Tailwinds, Tunes and Trailers!

We're in England! I know that because I rather clumsily hit my head on the "welcome to England" sign......

The day started well - we awoke to sunshine for the first time! We left the rather remote hostel, and its' mice, bats, broken beds and angry neighbour, and made our way southeast towards Dumfries on quiet winding roads and a big tail wind pushing us on our way. With renewed enthusiasm we broke out the iPod and strapped the speakers to the trailer, and cranked up the Foo Fighters for a few miles. Almost perfection - until the rain came along and spoiled our fun.

Undetered, we pushed on to Dumfries and stopped for a foot long subway (Me) and the largest coffee in the world (Andy W). Refreshed, we climbed out of Dumfries and caught our first glimpse of England in the distance. Then disaster struck.

Making our way steadily down towards the River Exe, the connecting bolt on my trailer broke, sending the trailer into the verge, and bits of bolt flying all over the road.

The problem had started whilst waiting for the ferry to Arran when my bike fell over, bending and bucking the connector in the process. I managed to bodge a fix, and we were able to carry on unhindered.

A few miles later and we were in Gretna, complete with its' many "Marriage outlets" and, more importantly, the Welcome to England sign, where we took the opportunity to share some Maltloaf, Andy W deciding that we must eat half in Scotland and half in England. Not sure why but we did just that, and were both rather pleased with ourselves for doing so.

From there was a straightforward 13 miles into Carlisle for our overnight stop, fighting the Bank Holiday traffic in the process.

Tomorrow we skirt the Lake District which should prove a tough test. Before I go tonight though I just want to thank all of you who have texted and posted messages of support since we started. We really do appreciate it - and it helps keep us both going when the rain starts, the wind blows and the hills arrive!

I'm a cyclist get me out of here!

A restful night was had by all in the hotel on Arran, although a new injury has been added to the list of tired legs and sore knees which Andy G sustained while tucking into his Haggis on the previous evening...

After another fried breakfast we headed off and enjoyed the picturesque ride to the ferry. After a longer than expected ferry journey we were dumped in the middle of a busy noisy smelly town. It was a complete culture shock to have to deal with lorries, buses and far too many cars after spending the last 4 days cycling through beautiful, unspoilt and quiet countryside.

Previously the most dangerous aspect of our ride was the odd roadworks, a bridge here and there and the speed we came down some of the hills. Now we had to negotiate our way along dual carriage ways and trying to avoid going through red lights (Andy G only missed one!)

Both of us just wanted to turn back and jump on the ferry back to Aaron.

But we pressed on and after a couple hours safely negotiating a couple of towns we headed back into the countryside, which was a welcome relief although by this stage it was raining quite heavily.

Arrived safely but a bit damp at the hostel and I think we are the only ones staying here, which is no surprise as we really are the middle of no where.

Anyway onto day 6 tomorrow and heading back into England I believe. Which after today's experience with civilisation, I'm not sure whether I'm looking forward to or not.

Btw Andy G just managed to burn the inside of his mouth with the Haggis - nothing more interesting than that I'm afraid!

Raindrops keep falling on my head - or is that Stella?

We knew today would be tough and if I'm honest I wasn't looking forward to it very much!! Following a tactical meeting last night we deduced that the winds don't pick up until mid-morning, so if we leave earlier in the morning we might get a few of the 97 miles done before the wind sets in.

Andy W duly set his alarm early then proceeded to faff around like a big girl for half an hour, but we were still on the road just after 6:15. Our plan seemed to have worked - for the first 2 miles. By the time we reached the main road the winds had picked up and the drizzle had started, which quickly turned to rain.

Fortunately alot of our route was sheltered by trees and, more impressively, mountains, and we blasted through the first 34 miles, arriving in Oban at 9am. We eventually managed to find a cafe which was open (and playing some rather choice patriotic local radio station) and settled down for what was my 4th cooked breakfast in as many days - guilt free!

Once done, we ventured to find Andy W some dried fruit and me some Midget Gem sweets, which have respectively been the unsung hero's of our ride so far

It was by this time raining properly and we left Oban, climbing for an enternity, until we eventually found ourselves in the clouds, rain blasting us relentlessly in the face. This was not what we'd signed up for! Silently and in our own thoughts we ploughed on, until as I overtook Andy W, he quietly said "Wet, is it?". Yes Andy, it is.

Once over the top of the hill, we started a fairly major descent, during the course of which we passed a small shop and a chap struggling to get his shopping into his car. Whether the sight of Andy and I whizzing towards him startled him I don't know, but a rogue can of lager fell out of his bag, and landed on the floor, whereupon it pierced sending 2 jets of lager fizzing into the air. I was already laughing by this stage, but as I turned round, laughter turned to delight as I saw Andy W cycle straight through what can only be described as a Stella fountain. That kept had us chuckling for a good few miles....

