This post gives a very brief report on the trip, we could write pages and pages and we are considering writing a book to help other end to enders. The experience was amazing and we would happily have turned around at Land’s End and gone back up to Scotland. It is hard work and takes a lot out of your legs, I think we slightly underestimated exactly how hard it would be.
We successfully got to Land’s End as planned, the first week mainly in Scotland was very windy and often wet, which was quite hard going, although Scotland is beautiful so we didn’t seem to notice the rain too much. On the way up to John O’Groats we met 3 guys who had just finished, they carried very little gear, so whilst waiting for the train at Inverness we went through our panniers and ended up posting back home a fair amount of clothes we decided were unnecessary, basically leaving us 2 sets of cycling clothes and only 1 set of evening clothes for the whole 14 days.
We arrived at John O’Groats quite early on the Sunday morning, took the necessary photos, although John O’Groats is a little run down and even the famous white sign post wasn’t up, apparently you need to pay for this to be displayed and they weren’t open! We set off at 9.30am full of excitement and not knowing what to expect.
The top of Scotland is a little bleak, with a lot of sheep and highland cows, we quickly got into the routine of saying hello to all the sheep, cows and horses we came across, something we continued doing down through England.
We arrived at the first B&B a little sore and out of fuel, we were starting to realise that the next 14 days were going to be tough, especially as the first few days were to be the shortest and we had longer harder days in store.
In total we spent 6 days travelling through Scotland, saw some amazing scenery, meet some very friendly people and thoroughly enjoyed the experience, although we would probably avoid Kilmarnock in future after a few close run ins with a nasty bus driver and lorry driver. The best kept secret in Scotland is Dumfries and Galloway which is beautiful but a lot quieter than the rest of Scotland. We were very sad to leave Scotland and again posed for the customary welcome to England photos at Gretna Green.
The last day in Scotland and first in England was our longest day at 95 miles, fortunately this was also the only day in the first week with a tailwind to help us along. By now we had several long days under our belts and were into the daily routine of eating well, topping up on pain killers and stretching well every evening.
Most evenings we would arrive at the B&B, stretch and shower, update the log book and then find somewhere to eat, we could probably write a guide book to pub meals now and have certainly had one too many lasagnes. On the whole the B&B’s we selected before the trip lived up to expectations with very friendly owners who made us feel very welcome, we would certainly go back to most of them.
The first few days in England were in the Penines and Yorkshire Dales, which again were amazing, we will certainly be going back there again. However there were quite a few hills and very strong headwinds, which made for very hard days.
Finally we arrived in Manchester via Bolton and Blackburn, for the next few days we would have fewer hills and busy roads. Next on to Ironbridge via Telford, Telford must be the worse place in the UK, with nothing but roundabouts and dual carriage ways, certainly not bike friendly. Over the last few days the handle bar bag that Maria was carrying had given up and would keep dropping onto Maria’s front wheel, Maria had to hold the bag up with one hand and cycle with the other. In the end we found a Halfords in Telford and bought a selection of bum bags and frame bags for Maria’s bike and posted the broken handle bar bag back home, we also sent home the maps we had finished using, this saved a fair amount of weight.
The next few days saw us stop at Stroud and onto Bridgewater, cycling along the Tour of Britain route, again this was a lovely few days as the weather had changed for the better with hot sunny days and light but helpful tailwinds, we were even starting to get cyclist tan lines!
The B&B’s near Bridgewater, Dunsford on Dartmoor and Par in Cornwall were all perfect with very friendly owners, making the last few days very very enjoyable. Throughout the whole trip we worked out that we couldn’t stomach a sizable lunch, so we would snack throughout the day and have a cream tea mid afternoon, this gave us enough energy to get us through the day, and a good excuse to have scones, jam and cream every day!
The last few days took in Dartmoor and we were blessed with lovely sunny days. Cornwall served up a lot of hills and a lot of busy roads and cars. Finally we rolled into Lands End with Andy’s mum and dad and James our son waiting for us. It was a very emotional finish and it was great to see them all. However we are both very sad that the adventure is over, it was the best two weeks of our lives and the normal routine will seem very dull.
Thank you everyone who has supported us along the way, including Joe and Jenny up in Manchester who we stayed with on the way up and again met up with on the way back down, and everyone we know who has been extremely generous with their donations. So far we have raised about £1,600 for the Calvert Trust along the way and we have had the best experience, we would recommend this trip to everyone.
Oh, by the way, in the end we did 1,046 miles in 14 days, the longest day was 95 miles and we didn't get a single puncture!
