Day 9

We made it!

Lairg to John O'Groats - 100 miles

Up at 5am we were on our bikes at 6am to get to John O'Groats early afternoon before driving to Perth for the night.

For the first 50 miles we must've only seen 10 cars in total, was so peaceful and barren.




The North coast seemed very picturesque, but then when the rain poured down it suddenly looked very bleak. We arrived at John O'Groats on schedule just before 2pm only to find the official photographer does not work saturdays - surely the busiest day of the week?!

Still we did our own pics and toasted a great success.

 

9 Days
1040 miles cycled
0 inches walked
56000ft uphill
80 hrs in the saddle
0 punctures between us

Great success!

Massive thank you to everyone who has sponsored us or helped in some way to make this trip possible. We have been blown away by your generosity and are rapidly approaching doubling our original sponsorship target which is amazing.

Also a massive thank you goes to Mark Klat - without his rally driving/cooking/mechanic/navigational/washing up/massage skills this trip would honestly have not been possible, cheers big fella you have been awesome.

Also hearing the Costa girls snigger whenever he ordered his favourite coffee was a particular highlight of the trip - skinny latte with vanilla essence, now that is a real mans drink!

Day 8

Applecross to Lairg

110 miles. We changed our route today as the weather was due to be bad, it saved us 10 miles but meant cycling straight up the other side of Bealach na ba directly from our campsite.

And by that I mean 5 miles and 2053ft of cycling uphill at often a lot more than 10% incline. In fact the bits that were 10% incline felt pretty flat!

This one hill took an hour to cycle up, even cycling down the other side was difficult as the temperature was near freezing plus the hairpin bends and sheer cliffs off the side of a single lane road made for a
white knuckle ride.








Very cold day today, didnt get above 7 degrees until after lunch, by that time we had pressed on through some bleak landscapes to Lairg.

Overnight Location = Lairg

1 day to go!

Day 7

Glen Coe to Applecross

120 miles, but with a small sting in the tail. The sting being climbing the highest road in Britain at the end of the day, after having already cycled 110 miles.

Beautiful scenery all day today and some nice sunshine as well.

Cycling up Bealach na ba was incredibly tough but so worth it, I'd recommend this to anyone as it is so spectacular.

Even had guys on motorbikes giving me the thumbs up as I crawled to near the top.

Seeing as the forecast was cold we were meant to be camping but wimped out and stayed in one of the wooden pods, was probably too hot with the heater on all night!

Overnight location = Applecross

Day 6

Abington to Glen Coe

Our longest day at 135 miles.

Heavy rain was forecast today and indeed as we woke up it was pouring it down. Fortunately the rain stopped just before we left and stayed dry most of the day.

The first half of the day was fairly boring and stop, start going from one side of Glasgow and out the other.

The second half of the day was spectacular, up past Loch Lomond into the Highlands in glorious sunshine. Well mostly sunshine, at one point some huge clouds came over the mountains and dumped rain, fork lightening and a whole load of darkness on us.

Cycled the last 20 miles with icy cold feet, still at least we had a toasty warm b & b tonight!

Overnight location = Glen Coe

Day 5

Bolton le sands to Abington, another 120 mile day

Scotland here we are!

Over shap fell was a nice climb, 1400ft high, going uphill for about 10 miles.

The rest of the day was fairly boring on a b road tracing along the motorway. Still we are over halfway now, only 4 days to go!

Overnight location = Abington

Shap Fells

Day 4

Telford to Bolton le sands, just a short day today at 120 miles

Our wives and children gave us a nice surprise by turning up at Telford overnight and happily waved us on our way in the morning.

Today was a rubbish day of cycling, just a case of getting through the busy northern towns in the pouring rain and out the other side.

Nice campsite on the coast, shame about the howling wind...!

Overnight location = Bolton le sands

Day 3

Cheddar to Telford via bristol and into Wales, another 127 miles.

Actual sunshine this morning surprisingly, via nice cycling up cheddar gorge with no traffic.

Over the Clifton suspension bridge, then the old Severn bridge followed and we were into Wales. Up and down some hills we then reached our glamorous premier inn hotel.

Sore legs, necks and hands for both of us, starting to feel the burn the following mornings now!

Overnight location = Telford