We finally arrived in Lochghilhead, and once again found a cafe to shelter from the elements and have a cup of tea. Upon leaving the town, I took a slightly wrong turn which fortunately Andy W noticed - the road I took was taking us down the wrong side of a rather large expanse of water!!!

Once on track we made good time again through the next 25 miles to the ferry terminal to catch the ferry to the Isle of Arran. After a 30 minute wait we boarded the ferry, and my bike fell over, bending the trailer coupling and rendering it pretty useless. Fortunately I had a spare coupling so I repaired the damage and hoped that it didn't happen again for the remainder of the trip!

Once on Arran, a short ride along the coast led to our Hotel (yes, hotel!!). For the first time since leaving home we had a kettle, a bath, a bar and a telly. We're off to watch the Champions League final - cheers!

Lochs, Canals and Ferries

After a tiring couple of days we were looking forward to a good rest at Loch Ness before heading off for our 3rd day. Unfortunately these plans where scuppered by sharing a room with 2 Scottish blokes; one who snored all night and the other who went to the toilet every hour on the hour throughout the night! I have known Mr Gough to be in better moods than he was this morning!

Anyway an early start and breakfast on the go meant we made good progress for our 63 mile leg. We also anticipated an easy day as we were taking cycle routes and tow paths.

Unfortunately while cycling along what seemed to be an endless tow path the weather decided to turn against us with driving rain, also the numerous pot holes in the path didn't help. Also we ended up doing a little cross country stint when we tried to take a shortcut along a cycle path, we would have been better off in a 4x4.

Mr Gough even had a few little incidents today with a trailer capsize and also running into some roadworks - I'm not the only one to have issues with roadworks!

Apart from the tow paths and the cross country we had a really good day and the scenery was fantastic.

We also bumped into a few friendly locals; one saved the day by getting us across the loch in his boat when we missed the ferry, due to them changing the timetable but not updating their website! Also Andy G met a friendly fellow when looking for somewhere to fill our water bottles up. We came across a shop on the otherside of one of the lochs and Andy G went in with 4 empty water bottles and came out with them filled up and a carry bag full of biscuits and cakes! The bloke obviously took pity on us and thought we needed feeding up, although by all accounts he had some strange ideas about global warming and adders...

Finally we arrived at the hostel at an amazing 3 o'clock for a good rest and hopefully a better nights sleep in preparation of our 97 miles tomorrow!

Race to the Monster

Woke up and went downstairs for a nourishing if not slightly random breakfast then stepped outside to see what the weather had to offer. And we were pleasantly surprised. Low winds and fairly clear skies.

We decided to get moving before the weather changed its' mind, and we set off on a wonderful 25 mile cruise down to sea level, stopping on the way to admire Shin Falls which, to be frank, were rubbish. We had the obligatory photo shoot with 2 Highland Cattle, spent a mile being chased by 2 playful dogs, not to mention the lottery of a bridge being open which would save us about 10 miles. It was.

But then the climbing started. A short sharp climb took us into the hills, then the wind started. A headwind, possibly stronger than yesterday's, was to blow against us for the next 40 miles - all the way to Loch Ness.

Fortunately the rain held off but the climbing didn't. Andy W was most pleased to be "first" up the hill, only for me to reach hill and delightfully explain that we were only half way....

Eventually we both reached the summit and hit a whopping 40 mph on the way down.

I've started noticing that speed is Andy W's friend. Not only does he fly down hills, but when he rides slowly he tends to crash into things. Big, obvious things. Yesterday it was a bridge. Today it was a set of roadworks.

We stopped to pick up some food to cook at the fantastically positioned Loch Ness Hostel, and arrived about 5 o'clock. 1 mile shorter than yesterday but 2 hours longer.

Our journey takes us South West all day tomorrow. If the wind doesn't die down it could be very hard going.

Wind? Just a slight breeze...

We left our hostel at 7.30 with fairly decent weather for a nice leisurely cycle to the John o'Groats fingerpost to start our ride. Only to discover that there where no fingers on the post itself! _ typical. Anyway we had a good couple of hours to Thurso where we had breakfast and decided this wasn't going to be as bad as we thought. How wrong we where. Neither of us have experienced a day like it, travelling what turned out to be 11 hours into a constant strong headwind and up some nightmare hills. I think we both wondered what on earth we were doing. Even the GPS gave up with about 3 miles to go. But we made it eventually, and ended up at a rather nice B&B with a rather strange (but very nice - he couldn't do enough for us) owner but all in all it was an extremely welcome sight. Although we would have probably stayed anywhere after the day we had. Hopefully tomorrow will be a bit easier!

