! We continued south through the grey and boring docklands, eventually finding our way on to the Avon M5 bridge cycle path, which only had one sign about the size of a postage stamp immediately before it. We stopped at Gordano services for lunch and then headed for Cheddar. We picked up some weighty supplies a few miles before the end, making the last few hills even harder. It was surprisingly difficult today, mentally we weren't up for it at all, perhaps not taking the short day too seriously. Oh well, we're here now... 3 more days to go!

Chepstow

The last 35 miles were really tough. I have never cycled in such a strong head wind as what we experienced today. We're usually cycling into the wind, and it takes 2 or 3mph out of you, this was taking more like 5 or 6! Plus it was pretty hilly! Thankfully we arrived about 1745, to a warm welcome, and great food! Pete's family cooked for us, and made us feel at home! Richie decided to pop across from Reading too, which made the evening even more fun. Much better than another night in a hostel! (with Dave :op ). We've got a nice short one tomorrow so hopefully will rest up a bit for the final push.

Chepstow

We made our way to Hereford, arrived about 2pm and bought lunch from a supermarket. The weather stayed nice again, which was great!

Chepstow

Clun hostel was nice enough, but didn't have any breakfast to offer, so we headed off on an empty stomach. 10 miles down the road we found a small petrol station, and bought breakfast (pictured, not much was available!)

Clun 24th

Another beautiful day for cycling, the weather really does make a difference when you haven't got a choice but to go cycling! I woke up dopily wondering what i was doing that day, only to realise it was cycling again! I had a puncture quite early on but no more that day. We covered the first 50 miles quite quickly, and wobbled our way through the last hilly 20, taking the odd picture along the way.

Chester

... Get as close as they can to you without actually touching you, not too entertaining for the cyclist. It's also official, cycle paths are more dangerous than major A roads, the often poor quality surface, hidden entrances to the road, pedestrians and random full height curbs in the middle (one of which had me off in spectacular style yesterday) make them a nightmare. Cycle lanes in the road are MUCH better. Anyway, it was all going so well, and we'd intended to take a bridge, however the satnav, in bicycle mode, directed us down the Birkinhead tunnel, by then it was too late to turn back so we had to just go nuts. That had to be the scariest and fastest mile and a half cycling of our lives! Thankfully we emerged safely, took a breather, and found our way to Chester- home of hollyoaks and the 'phantom cone placer'. We arrived at the hostel at 1645. It's now morning and we're soon off to Clun.

Chester

Leaving Slaidburn was stupidly hilly again but once we got out toward Preston the roads were a lot flatter, and quicker! We used the satnav to navigate through the city and then ploughed on to Liverpool. We'd decided Liverpool was the simplest and most direct route. A number of people wished us well as we were going through the city, one group of lads on they're way to football were kind enough to point out the general direction of lands end. We were also pulled over by a family saloon, from which a lady emerged full of enthusiasm and donated a few quid. It's fair to say we've already collected ten times more in England than in the whole of Scotland! We did have a few bus-ups... Busses play this game where they overtake you and then stop a few yards in front, which is just stupid because it takes as long as if they'd waited. Another favourite of theirs is to...

Slaidburn 22nd Aug

... We grabbed some supplies in a supermarket 10miles from the finish. Slaidburn was a pretty, quant little village. We had time to fix up our bikes, my rack was in trouble again, and then did the usual wash, launder, eat, sleep routine. No signal, hence the late and patchy report!

Slaidburn 22nd Aug

We were up early to get to the bike shop, we had an all we could eat free breakfast, which was nice! We went in to Ambleside and saw this real wizard of a bike guy who bent my derailleurs back into correct alignment, something not many would have been able to do too easily, particularly as you need a special tool to gauge the rear one properly! We were really grateful because he was stupidly busy but dealt with us as a priority and only charged a few pounds! Without the generosity of such bike shops the trip could have quite easily ended early. We got away about 11:30 after some other bike-related fiddling and having bought a UK map book for 99p, doesn't run out of batteries! The weather was great again and we made good time to Kirkby Lonsdale, where we had a fantastic and very well priced meal in 'the cariad'. After an extended lunch we continued into Yorkshire, which is very hilly and full of sheep!..

Ambleside

We had a really nice meal by the lake this evening. Just as we were finishing, a member of staff came out and evacuated everyone to the car park because there was a fire in the kitchens! Naturally everyone blamed Dave, well, i did. Goodnight!

Ambleside

We had a pretty chilled cycle from Carlisle. We got up early and went to a bike shop down the road. They fixed up our pannier racks the best they could and didn't charge us a penny, which was nice. I also had to buy some new cleats for my cycle shoes as the others had worn away, and another tube given my puncture track record! We headed off and the weather remained bright and sunny all day, 'we must be in England' we thought! We stopped for lunch in Keswick, sweeny's, top food and top staff, top customers too-we tinned some good cash there! Both of our knees have caused us pain today but hopefully nothing that will last. Just as we were coming into Ambleside i got a slow puncture and more seriously, my gears started jamming... Another early visit to a bike shop has been planned though i'm getting to the point where i think i may as well walk!

