Dear Reader!

We finished! We arrived at JOG just before midday on Friday.

What a trip. We had absolutely fantastic weather, catching head winds and rain only in the last few days, north of the border.

We cycled some 1,020 miles, spent a total of 114 hours travelling (time from morning departure to pm arrival). We also climbed 17,600 vertical metres. Oh and for those of you who think it's uphill to Scotland, we cycled down the same amount.

Ian "the Langers" Langley plotted the route, which was fantastic, missing pretty much every A road in the country, and meant we cycled the most wonderful roads. I suspect he may be available for consultation work on all aspects of logistics, route planning, and bike engineering.

Mark "cheesy grin" Pearson found the finest ales and food in the area without fail. The human equivalent of a truffle hound.

We met lots of great people, eat lots of great food and drank some fine beer. Though don't tell Mrs Beynon that.

Top speed was 52 mph, though don't tell Mrs Till that.

Conrad cycled as if his life depended on it.

Max carried pretty much everything you could imagine in his panniers. We are pretty sure he had Madonna in there, though none of us were brave enough to check.

we received generous contributions along the route. The lads received a tenner for H4H from an anonymous lady at the top of the Cairngorms. I got a tenner from Sheila in Langholm in Scotland (didn't catch the last name) and Angela Croft gave us twenty quid as well as a free sandwich and jelly babies. Angela has a lad who has done two tours in Iraq. She has a campsite north of Eskdalemuir:

angecroftpark.com‎

Absolutely stunning, and quite good if you are looking for some fresh air! Fantastic cycling country too. Thanks Angela and Kevin!!

The website will be open for the next few weeks, so please keep giving, and please note that I will still be contributing 20p for each pound donated to the Stroud Beresford Group, the cap is still some way away.

 

Our very best regards

Max, Conrad, Ian, Mark, Paul