Hostage in Edinburgh!

Hostage in Edinburgh

Well we've arrived at John O'Groats following a relatively straightforward journey. That is, except the small matter of managing to get ourselves locked in a train on the platform at Edinburgh!

We left Bristol Temple Meads promptly at 6.15, and Andy very quickly set about negotiating a first class upgrade. This could already be candidate for the top idea award - by the time we got to Leeds, cattle class was full to the seams and had developed an interesting aroma....

We arrived in Edinburgh on time, then Scot Rail continued to excel themselves in how not to run a train company by adding, removing and finally breaking their coaches. Once they managed to open the train doors, we were then asked to move to the front of the train as the coach we were in was apparently not coming to Inverness! Cue much confusion, a near scuffle with a do-gooder bystander and we set off 20 minutes late and illegally abandened bikes. Cue a rather embarrasing discussion with the guard and the bikes were moved, enabling us to continue our bizarre journey with a large sleepy German Shepherd dog.

A quick change at Inverness, the highlight of which was Andy W confusing the overly officious ticket inspector, and we set about the 4 hour journey to Thurso - German Shepherd in tow. Also on board was a fellow end to ender called Paul. He had seen our blogspot on Google and was quick to tell us that we had reserved the only bike spaces on the train meaning that he had to send his bike in advance to John O'Groats. Being the kind citizens that we are, we let Paul share our taxi from Thurso to John O'Groats.

So an early start for us tomorrow morning to find the elusive 'finger post' and start our adventure...

Weather check

No Andy, what we really need is one of these....

According to the Met Offices website, we can expect the following;

Day 1- Cloudy, 20mph head wind.

Day 2 - Raining, 20mph side wind.

Day 3 - Cloudy, 15 mph side / head wind.

Day 4 - Cloudy, 15 mph head wind.

Day 5 - Cloudy, 8mph head wind.

Day 6 - Sunny!!! Dry!!! 4mph head wind!!!

Day 7 - Sunny - 20 degrees !!! - 4mph side wind. That's more like it.....

Day 8 - Hot and Sunny - no wind!

Day 9 - Sunny intervals, 12mph side wind

Day 10 - Sunny, 6mph side wind

Day 11 - Sunny, 10mph side / tail wind - yes, tail wind!!!

Day 12 - Partly cloudy, 15mph tail wind

Day 13 - Partly cloudy, 15mph tail wind

Day 14 - Partly cloudy, 10mph side wind

Can't wait for Day 6.......

2 Days to go....

hhhhmmmm - don't think I have to add anything else really.

Also Quite a few of these have suddenly appeared on the long range forecast!


and which is worse quite a lot of these:


what we want really want is one of these everyday:

Training - what training!

Well after being determined to get back into training last week and an encouraging bike ride last Tuesday, the training has ground to a complete halt at the moment, and doesn't look like it will get started again until Saturday at the earliest!

I'm hoping my strategy of no training = lots of rest and no risk of injury before the event will pay off.

Well it is meant to be a challenge after all ;0)

Call that Training?!

Oh dear, we're just not trying anymore. My training plan had me down for 200-odd miles last week. Instead, both Andy and I cycled to Bristol (35 miles for me, 25 at best for Andy), and drank Cider. I got the train home, Andy stayed in a hotel.

I'm getting quite excited about this now though - in 3 weeks time we'll be starting Day 2, and in 5 weeks time I'll be back at work wondering what all the fuss was about......

Only 3 weeks to go.....!

Just realised this weekend that it is only 3 weeks to go till we set off!!!!!!!!!!

Training not going so well at the moment. After the encouraging trip to Christchurch I've only managed to fit in a couple of training sessions at weekends, training during the week has gone out the window at the moment, but plan to get that back on course this week. More out of panic after realising that it is not long to go than anything else.

Good news is that I do now have my new bike (hurrah), taking a bit of getting used to but all is good, the bad news now is that I can't use the excuse of the mountain bike for being slow anymore. Will have to think up something new.

Impressed with Andy's 1000 miles, I think I'm on about 600 at the moment which is not too shabby since middle of March, and I'm hoping that means I've brunt of 36,000 calories, although it doesn't feel like it at the moment!

Update

Andy and I went for a 125 mile round trip to Christchurch this weekend - very hot, not very hilly, and Andy was on a mountain bike with a wobbly front. Yep, he's quicker than me! (although I did have the slight disadvantage of pulling the trailer).

Three bits of encouraging news;

a) we managed to get on the bikes for two days running
b) we averaged 13 mph - most respectable
c) I've clocked up 1000 training miles (and have apparantly burnt a whopping 60,000 calories in the process). Now I just have to do that again, but in 2 weeks rather than 4 months....