Carlisle 20th

We came out of the blocks pretty fast, getting to Gretna by about 1:30pm! Unfortunately we had two punctures and struggled finding somewhere that served food so didn't get away again until about 4pm. We cheered as we crossed the border, and then 100yards down the road Dave's rack semi-broke! We had to take another 10mile detour because of roadworks on the bridge, and so arrived in Carlisle about 6:30. We picked up some food and shower gel (much needed!) at a shop and then rode around for 40 minutes trying to find the hostel. Everyone was telling us it closed down years ago, not realising there was a new one that operated uni halls for 10 weeks each summer. Eventually we found it and enjoyed the nice accommodation.

Wanlockhead 19th

... road we wanted to take apparently didn't exist anymore. Combine this with the fact Wanlockhead is the highest village in Scotland and you get an idea of how hard this day was getting! We eventually arrived at about 8:30pm, when i realised my phone had drowned and Dave had no signal, nooo! Then we got showered, ate unflavoured pasta because it was all we had, and went un bed. On the positive side, we didn't have any bike issues and the hostel was nice.

Wanlockhead 19th

Ok, so, the following day we set off and weather was good. We covered a fair few miles early on and headed round the west side of glasgow taking Eskrine Bridge. The roads didn't seem to match up too well with our map and we found ourselves on motorway sliproads more than once. About 25 miles in my pannier rack semi-broke and so we desperately started looking for bike shops on route. When we got into Paisley, we found a halfords. Though the guy was unable to fix my brakes, he stuck a jubilee clip on my rack, which is holding the break fine. He didn't charge, and directed us to a 'proper bike shop' around the corner where another guy fixed the brakes in minutes and only cost a couple of pounds. Sorted! So we went on our way and headed out of the city, stopping for lunch about 3pm at Strathaven. It had been a lovely day until we left, when we got caught in the first of 3 thunderstorms that afternoon, and it didn't stop raining. We thought we were close but then had to take a 10mile detour because the...

Balloch Castle, Loch Lomond 18th Aug

The 18th turned out to be an 80mile day, and though no more problems came about, it rained all afternoon as we cycled on the busy A82 towards Glasgow. The castle we stayed in was nice, we arrived quite late, about 8pm. After getting some washing in and showering, we ordered some food from the local chinese as none was available at the hostel. Then, we realised we had no cash so had to pay £10 for a taxi to take us to a cash point and back. It was worth it for some decent food and given the day we'd had.

Bridge of Orchy 18th Aug

The good news is we've cycled over the Glen Coe mountain pass, the bad news is its getting late and we're just stopping for lunch at Bridge of Orchy. We have good excuses though, despite it being very physically demanding, we got 3 punctures in 3 miles, all on my bike, and now i've lowered the pressure on my last tube and have been cycling standing up for about 10 miles, just to minimise risk of the back going a fourth time! On the way down the 2 mile, 1 in 20 slope into bridge of orchy i was horrified to see my front brake caliper assembly come flying over the handlebars as i was trying to slow down!! All in all a pretty rough day so far, and i really need a good bike shop.

Blog is back!!

Hi blog fans :op the last few days have been really wet and long and tough for us, unfortunately my phone got wet and stopped working so the blog was down. HOWEVER, it has now dried out and is able to blog again so look out for updates later. We're currently in Carlisle, getting ready to leave for Ambleside, Lake Windermere.

Glen Nevis

... Now we're both sat on beds looking out at the view. The weather has been fantastic again, and it's been a lovely warm evening! We're desperately hoping it'll be nice tomorrow as we've got a really hard high-climbing day. More on that tomorrow :oS

Glen Nevis

... Went and paddled in the river for a bit and generally relaxed...

Glen Nevis

Legs feeling a lot better than last night, though it was a comparatively relaxed cruise down from Loch Ness. The scenery along the lochs and coming into Fort William was fantastic. We're now at Glen Nevis, this picture is the view from our window! We arrived really early, about 1530, got showered and changed, and then...

Loch Ness

Rushing down the side of a mountain on the 3 mile decent into pretty Drumnadrochit, firmly gripping the breaks and barely in control - we thought we ought to slow down to 35mph! The 6 mile long journey up was almost made worthwhile!... We were grateful for the fine cycling weather today, it stayed dry and cool all day. We saw some great scenery, though it was tough getting up some of the roads! I've been pedaling with one leg most of the day as my right knee has been causing me problems all day, dave is tired but otherwise fine. We're now at loch ness youth hostel, not done justice by this picture! Off to Fort William tomorrow.

