Lands End to John O'Groats 2005
Josie Ellis is raising money for Circulation Foundation
Participants: Josie and Thomas Ellis
Story
Update 23rd September:-
Thankyou for your fantastic support, the total raised including potential gift aid offline is £7513 Amazing!
This trip was truly unforgettable! Now memorable. A big thank you must go to our friends Mary and Colin in Devon for bump starting day three with the donation of an extra gel cover for the saddle, Tom requested one before the day was out. We stayed at some great YHAs from priories to Scottish Castles and farm cottages. Carbisdale castle room 101! We met several other superfit End to Enders (Mike and Michelle and Kenny and Nick from Mid Devon cycling club on their tandems. Hi there!) as our various routes became entwined.
The weather was not good. Remember the Tornado in Birmingham, they were cycling 85miles from Leominster to Lancaster that day. The trees were bent double, leaves and branches were strewn along the sides of the road. Luckily the kind landlady at Middle Holly Guest House put the heating on that night in July! New shoes all round at Penrith, stuff them with paper, alternate them through the days. A makeshift clothes line in the back of the support car meant that the three sets of Lycra could be rotated and prevent the dreaded boil! Which thankfully it did!.
This 'holiday' was dominated by food. All the way through England and Scotland we managed to find really excellent places to eat. From the Italian place at Middle Holly,The George at Inverary where the venison was excellently cooked, Elliots at Prestwick, The Fiddlers Inn at Drumnadrochit, the list goes on, we might have just been lucky, but we were very impressed despite our London tastes. The cyclists were consuming about 6 to 7000 cal. a day. Glucose high energy sports drinks proved to make a big difference to the stamina, along with the usual stash of Mars Bars, about 3 each a day.
The best buy of the trip was the Chuck a Tent- erects in 2 seconds! This proved to be a very loyal friend. From picnics and rests out of the rain and wind, especially on Rannoch Moor, to preventing us from seeing the fighter jets as they tree topped their way through the Great Glen at Laggan Locks .That scared us! The low points- the last lap of an 84 mile day- when you pass within 2 miles of your final destination and still have 20 miles to go from Creggins Inn to the head of Loch Fyne and back to Inverary - always in view as you circle the loch. As Tom says the last day was the worst- 106 miles of rain - the cold and moorland bleakness. Due North to Thurso and due east to John O'Groats and above all millions of Scottish MIDGES! His legs were black with them and he was bitten to pieces. The high points - seeing the early morning sunshine across the sea at Tintagel YHA; crossing Sedgemoor; being able to stop on the Severn Bridge; meeting their sister Harriet on the Clifton Bridge; my brother and his family staying over in Dumfries; being passed very rapidly by 5 gleaming Ferrari's at Spean Bridge; Carbisdale Casltle YHA room for 186 patrons, Edwardian splendour, one's own Balmoral. So hats off to the only true End to Ender - Thomas - he did the lot, Josie and my husband Charles have to share their glory. Update 19th August: The trip may have finished two weeks ago, but this is the first opportunity to update the page since. The last day was an absolute killer, with freezing temperatures, torrential rain and the sun hadn't even risen yet! Trying to put the whole experience behind me now, so can't really remember much more. Offline sponsors are still flooding in, so keep an eye on that thermometer as it's likely to burst again soon! Update 4th August: Last day to go and it's not going to be easy... 120miles from Carbisdale Castle YHA to John O'Groats! Today has only been our second day of sun in the past two weeks, so we're just hoping it stays for one more. Cycling over Shap in the cold and rain with a head wind was really no fun at all! Unfortunately, Josie torn a ligament in her left leg and then developed tendonitus in her right leg on day 4, but our hero Charles has been cycling whenever she's been unable to. Thankyou to all our sponsors, you've been so generous we've had to increase our target yet again! Update 24th July: Just finished day 2 of the cycle, and feeling good! We were expecting to have done 70miles on the first day and 60miles on the second, but it seems measuring distance with a piece of string on the map wasn't that accurate, and we've done 80miles both days! Rain may limit downhill speeds, but compared to cycling in the blistering heat of the last few weeks, this seems like bliss. Hopefully be able to update every couple of days when we get the rare opportunity to access the internet, so stay tuned... Thank you for visiting our fundraising page. Please dig deep and sponsor us online. Thomas and I first came up with the idea of the ride last August after our holiday in the Alps which involved cycling, ahem, one day on our bikes! The small taster of steep climbs got us inspired. So a year later we are preparing for our most ambitious challenge yet. I'm sure it will be tough and in places we will feel like giving up, but thats just not going to happen - the knowledge of all our sponsorship will get us through the toughest of climbs. Some of you might know Mary Ellis, our mother, who has worked in the Department of Vascular Surgery at Charing Cross Hospital for many years. British Vascular Foundation needs funds to increase public awareness of vascular disease and carry out vital research into new methods of diagnosis and treatment, more resources are now needed. Donating through this site is simple, fast and totally secure. It is also the most efficient way to sponsor me: British Vascular Foundation will receive your money faster and, if you are a UK taxpayer, an extra 28% in tax will be added to your gift at no cost to you. So please sponsor us now!