Route Version 2

Due to the problems with the trains (see previous posts), we've effectively lost a cycling day, so we need to squeeze a few more miles into each day. This means a change in route details, as follows;

Sat 19th May - Bristol TM - Thurso - John O'Groats (Youth Hostel)
Sun 20th May - J O'G - Crask (B&B)
Mon 21st May - Crask - Loch Ness (Youth Hostel)
Tue 22nd May - Loch Ness - Glencoe (Youth Hostel)
Wed 23rd May - Glencoe - Catacol (B&B)
Thu 24th May - Catacol - Kendoon (Youth Hostel)
Fri 25th May - Kendoon - Carlisle (B&B)
Sat 26th May - Carlisle - Slaidburn (Youth Hostel)
Sun 27th May - Slaidburn - Crewe (B&B)
Mon 28th May - Crewe - Leominster (Youth Hostel)
Tue 29th May - Leominster - Bath
Wed 30th May - Bath - Exford (Youth Hostel)
Thu 31st May - Exford - Tintagel (Youth Hostel)
Fri 1st June - Tintagel - Penzance (Youth Hostel)
Sat 2nd June - Penzance YHA - Lands End

Total 1,066 miles....

Christchurch here we come

The training's taken a bit of a back seat of late. Maybe it's becuase Andy's on board and I know he's playing "catch up" in the training, but I'm definately not putting the miles in like I probably should be!

This weekend will be interesting - a trip to Christchurch - 60 miles each way. The bike trailer will be loaded up, so it should be the closest training we've had yet to the real thing. Last I heard, Andy's new bike still hadn't arrived, so he could be struggling all the way on his mountain bike....nutter.

Anyway, I note that Andy's concerned about the hill Profiles - I assume he may be refering to Day 7 - I knew I shouldn't have shown him.....

Progress...

After the 40 mile bike with Mr Gough last Saturday I was feeling a bit more confident, as I wasn't too shabby, and once I have my new bike I’m sure I can give him a run for his money!

Although after seeing some of the hill profiles for a couple of days in Scotland my feeling of “this wont be too bad after all..” has gone back to “Oh my god.....”

OK, how do we get there again?

What a nightmare few weeks I've had attempting to get us to John O'Groats. It seems that Scotrail are a bit of a law unto themselves, and have only just this week opened bookings for the train we need! (Unless we want to book a reclining chair / bed for the sleeper train, which is still not available. Aaaarrgghhh!!!)

As a result, all the cheap seats are gone, as Virgin Trains who operate the first leg of the journey opened their bit weeks ago, so now they want a whopping £140 for a ticket, as opposed to a very reasonable £45. Ah.

So, having looked at combinations of driving, car hire, taxi, coach, minibus, flying and a man with a van (yes really), Andy appears to have saved the day by simply looking into taking the train the next day (19th May). Now why didn't I think of that? Yep, it's still £45, it only has 2 changes as opposed to 4, and isn't even an overnight sleeper. I knew he'd have his uses.

So, I haven't seen his skills on a bike yet, but I have just bought him a ticket to John O'Groats. See you at Temple Meads at 6:15 on the 19th Andy...

Not sure what I have let myself in for....

Well after several pints of beer Mr Gough convinced me to join him on his mad idea to cycle the length of the country. As always at the time it seemed a good idea, but so does everything after 9 pints of beer in a bar in the middle of Amsterdam's red light district!!!

Anyway after not being on a bike for about 5 years, I thought I should do a bit of training, but as last Saturday proved I have a long way to go, cycled 20 miles, nearly collapsed and couldn't sit down for the rest of the weekend. Now I have changed my concern from what have a let myself in for to what has Andy G let himself in for.

Have been training a couple of times this week and will be getting a more suitable bike soon, as my old mountain bike isn't really up to the job. Although I may wait until next week to get a new bike, as going out for a bike ride with Andy on Saturday and he may just change his mind when he realises how slow I am.....

Did I mention the prevailing wind?

It seems I may have underestimated the effect the wind might have on our progress.....

Rode 46 miles with the wind behind me on Saturday - 16.6mph average speed
Rode 46 miles into the wind on Sunday - 12.6mph average speed. That's an hour longer!

Decided not to tell Andy W this small issue yet....perhaps I can just blame it on the curry and lager on the Saturday night instead....

And then there were two...

I'm delighted to announce that I have recruited a riding partner!

Following the consumption of several beers spread over several hours, Andy Walsh has agreed to join me for the duration of the ride.

I hope this isn't a bad omen, but shortly after agreeing to ride the length of the UK with me, both Andy and I got impressively lost on our relatively short journey home from the pub....

It's good to have you on board Andy. I think.