Day 12 - Challenge Complete!

We started the day in the sunshine, heading out of Tongue up a steady hill. Hills would feature heavily for the first 40 miles, heading up some very steep, albeit fairly low altitude hills. With our legs fatigued, and the thought that we were within touching distance from the finishing line, the miles crawled. After Thurso, we headed slightly away from the coastal roads, aptly ending the ride to John o’ Groats on the National Cycle Network.

We finally rolled into John o’ Groats just after 2pm. I’ve already been to John o’ Groats before, so knew that it couldn’t possibly reflect the magnitude of the end of such a challenge. As expected, we casually rolled up, had some photos taken, then headed back on the road to Wick.

I became slightly obsessed today with not being overtaken by any other cyclists. The entire previous 11 days, we hadn’t been passed on the road by a single cyclist. I saw this as a testament to our fitness and ability on the bikes, and would be damned if anyone would steal that statistic from me on the final few miles! Thankfully, as with the other days, we did the overtaking and retained our record.

Foolishly, today was the only dry start where I didn’t apply sun cream. Contrary to the forecasts, the weather was fantastic all the way. As you can probably guess, I’m now red all over, save for my hands and the areas of my face covered by the helmet and shades. Therefore, I now look like some sort of rare red panda! That’ll teach me...

So, yeah, we don’t have to get back on our bikes tomorrow, which is quite a difficult thing to get our heads around. It’s been pretty difficult having an appreciation for the passing of time, and the passing of miles. I’m sure the magnitude of the achievement will sink in at some point. I could do with sleeping for several days on end first! We travelled a total of 992 miles, without sustaining any injuries, and just having had one puncture each.

Many thanks to our families, friends and colleagues for their support before and during the ride.

Day 11 – Inverness to Tongue – In to the Wilderness

Our penultimate day took us from Inverness and towards Tongue on the north coast of Scotland. We started by joining the A9 and quickly turned off on to some minor roads heading towards Lairg over the Bonar Bridge.

Near the Falls of Shin we encountered a collie wandering along the road. John decided to ring his bell at the dog, a tactic which turned the dog in to a ravage beast. Not wanting to be torn to pieces by the animal we pushed our tired legs to the max as we sprinted away from it’s snarling teeth.

We then headed in to the middle of nowhere an incredibly beautiful and quiet part of the World. In this wilderness we stumbled across the Crask Inn where we met some fellow LEJOGers. These chaps had a 1,200 mile route which they were taking three weeks to complete. Like us they expect to arrive at John ‘o Groats tomorrow.

After a spot of lunch we continued on the single track road to the village of Tongue where we will spend the night before heading out on our final day of cycling.

Day 10 - The Fort William-Loch Ness-Inverness Express

After a nice lie-in and the latest start we’d made so far, we headed out of Fort William and toward the Lochs (Lochy and Ness). Inevitably, the A82 was busy with foreign tourists, but the traffic was tolerable and the surface good. Staying level with the lochs meant that the profile was relatively flat compared with previous days, and there were no significant ascents.

The weather seemed to be holding up well, with low winds and a fair bit of sunshine. We passed a few cyclists around Loch Ness, but there weren’t too many about (most likely others preferred the tracks or the minor roads). We stopped briefly after about half the mileage for some food after making good progress over the first couple of hours.

After about 40 miles, the roads ahead were quite wet. We had narrowly avoided some heavy showers, by the looks of things. The roads continued to be wet, but we managed to avoid cycling in any rain. By the time we hit Inverness, the skies were blue and the sun was shining. We arrived around 2pm, our earliest arrival yet, having averaged 16mph over the 65 miles.

Day 9 – Paisley to Fort William – Team LEJOG tear through the Highlands

Another day meant another cooked breakfast and we made sure to clear our plates as we knew that we had a long day ahead of us. The weather first thing was brilliant and, despite a few showers, this kept up for most of the day.

We headed out of Paisley and towards Loch Lomond on the A82. The road surface for some of this stretch was pretty awful. It was almost like sitting on a washing machine for 20 miles. The scenery around the Loch, however, was fantastic and it improved as we continued up the A82 towards Black Mount. After a steep climb we stopped in a lay-by for something to eat and carried on soon after the tuneless Bagpiper started. We carried on the A82 through Glen Coe and the scenery here was breathtaking.

After spending a lot of miles climbing we descended towards Loch Leven at quite a speed. Whizzing through the Pass of Glen Coe admiring the waterfalls and mountains was one of the highlights of the cycle and it made the training all the more worthwhile.

It took us just over 7 hours to reach Fort William meaning that we averaged an impressive 14.5mph, including stops. The cycling seems to be getting easier and I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s cycle up to Inverness and the lie-in that the short trip will allow us.

Day 8 - Dull and Hilly

We started the day with our first Scottish Breakfast (mmm...Haggis), and met 3 guys that were heading from John o’ Groats down to Land’s End over 13 days. They had their own custom gear, and it looked like they’d been pretty successful gaining corporate sponsorship.

We set off in the wind and rain at about 9.30. The first stint on the A76 was unpleasant, but we soon headed off on some minor roads for a few miles. We then rejoined the A76 for about 30 miles. The road surface was pretty terrible, and we seemed to be heading uphill and against some strong wind all the way. We were relieved to finally leave the A76 after Mauchline.

You’ll notice that there are no photos from today. The scenery was largely uninspiring and bland. Thankfully, the final few miles on some unclassified roads were in amongst pleasant scenery, but it’s pretty difficult to remember any particular part of the day.

We averaged over 13mph (that includes stops), but both felt that today was the most difficult day of the journey. At over 100 miles, tomorrow won’t give us a chance to recover. Hopefully we can get a hefty meal in Paisley tonight to give us some energy to carry over to the early start tomorrow.

Day 7 – Chapel-Le-Dale to Dumfries – We finally make it to Scotland

Today was the longest planned day of the trip so we got up early in order to reach our destination in a decent time. We headed out of the Yorkshire Dales on some minor roads and snaked around the M6 all the way up to Carlisle, one section taking us along what must be the straightest roads in Britain.

Early on in the day we met some fellow end-to-enders climbing one of the many hills that we encountered early on. That brings our total to three so far. The weather today was fantastic despite the forecast and we made the most of the sunshine to rack up the miles.

We stopped at Carlisle for some lunch, kindly provided by John’s Mum, and then headed up to Scotland. The hills seemed to disappear once we crossed the border and I found the relatively flat roads to be hard work.

We rolled in to Dumfries after just over 8 hours of cycling and were informed that some fellow LEJOGers were also staying in the accommodation tonight which we expect to meet at Breakfast.

Day 6 - The First of the Big Hills

We set off up the A34 towards Manchester. The roads were fairly busy, but we managed a pretty decent speed which allowed us to notch up the early miles quickly. Having missed our turn-off onto the minor roads, we carried on further towards Manchester on the A34. Heading through the centre of Manchester was surprisingly painless. A few roads were closed, but we managed to find the right road to lead is to Bury.

The weather remained overcast but dry as we carried through Bury and towards Accrington. The hills near Ramsbottom gave us our first ascent test of the day, reaching roughly 250m in altitude. We descended into Accrington before rejoining the main roads to head to Clitheroe. Knowing that Clitheroe was to be the last town we’d pass through, we stopped off for a sandwich.

After a couple of days of busy roads, we were thankful to finally head on some minor roads at Sawley to head over to Clapham Station. Along the way, we passed by Stocks Reservoir and through the Gisburn Forest, slowly ascending along the way. The climb to the 422m summit of the day was very steep and challenging, but thankfully we had a prolonged downhill to lead us pretty much all the way into Ingleton.