Thankyou for your fantastic support, the total raised including potential gift aid offline is £7513 Amazing!
This trip was truly unforgettable! Now memorable. A big thank you must go to our friends Mary and Colin in Devon for bump starting day three with the donation of an extra gel cover for the saddle, Tom requested one before the day was out. We stayed at some great YHAs from priories to Scottish Castles and farm cottages. Carbisdale castle room 101! We met several other superfit End to Enders (Mike and Michelle and Kenny and Nick from Mid Devon cycling club on their tandems. Hi there!) as our various routes became entwined.
The weather was not good. Remember the Tornado in Birmingham, they were cycling 85miles from Leominster to Lancaster that day. The trees were bent double, leaves and branches were strewn along the sides of the road. Luckily the kind landlady at Middle Holly Guest House put the heating on that night in July! New shoes all round at Penrith, stuff them with paper, alternate them through the days. A makeshift clothes line in the back of the support car meant that the three sets of Lycra could be rotated and prevent the dreaded boil! Which thankfully it did!.
This 'holiday' was dominated by food. All the way through England and Scotland we managed to find really excellent places to eat. From the Italian place at Middle Holly,The George at Inverary where the venison was excellently cooked, Elliots at Prestwick, The Fiddlers Inn at Drumnadrochit, the list goes on, we might have just been lucky, but we were very impressed despite our London tastes. The cyclists were consuming about 6 to 7000 cal. a day. Glucose high energy sports drinks proved to make a big difference to the stamina, along with the usual stash of Mars Bars, about 3 each a day.
The best buy of the trip was the Chuck a Tent- erects in 2 seconds! This proved to be a very loyal friend. From picnics and rests out of the rain and wind, especially on Rannoch Moor, to preventing us from seeing the fighter jets as they tree topped their way through the Great Glen at Laggan Locks .That scared us! The low points- the last lap of an 84 mile day- when you pass within 2 miles of your final destination and still have 20 miles to go from Creggins Inn to the head of Loch Fyne and back to Inverary - always in view as you circle the loch. As Tom says the last day was the worst- 106 miles of rain - the cold and moorland bleakness. Due North to Thurso and due east to John O'Groats and above all millions of Scottish MIDGES! His legs were black with them and he was bitten to pieces. The high points - seeing the early morning sunshine across the sea at Tintagel YHA; crossing Sedgemoor; being able to stop on the Severn Bridge; meeting their sister Harriet on the Clifton Bridge; my brother and his family staying over in Dumfries; being passed very rapidly by 5 gleaming Ferrari's at Spean Bridge; Carbisdale Casltle YHA room for 186 patrons, Edwardian splendour, one's own Balmoral. So hats off to the only true End to Ender - Thomas - he did the lot, Josie and my husband Charles have to share their glory. Update 19th August: The trip may have finished two weeks ago, but this is the first opportunity to update the page since. The last day was an absolute killer, with freezing temperatures, torrential rain and the sun hadn't even risen yet! Trying to put the whole experience behind me now, so can't really remember much more. Offline sponsors are still flooding in, so keep an eye on that thermometer as it's likely to burst again soon! Update 4th August: Last day to go and it's not going to be easy... 120miles from Carbisdale Castle YHA to John O'Groats! Today has only been our second day of sun in the past two weeks, so we're just hoping it stays for one more. Cycling over Shap in the cold and rain with a head wind was really no fun at all! Unfortunately, Josie torn a ligament in her left leg and then developed tendonitus in her right leg on day 4, but our hero Charles has been cycling whenever she's been unable to. Thankyou to all our sponsors, you've been so generous we've had to increase our target yet again! Update 24th July: Just finished day 2 of the cycle, and feeling good! We were expecting to have done 70miles on the first day and 60miles on the second, but it seems measuring distance with a piece of string on the map wasn't that accurate, and we've done 80miles both days! Rain may limit downhill speeds, but compared to cycling in the blistering heat of the last few weeks, this seems like bliss. Hopefully be able to update every couple of days when we get the rare opportunity to access the internet, so stay tuned... Thank you for visiting our fundraising page. Please dig deep and sponsor us online. Thomas and I first came up with the idea of the ride last August after our holiday in the Alps which involved cycling, ahem, one day on our bikes! The small taster of steep climbs got us inspired. So a year later we are preparing for our most ambitious challenge yet. I'm sure it will be tough and in places we will feel like giving up, but thats just not going to happen - the knowledge of all our sponsorship will get us through the toughest of climbs. Some of you might know Mary Ellis, our mother, who has worked in the Department of Vascular Surgery at Charing Cross Hospital for many years. British Vascular Foundation needs funds to increase public awareness of vascular disease and carry out vital research into new methods of diagnosis and treatment, more resources are now needed. Donating through this site is simple, fast and totally secure. It is also the most efficient way to sponsor me: British Vascular Foundation will receive your money faster and, if you are a UK taxpayer, an extra 28% in tax will be added to your gift at no cost to you. So please sponsor us now!