Story
JOHN o GROATS to LANDS END
SOLO AND UNSUPPORTED June 2019
The train journey from Perth to Thurso was long and tiring, and that was before any cycling. Nonetheless, the departure from John o Groats was as scheduled at 6am on the 22nd of June as I progressed into my 60th year.
The first couple of days went well, with average mileage being achieved. However due to a poor forecast for day 3 the Monday, a change was decided upon to push on to get further ahead, and reduce the miles endured in n the rain. Day 3 lived up to the forecast, and was very wet, with a little respite on the run up to Glenshee. The day ended well again pushing ahead of schedule to make it home for some well needed R&R and a replacement of a faulty rear gear mechanism.
Day 4 was a short run with a detour into the Edinburgh Arcadis Office to meet up with Alzheimer Scotland, Scottish Cycling and the Edinburgh Office support team. It was a real boost to get that level of support from the people you work with on a day to day basis, and that support provided the lift for the onward journey.
From the meet up at the Edinburgh office it was off south for a scheduled stopover at a colleague’s home in Biggar (Thanks Ewan McAlpine) and on South heading for the border, and on into the North of England.
The journey through the Lake District was delightful, if a bit hilly, but the headwind dropped off and good progress was achieved through days 5 and 6.
It has to be noted that the journey south from Preston to Chester was less enjoyable, apart from being very hot, upwards of 28o, the area is
very urbanized, and required negotiating through a lot of busy traffic.
The onward journey South carried on down the very picturesque Shropshire and Hereford-shire heading to my day 7 stopover in Wormelow just south of Hereford. This part of the journey was fairly easy going with negligible head winds for a change, which was just as
well as day 8 was a different story.
An early 6am departure on day 8 meant breakfast was self-serve. On southwards through Chepstow and accross the Severn Bridge into Bristol where the weather turned up the heat to just over 33oc. Bristol seemed to take for ever to get through though the Clifton Suspension Bridge was spectacular and worthy of a visit.
Day 8 turned out to be by far the toughest day, 130 miles is a fair ride, but add in cycling through Chepstow and Bristol, and the relentless head winds. Once past the big cities, the trip see was a delight, and on past Glastonbury (some music to entertain me), then to Taunton and making my B&B stop off just west of Crediton after
1am. (luckily my B&B host was staying up watching Glastonbury)
The final day was planned to be the penultimate day, with a finish at Marazion, where as a family we had booked a holiday house for the following week, and an easy Champagne finish on the following day. But the thought of 10 days instead of single figures and finishing in July, which would mean over 2 months didn’t gel, so a quick call to the family and some changes to the evening plans meant pushing on to Land’s End.
Arrived Land’s End at the back of 9pm on the 30th June, just in time to watch the sun set on an epic journey with a beer to celebrate.