Getting better

We've been away on Holiday at Penmaen on the Gower Peninsula in Wales. Despite increasingly wet weather we enjoyed a day long walk along and around lovely Oxwich Bay on Tuesday, a half-day walk at the fantastically windy Rhossili on Wednesday followed by an afternoon sheltering from the downpours at The Mumbles - only 50p to walk the pier. We came home a day early on Thursday when the rain looked to have set in for good.

I've made up my mind as to the route I'll take once I reach Scotland. I had a vague idea that I could travel across to somewhere south of Glasgow and then catch a Ferry in order to take a route to the East of Glasgow/Edinburgh. After reading through Phil Horsley's route suggestions this seems like a goer. If I've not taken too long to get there, the Ferries there & back work out and there's cheapish accommodation, I'm hoping to pop over to Islay for half a day of Distillery visiting - which would effectively be a rest day !

However, I'm dithering over how to start ! Need to decide soon or I'll be sleeping under the stars.

At least I'm getting a bit more used to the new bike, and cycling with a load. Had a lovely run today of about 60 miles, which wasn't entirely flat, but still gives me a little more confidence. At the end of the day the backside is okay, only 1 knee is giving me any grief and I don't feel like I imagine you would if you'd of spent the day on the back of a rodeo horse. I feel happy now to plan to cover 60+ miles on the less hilly days, which should provide more time to enjoy the hillier ones. Snapped a couple more taster place names.

Todays thanks for water go out to the lady at the Bosworth Battlefield visitor centre, and thanks for directions and added-value historical revisions to the chap at Barwell.

Cheers,

Mat.

Farewells

It was my final day at work on Friday 15th. My colleagues very kindly gave me some leaving presents, two of which are pictured here on the left. I've no doubt the book will come in useful, but I'm not expecting to be travelling fast enough to warrant the use of the horn, cute as it is. The other present was a goodly value of vouchers for use at a local bike shop - I've not decided how best to spend them yet, but when I do I'll pop a note on here to let people know.

I think I've made a bit of progress in getting used to the LEJOG bike, with a quick ride during the week and a longer ride this morning with panniers full to the brim. I set off today at 8.30am, to see what sort of progress I could make with an early start. Unfortunately, my destination, Belvior Castle, was closed when I arrived - I was too early !. So progress was good enough for me to miss out on tea and cakes. I'll perhaps not be in such a rush to get out of the door during the holiday.

Still on the way back home I got my first opportunity to take a photo of bike near funny, for me at least, place name. This obviously won't have the element of suprise for locals, but I'm hoping to snap some corkers further from home.

Overall, I'm feeling a little bit more confident now about covering 50 - 60 miles per day with about 10kgs of luggage on the back.

First Dry Run

I'm thinking that I may have left the 'training' a little late. For various reasons, this weekend was the first time I've ridden my End to End bike fully laden. Rather than just have a quick run around the block to see how things felt, I decided to have a mini-weekend tour. The journey started in Loughborough late on Saturday morning with a trip to Penkridge - a large village between Stafford and Wolverhampton. On Sunday I came back to Loughborough. Total distance for the trip was about 110 miles, but this felt a little bit harder than I'd expected. The pace was around about 10 m.p.h on average, which was fine, but my legs now hurt in ways I've not experienced before (not after a bike ride in any case). Nevermind, it'll all come right on the day/week/weeks/months (?).

I know its pointless, as they'll most likely never ever read these words, but I just want to say thankyou to a few people who helped me out with water during the weekend, including the slightly reluctanct chap in the pub at Packington (nice club sandwhich), the kind lady in Blithbury who provided it from her garden hose and the publican, in the pub whose name I can't remember, at Worthington. I was also lucky to get free entrance to the Curborough Sprint for half an hour or so, during the practice session for an even that afternoon, and found that tea and 'triple' (bacon, sausage & egg sarnie) were delicious. Its people like this who, although they don't know it yet, will make the ride possible.

So, plenty to work on before the big day arrives on the 16th.

First Post !

Starting on 16th July I'll be cycling from Land's End to John o'Groats. The tour will take between 2 to 3 weeks, covering somewhere between 50 - 80 miles per day. The total distance covered will be over 1000 miles. The exact route is yet to be decided, but it should take in: Lizard Point; Dartmoor; Cotswold Hills; Peak District; Yorkshire Dales; Scottish Highland (lots of) and Dunnet Head. There are a lot of beautiful places to pass through, so the pace is going to be leisurely rather than heroic, but either way its going to be a fantastic challenge.

Prior to the ride I'll post updates on my preparations here, and, somehow or other I'm hoping to provide an update on the ride at least every other day.

The trip has provided me with an opportunity to try to raise some money for the Parkinson's Disease Society, for which a fundraising page has been created on Justgiving at:

http://www.justgiving.com/matslandsendtojohnogroats

the aim is to raise a £1 for every mile ridden. If you're able to, we'd very much appreciate a donation.

If you've arrived here after kindly providing a donation , many many thanks again.

Cheers,

Mat