Carbisdale Castle

Having a bigger breakfast helped this morning. We were able to do 40 highland miles, in the rain, poor visibility in just over 3 non-stop hours. As we descended into Lairg the rain died off, though we were still soaked. We stopped at a local SPAR to buy some bananas and ask about a place to eat. We ended up eating at crofter's restaurant where Margaret cooked us steak pie. I couldn't resist a hot chocolate with marsh mellows. Margaret then advised us on our route tomorrow and gave us a big map which was nice!...

Carbisdale Castle

... Then it got better, she told us of a shortcut to the castle which cuts across an aquaduct, saving us 12miles compared to crossing further down! Thanks to this little gem we arrived at 1645, and are now staying in the tower looking out on to this view! We're going down for a 3 course meal soon, which is quite reasonably priced too so all is good! Thanks to those that have been sponsoring us!

Tongue

Not very hilly the tourist told us at jog. Well it wasn't really for the first 20miles, to be fair it wasn't really for the last 45 either- MORE LIKE MOUNTAINOUS!! Yesterday was really tough and we ran out of water ten miles before the end. We were shattered last night but ordered some pizza, did some washing and went to sleep. Now just getting up to start another big one.

Thurso LUNCH!

I JUST ATE FRIED TOMATO AND BLACK PUDDING! Neither of which i like and one i wasn't even sure what it was but needed the energy. The hostel didn't have any breakfast for us so we cycled 20 miles on an empty stomach to Thurso. A great big sheep ran across the road about 2m in front of us at one point! We were doing 20mph so prob couldn't have stopped! So that was a close one! Got to Thurso and stocked up on fruit in Tesco and since had a big fry up at a pub restaurant. Now about to gather all our gear and complete the remaining 45 miles to Tongue.

John O' Groats

...One £130 taxi later we arrived in wick. The silver lining was the scenic drive and our clue'd up driver Patrick who gave us local insights as we passed historical sites. We got to Wick about 1200 and after stopping at the local Somerfield for lunch, we cycled 20miles to JOG in cold, cold high-speed winds. We persuaded the guy who owns the sign to let us take the photo, he usually charges £9.50 per photo! Disgraceful! We're now staying down the road ready to head off to tongue.. It's now morning and we're off!

John O' Groats

The sleeper train was quite exciting, passed lots of nice scenery as dawn broke over the Scottish border. arrived at inverness and was raining so got bit wet. arrived an hour and half in advance of train to wick and were confident we could get our bikes on as national rail assured us it was first-come-first-served. That was completely untrue and there were no reservations left at all for today. After a stern half hour conversation with 4 different supervisors it was decided we'd have to find our own way to Wick and seek compensation later whilst they 'investigated' our claim!...

Euston Station

WE'RE REALLY BORED!! The train from Stow was delayed slightly but we arrived at liverpool street in plenty of time. We had to tube it to Euston before 1600 to avoid having to cycle through the city centre. Unfortunately we'd underestimated the number of steps involved in taking the tube but just about managed. So we arrived at Euston about 1510 and have since set up camp in ironically unexciting 'customer lounge' (see picture) where we now have to wait until 2115 to get the sleeper train! Oh well! I'm sure you've been just as bored reading this post as i have writing it!

1-DAY LEFT!! TRIP ITINERY

T-minus 1-day. Lunchtime of the 12th is when the adventure begins, leaving from Stowmarket by train. When we arrive, we need to get accross London with our bikes and then ultimately take the 21:15 'Caledonian Sleeper' train from Euston, which arrivies in Inverness at around 8:30am on the 13th. Then we get a local train to Wick, and then cycle 20 miles to the start line - John O' Groats. Then, setting off on the 14th, the Itinery is as follows.

Staying at:

Tongue - 14th
Carbisdale Castle - 15th
Loch Ness - 16th
Glen Nevis (Fort William) - 17th (Dan's 22nd Birthday!)
Loch Lomond - 18th
Wanlockhead - 19th
Carlisle - 20th
Ambleside, Windermere - 21st
Slaidburn - 22nd
Chester - 23rd
Clun - 24th
Chepstow - 25th
Cheddar - 26th
Exeter - 27th
Golant - 28th
Lands End - 29th (Though staying at Penzance)

Then on the 30th we take a train to Bodmin and cycle to the north coast of Cornwall where we have a weeks holiday booked in a cottage with some friends that are coming down to join us! Then we rest? Then we surf!!

Training

Here we are one week before we're due to leave for John O' Groats and final preparations are getting busy. We're still training and trying to raise awareness of the trip. If you haven't sponsored us yet, and would like to, please visit www.justgiving.com/bikingforbreastcancer where you can sponsor securely online using a credit or debit card.

Stay tuned to this page for further updates of our progress before and during the trip!